The Soccer Mom Vote

Universal Healthcare is the Best!

hello everyone,

i am literally boiling over about the healthcare issue and must voice some perpective to all my fellow american citizens who have never lived in a country that has universal healthcare. i was born and raised in the usa (most of the time without health insurance) and after falling in love, have lived in montreal for 11 years.

in short, canada takes care of its own on the healthcare game, HANDS DOWN. i luckily grew up "healthy enough" in the states that i didn't end up having a situation like John Q (watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqFiFhGpB34 and tell me what YOU would do as a parent!), or like some of the people in michael moore's new must see film SiCKO. he's taking the film one step further to encourage americans to SPEAK OUT about their own healthcare challenges in the usa to help lobby congress at:(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEFoq_5RbC4

i have to tell you, after living on both sides of the fence (so to speak), that canada's universal healthcare is an AMAZING system that americans could only be so lucky to have! that is the plain, simple truth. those who disagree are most likely either:

a. americans who have never lived in canada themselves &/or are misled by the majority of advertiser-agenda-controlled american media.

(or)

b. canadians who have lots of money and would like to be able to have private healthcare so they don't have to wait in line for a medical check-up... which i hate to say is why alot of americans don't believe in universal healthcare -- because they can afford private insurance (and the preferential treatment that comes with it) and don't want to pay higher taxes to subsidize those who cannot afford it. it is a very selfish POV, if you ask me.

and as the film SiCKO reveals, even having private health insurance in the states is wrought with horrific stories of scandal and greed-driven, inhuman cases of dying humans being left in the lurch by insurance companies unwilling to help them!

to further illustrate my point, i shall kindly refer you to an american tv clip below, which takes the healthcare crisis even one step further... how pharmaceutical companies and government have A LOT to gain by people getting sick in the first place. this is the hard truth and i'm sure is too difficult to swallow for most people. check out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHXXTCc-IVg&eurl=http://widget-91.slide.com/widgets/sf.swf

the point of the clip, to me, which mirrors my views in general, is that the problem ultimately comes down to our FLAWED ECONOMIC MODEL in the usa.

capitalism is about greed and profit. until we prioritize the greater common good over the individual on issues of health and education in the usa, nothing will EVER change. even if everyone could afford private insurance, the system is based on giving the least amount of care so insurance companies can make MORE money for their dear shareholders. only universal healthcare can give you a system where a doctor will prescribe what you need, not what an insurance company TELLS him or her that you need...

canada is a socialist society, which means (among other things) that citizens believe that it is a basic, human right to have equal access to healthcare and education. as such, they agree to pay higher taxes to make that happen! and they even throw in public television and the arts as well (ie: our national public broadcaster CBC -- the PBS of canada -- is subsidized by taxpayers!).

it boils down to priorities. if you believe that we are one big family on this planet, then we should put our $ where our mouths are. pay higher taxes and help EVERYONE have these basic rights like the citizens of places like canada, france and sweden.

our children, and our children's children, deserve better than what we have given them so far. PLEASE take the time to speak out about this issue. it is time that americans brought back the humanity in democracy. it is not too late!

i look forward to your feedback! and if you're ever in montreal, let me know and i'll give you a personal tour of our healthcare facilities!

sincerely,

soccermombobbijo

SiCKO: Americans Deserve Socialized Healthcare

Hello Everyone,

The beginning of June marks the convergence of two intense yet exciting events -- the FIRST is that my father survived a major abdominal surgery two days ago in San Diego, where I have been with my family for the past week to support him (he was given a 50-50 chance of surviving the surgery). The SECOND is the June 29th theatrical release of Michael Moore's new documentary SiCKO, which takes on the American healthcare system (go to www.michaelmoore.com to learn more about the film and lots of great links to learn more about the healthcare revolution, including what YOU can do to help!).

As I sat for 10 hours in the hospital while they cut and pasted my father back together on May 30, my thoughts wandered... I felt so blessed that my Dad has health insurance through his wife's teaching job (or he wouldn't be with us today).

I thought about how grateful I am that my two-year old daughter (and ALL children in Canada) are fully covered by the socialized healthcare system in Canada, where I have lived as an American Expat for 17 years (but am still a registered voter in Oregon). It is not a "perfect" system, but it is light years ahead of the U.S., where I spent my most of my childhood and all of my college years UNINSURED. Luckily I never got seriously ill, but I absolutely refuse to take that kind of crapshoot with my daughter's life.

I then shuddered at the thought of innocent children in the States who are living examples of the character in the movie JOHN Q -- a film starring Denzel Washington who plays a uninsured father that takes a hospital hostage to force them to perform a life-saving transplant on his young son. A film worth seeing, if only to help you viscerally understand the plight of so many children and families in the States today.

Did you know that there are about 8 MILLION UNINSURED CHILDREN in the U.S.A. right now?

We as politically-active mothers and citizens MUST get involved and force Congress to pass legislation moving toward a more HUMANE healthcare system in the States. The ONLY reason we do not have socialized healthcare in the States, simply put, is that corporations controlling healthcare do not want to lose their billions of dollars of profit. And they spend a large portion of that profit paying for lobbyists to coerce our politicians through financial support (thereby expecting and usually getting political favors). It is not about protecting our children. It is ultimately about GREED.

In Canada, no matter how bad things got, how much more people were taxed, they would NEVER EVER let socialized healthcare go. Canadians say it is a basic human right, regardless of social class, and although there are waits for non-emergency surgeries, I know that if my daughter is rushed into the emergency room (God forbid), that she will get the best care in the world.

