Words from a Reader

The “Writing Life Stories” e-mails I receive are such treasures. As soon as I see there is one in my inbox, I read it immediately. I look forward to them and never know how they will touch me. They can be interesting, informative, humorous, and/or touching.

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

People Need to Think Before They Speak

I raised my voice today in conversation with my physical therapist.
I remember a friend saying to me when we were young, "I look forward to being 80 years old." 
"Why?" I asked.
"Because you can say anything you want and get away with it."

It seems to me that today people don't wait until they are eighty years old. The young man who is supposed to help me breathe better during exertion, popped off to me and others in the room decrying "Obama Care." He followed that by stating something he had no doubt received in one of those circulating E-mails filled with half truths, if any truth at all. 

Before he got any further I told him in no uncertain terms that if he planned to talk politics, I was leaving. Taken aback, he tried to defend himself saying he was only talking about healthcare. But he wasn't. He had stated that the President had spent some outrageous amount of tax payer money to pay for playing golf with Tiger Woods. Since I have finally stopped my friends from sending those malicious emails to my box, I am not about to sit and listen to a person who knows nothing about what he is saying.

I did inform him that we had the lowest ranked health care in the civilized world and it was about time someone had the guts to stand up and try to do something about it. He laughed. "We do?"
Yes, I told him and after what my husband endured and I endured as his caregiver, I could vouch for that statement. 
"My wife had cancer and was treated right here and she had great care." He seemed confident that he had proven that our health care was tops.

I told him a bit about what we had gone through and how we ended up with me crying and begging a doctor to help us because my husband was in such pain and it was obvious that something terrible was wrong. Although we had been told his PET scan showed no cancer, his leg looked like he had leprosy, and we were being sent from one doctor to another, tossed back and forth like a ping pong ball. Thanks to our poor health care, my husband suffered and died earlier than he should have.

No, we do not have good health care in this country. And people like this young man is angry because some of the loopholes have been closed where people like him could play Medicare for more and more money. The rules have tightened and unless everyone plays by the same rules, we will have no Medicare. The system will have been fleeced out of all the funds by people like this man. 

The same people who scream that our Medicare premiums have gone up, are the ones who deride the Health Care Act which hopefully will bring down the fraud and misuse of our tax money. We are a selfish society in many ways. We want our Social Security and our Medicare. But the party that is wanting to cut back on our benefits is the same group that hates the President for trying to hold on to those programs and make them work.

I don't know if I can stand to be in the same room with this physical therapist three days a week for the next six weeks. I abhor narrow minded people who use words to harm others, when he has no idea what he is talking about.

To get the facts, click here.

2 comments:

  1. Bravo, Glenda! Well said.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks, Gay. I went back and he was more professional the next time. But I am not sure he likes me very much.
    Reminds me of how women were treated in business in the sixties, per Mad Men. Women were supposed to be seen and not heard.

    ReplyDelete

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