September 2009
|
To the Editor:
I have been following the health care debate with great interest and in great detail, both through credible news sources such as NPR and the New York Times, and in conversations with friends and neighbors, as well as opinion outlets in the media. For me, the most striking aspect of the debate is that for every discussion on the merits of a specific aspect of a specific plan, at least two discussions are more broadly based on President Obama himself and what his “hidden agenda” might be.
Is he trying to expand federal government into every aspect of our lives? Create health care rationing (as if this did not already exist based on one’s income and job benefits) and “death panels” in a Big Brother nightmare of government control over what should be private decisions between patients and doctors (as opposed to what we currently have, in which your HMO or insurance company makes these decisions for you, should you be fortunate enough to have insurance)?
With two-thirds of the dialogue on health care skewed because some Americans choose to get their “information” and “facts” from sources that consistently distort, lie, and misinform the public–not just about this topic and this President, but about almost any matter of public policy over the past decade, I have come to see that much of the resistance to health care reform is not really about that issue at all–it is about a minority of Americans wondering where they will fit into our changing American society. Often, the same people who oppose Obama’s health care reform efforts also deny he is even an American citizen–or, more sinisterly, believe that the Bible or some white supremacist theory dictates that a biracial person of color does not have the right to be President. These people fear the day that the US Census shows that fair-skinned Americans of European descent are outnumbered by those who are not. The complete loss of civility–from organized disruptions of town meetings to a member of Congress yelling “liar” in the middle of the President’s address to Congress–reveal just how scared this segment of the population has become. They are willing to sabotage principles of democracy and civil discourse based on factual information to fight a change that they fear will leave them shut out or at least in a lower position than they currently hold in American society.
Those of us who have studied the benefits we inherit automatically in this country as fair- skinned descendents of Europeans are well aware of the amount of white privilege we have, but feel that it is a blight and injustice on our society that such a thing continues to exist. I think what that much of the so-called “health care debate” is not about that issue; it is about the tensions, fears, and anger of those who fear the loss of their white privilege, and can’t–or choose not to–envision how an increasingly diverse, pluralistic, and multiethnic America will in many ways be a far better place for all of us–white and non-white–and not only because it will more accurately live up to our cherished ideals of a nation of liberty, equality, and justice for all. We have so much to learn from one another, not only for our own ongoing personal growth as human beings, but to build strong communities that can withstand economic crises and natural disasters, and to stand united as a nation in the face of enemies who despise our values.
For me, the solution to this fear in the face of change is two-fold: compassion and education. It can be difficult not to feel frustrated–even angry–at those who spread lies, and at those who choose ignorance over information. But as America and the world change, we must assure all Americans that the goal is, and always has been, a more inclusive society, where all of us have a place at the table and all of us are respected for what we bring to it.
|
Advertisement