So for the sake of our children, and our children's children, WRITE and CALL your congressional representative (go to: http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ to find out how), and don't forget the White House direct  at http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/. Turn off the TV and start making some NOISE, which historically is the only way anything can be changed in our government.

SIDEBAR: I hardly ever watch television because it is mind-numbing, and a key factor in keeping our citizens silent and passive -- especially given that the majority of our media outlets are controlled by conglomerates who filter the "news" you get. Try going to new online networks like www.currenttv.com, that includes stories submitted by people like you and me -- regular Joes and Janes -- which is helping democratize our media in new and exciting ways.

But before you start painting your virtual protest signs, here are a couple sobering facts to get you properly motivated, which I found on the National Coalition of Healthcare (NCHC) website at http://www.nchc.org/facts/coverage.shtml:

The number of uninsured children in 2005 was 8.3 million – or 11.2 percent of all children in the U.S.  The number of children who are uninsured increased by nearly 400,000 in 2005, breaking a trend of steady declines over the last five years.

Young adults (18-to-24 years old) remained the least likely of any age group to have health insurance in 2005 – 30.6 percent of this group did not have health insurance.

I refuse to stand by and watch our children, and their children, face a future without having the basic right of healthcare. Writing to you all today is a small step toward helping effect this positive change, and I hope this post helps accomplish the following:

1. to start some much-needed dialogue about U.S. healthcare & encourage ACTION.

2. encourage you see SiCKO, Michael Moore's new documentary, that hits theaters June 29, 2007. And tell your friends and family to see it too. It will undoubtedly be a big catalyst for healthcare revolution, at very least, getting everyone TALKING about it!

3. to ultimately work towards having socialized healthcare in the U.S.A... and the winds of change are in the air... everywhere... blowing in that direction.

Look forward to your feedback!

SHOULD SCHOOLBUSES HAVE SEATBELTS?

Hello everyone! This is my first post as a contributing writer wearing jersey #1. I'm an American ex pat living in Montreal, and have a plethora of interesting anecdotes to share after having lived in Canada for the past 12 years. I'm just so excited that I must take a swig of Gatorade before I can continue... much better.

Ok, so what I am passionate about exploring today is based on a hair-raising experience I had last week as a parent volunteer for my daughter's daycare field trip to a "Cabane a Sucre" (which is French for "Sugaring Off" - it's a big feast in the woods to celebrate the season of taking the maple out of the trees to make maple syrup). I told the daycare my daughter could go only if i was able to be one of the parent volunteers, because I wanted to BE WITH HER in whatever vehicle was taking the group to this event.

It turned out to be a big, yellow bus... which immediately conjured intensely fond memories of my childhood -- waving bye bye to my mother on the farm in Seattle as I boarded the bus for my first day of school...  drawing "Mr. Chinnigan" on the chins of my track & field teammates on the bus home after winning a track meet in Oregon years later in high school... the memories are many and wonderful.

But now I'm a MAMA, with a two year-old daughter that I would instantly throw myself in front of said yellow bus for in a nano second for, in order to protect her fragile, innocent life. And this mama, who also saw the movie "The Sweet Hereafter" (don't ask me to tell you what happened with a yellow school bus -- too traumatic to recount), suddenly finds herself in charge of two toddlers on this big, yellow bus cruising down the highway at 100 kilometeres (that's 55 miles) per hour to a nearby town about 30 minutes drive from Montreal.

Suddenly I feel absolutely helpless, and simultaneously memories are conjured in my minds eye of two major car accidents I endured as a passenger, in vehicles that rolled several times and threw me around like a rag doll because I was not wearing a seatbelt at the time (young and stupid). It was a miracle I survived either accident, but I did. And I still have the muscle memory of those accidents, and the slow motion video of each accident is somehow permanently imprinted in my mind... especially the moment when one vehicle was rolling and i remember my hands touching soft, wet grass (obviously the window had broken out), and the helpless realization that I was going to be thrown outside and crushed by the rolling vehicle. But somehow I was not.

I recount this memory because it would NOT leave my mind as I smiled and sang and giggled with my daughter and her friend that I was "in charge of" as a parent volunteer for this field trip. I could not stop thinking about how I KNEW I could do nothing to protect them if this bus were to get in an accident, that they AND I would be catapulted in violent ways that I knew too well. I could not believe I had allowed myself and my daughter to be sitting on this big, yellow bus and swore I would only do such an event in the future if I followed the bus in my van, where I could seatbelt my daughter into her car seat.

But we were already enroute on the highway, where everyone was singing songs and laughing, so I just prayed like crazy that all would be well. I wondered about the other parents of these toddlers, who let their child go on this trip without them, and I couldn't believe it. I chatted with another mother next to me who told me one child she was in charge of had just told her that her father burned her with a cigarette that morning, and I could see the cigarette burn on her hand as she gazed out the window. My thoughts left the seatbelt issue for a few moments as I fantasized about what I would do to this father to make him pay for such a horrific act upon his innocent daughter. But that's a whole other blog entry...

So when all is said and done, we survived the day and made it home safely, but ultimately, I ask:  SHOULD SCHOOLBUSES HAVE SEATBELTS?

My answer is an unequivocal YES, but then how do you police the kids to actually put them on, and KEEP them on? How do you help them take OFF the seatbelts in an accident to get out, if there is only one bus driver (in most cases of school bus journeys) or just a few adults?

If anyone has a creative solution, I'm all ears!