American Protest: Boston Tea Party Replaced By Twitter

We're all mad as hell about something. But hardly anybody's budging.

Once upon a time in America, people would say: "Sometimes I have to stand up and be counted." That was in the past.

But today, I had a glimpse of the past. So did this woman. 75 and cuffed. This afternoon.

Somewhere along the way, Americans, who had been willing to commit a Class A felony, to protest by seizing and destroying private property in Boston Harbor, have been reduced to protest-by- tweet, from the couch. That won't even get you a Class C Misdemeanor.

Which brings us to this echo of past protests: an actual demonstration at one of those alleged death panels--the corporate offices of a health insurer so big it could send any Transformer to the ER. Trust Me.

This day was about civil disobedience --an orderly-sit in to coincide with similar sit-ins at major health insurers across the nation. It was also about 8 police cars, 20 sheriff's officers, plus 2 paramedics and one growling police dog. It was also about arrests.

The wild-eyed radicals who demonstrated were mostly senior citizens and mostly middle class, except for some like Leslie Elder who lost all insurance when her cancer recurred twice and now risks losing her home because of medical bills. (It's the way a majority of Americans go bankrupt these days.)

All these people had done was respectfully submit a letter at Humana's door asking merely one thing: Allow treatment prescribed by a Physician for life-threatened Humana patients. The company refused. So a few gentle people sat down at the door until they got a better answer.

The group Health Care Now says: "Nonviolent action is a worldwide tradition based on an understanding that in a society power flows not from guns or positions of authority but from the consent and cooperation of the people."

Martin Luther King said: “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.”

The first sheriff's officer to move toward and prepare to handcuff the gentle folk sitting peacefully on the lobby floor glowered and said: "All criminals."

"I"m doing this for my daughter," said James Elder. "She's 27 and if we don't fix health insurance now, it could ruin her life later." As I write, Mr Elder, a simple man well into his 60's, sits in jail.

Sandy Prisant

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Health Insurance Reform: Heading for the Bridge to Nowhere?

Pericles, Eucleides and all the Athenians who founded democracy must be cringing. The last 6 months in Washington could not possibly be what they had in mind.

On the day I was born, the doctors told my father I could not live 24 hours. That was how my interest began in health insurance and its impact on our society. Today, more than 50 years later, I continue to lead a full, productive life. But during all of that time I have had to scrap and struggle for health coverage and have had to live half my adult life outside the US to get that sensible, single-payer national insurance coverage.

My story makes me a virtual poster child for that kind of well-established health care approach. Having paid in tens (hundreds?) of thousands to FICA and corporate health insurers during my decades as a senior executive, I am now "ineligible" for any coverage in the US. Nonetheless I decided to return home last year to try to play a role in promoting a 21st century policy. But even I did not expect this--Congress has been replaced by Cirque du Soleil.

In short, I'm playing Russian roulette with my own health and my family's financial stability for the sake of a country in which the lobbyists for virtually every nook and cranny of the for-profit industry have already gotten Congressional commitments to keep their "share of the pie". (NY Times, 11 October)

If I fall down in the street today, I pray no one takes me to a hospital--it would bankrupt my loved ones. That is the nightmare 47 million Americans now live with. If Americans believe there is a right to life, there must also be a right to health care sans bankruptcy. It is an intrinsic corollary.

After decades of personal frustration, I've now had to endure with all of you months of calculated propaganda--false to the last word. There has been less debate than what you can get by reading a box of Cocoa Puffs.

Can we all at least agree on one thing? That every American should, at a minimum, have the health care rights on paper afforded the citizens of Vanuatu and Uganda. Even if only to appease ancient Athenian spirits.