Ted's Watching Us: Time to Raise Hell

We buried Senator Ted Kennedy yesterday, but a new morning gives us hope and purpose, as it does every new day of our lives. Yesterday we heard the speeches, prayers, and sacred text. Today Ted is watching us. It's time to raise some hell.

Not literally raise hell, since for those of us who are Christians that's more than just a creepy scene from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. We need to raise hell in the time-honored progressive tradition of standing up, pushing back, and being militant. Not mean spirited, but joyous and not afraid of causing a ruckus. Not a threat, but a promise.

Ted is watching us in so many ways -- from sacred to mundane. Last night after his coffin passed by many miles of people paying their last respects, we saw Ted laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery next to his two brothers. White roses were placed on his coffin and also at the flickering flame marking the grave of his brother Jack. As the sunlight faded, the children and grandchildren were solemn silhouettes and the half-staff cemetery flag was illuminated with lightning bolts. If you don't believe in omens, at least embrace the metaphors.

Ted is watching us through the eyes of every child who is hungry or cold. He is watching us through the eyes of every undocumented immigrant forced to work long hours in unspeakable conditions for inadequate wages. Ted is watching us through the eyes of every person ever vilified, spat on, or assaulted because they are Black, Mexican, Asian, Jewish, Muslim, immigrant, or gay. He is watching us through eyes that are dimmed with age, clenched in pain, or blinded and dark. Ted is watching us through the eyes of every sick person battling an insurance company bureaucrat for a needed treatment or medicine. He is watching us through the eyes of every poor, panicked parent rushing their child with a high fever to an emergency room because they have no other option.

People deserve quality health care as a basic human right. It doesn't matter if you are a Democrat or a Republican or an Independent. It doesn't matter if you think the two parties are annoying twins slavishly protecting the ruling class. The time is now. Get some backbone and stand up and speak out. Speak to your family, your friends, your neighbors in the supermarket check-out line.

Ted's grave was but a few paces away when he tugged at our sleeves one more time with a reminder to keep his promise -- the promise he passed on to President Barack Obama. The priest read portions of a letter from Ted carried to the Pope by our president. Ted confessed he had failings and sins, but was proud to have followed spiritual mandates to champion the dignity of the poor and workers, and the idea that quality health care is a basic human right for all.

And we are worrying about taking the time to make a phone call or spending an hour at a rally? It's time to stop whining about how unfair the right-wing attacks are. It's time to get up off our butts and take action. It can range from writing a letter to an elected representative to non-violent civil disobedience. For starters, there are rallies and vigils across America this week by Move On and SEIU. Other events will follow. I will be there. So should you. Bring your family and friends.

President Barack Obama praised Ted for modeling how to struggle intensely against your opponents, but never stooping to demonize or denounce them. Be loud. Be Raucous. Be militant. But be civil.

In the Sunday Washington Post two veteran activists write a prescription for more audacity on the part of our president. We should defend Obama against the vicious and racist attacks from the reactionary political right; but we can have Obama's back while we are kicking his butt. This is not a contradiction. Speak truth to power. This was a slogan of the Civil Rights Movement and is now the mantra of the global human rights movement. This is what successful progressive social movements do to forge real change out of raw hope.

We may lose this skirmish, but as progressives, at least we will be able to look at ourselves in the mirror in the morning and respect what we see. To paraphrase the poet Robert Frost, favored by Ted and quoted by Ted's son Patrick at the funeral service in Boston, we have promises to keep, and miles to go before we sleep.

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The author's blog posts solely reflect his views and not those of any organization for which he works or volunteers.

 

Follow Chip Berlet on Twitter: www.twitter.com/cberlet

Comments

[earlyautumn]

Y'all should watch this and pass it on to ten friends. It represents the views of 450,000 MDs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkGGDOp4uUg

[Chip Berlet - Huffpost Blogger]

This is a really excellent YouTube video featuring plain-speaking doctors explaining why Healthcare Reform will be good for patients, doctors, and the whole country. Thanks for the link!

[Emerald1943]

Thanks, Chip...well done!

MARCH WITH US ON SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13TH IN WASHINGTON DC IN SUPPORT OF THE PUBLIC OPTION!

We need to put a million people in front of Congress! If you can't make it to Washington, check in your area for local events. There are marches scheduled this same date in many major cities across the country!

Without the Public Option, there will be no reining in of the greedy insurance companies and their corporate lobbyists who buy and sell our lawmakers! Time to get off the couch, folks!!

After health reform is done, we can fight for CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM!, but first things first!

[Chip Berlet - Huffpost Blogger]

Thanks.

What time? Where? Got a link?

:-)

[KDog76A]

H.R. 3200 Sec 123:

(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—
13 (1) IN GENERAL.—There is established a pri14
vate-public advisory committee which shall be a
15 panel of medical and other experts to be known as
16 the Health Benefits Advisory Committee to rec17
ommend covered benefits and essential, enhanced,
18 and premium plans.
19 (2) CHAIR.—The Surgeon General shall be a
20 member and the chair of the Health Benefits Advi21
sory Committee.
22 (3) MEMBERSHIP.—The Health Benefits Advi23
sory Committee shall be composed of the following
24 members, in addition to the Surgeon General:
(A) 9 members who are not Federal em2
ployees or officers and who are appointed by
3 the President.
4 (B) 9 members who are not Federal em5
ployees or officers and who are appointed by
6 the Comptroller General of the United States in
7 a manner similar to the manner in which the
8 Comptroller General appoints members to the
9 Medicare Payment Advisory Commission under
10 section 1805(c) of the Social Security Act.
11 (C) Such even number of members (not to
12 exceed 8) who are Federal employees and offi13
cers, as the President may appoint.

[standard]

That's nice. What's your point?

[TN60]

http://www.newsweek.com/id/214254

The five biggest lies against healthcare reform

[Chip Berlet - Huffpost Blogger]

Great resource, thanks.

[TN60]

You are most welcome

[NPRLuvr]

Well said!!

[wonketteRAWKS]

Kennedy (civil debate) vs. Obama (get in their face)?

[Chip Berlet - Huffpost Blogger]

That's not the choice. Kennedy (civil debate) plus Obama (with a shored up backbone) and a social movement putting pressure on the politicians.

[Sinick]

I heartily agree! Just this Thursday, ADP cancelled my Aetna COBRA plan after numerous tricks like: 1) not issuing monthly statements nor a definitive payment amount or due date; 2) not issuing a payment overdue notice; 3) changing the billing address the day after the payment was due; and 4) tricking me into signing up for a more expensive plan that serrupticously included a $2,300 deductible on office visits that I didn't have in my original employer plan (who laid my wife and I off via email on the day after the BUSH BANK BAILOUT last October).

Since when is ADP in the health insurance business with Aetna? Why did I never receive some kind of statement? The reasons are that they were looking for any way to trip us up so that they can cancel our coverage.

Herein lies a textbook case for why we desparately need serious health care reform. Evil walks and thrives among us. It's time for action!

[hollyhund]

You also have a law suit if all your points are correct. Under COBRA you are entitled to the same level of goverage you had while employed, Present you case in writing to the Labor Dept and cc your employer and Aetna!! Keep us informed-don't give up fight them tooth and nail!

[StPeteDave]

Start at your state level first. CC everyone is right. I had a pay issue and went to the state with copies and explanations and received a copy of the letter they sent to the employer telling them they had 60 days to respond or I could sue. They resolved my issue in short order.

[kinnycut]

He is right our great "lion of the Senate" has got his eyes on us from above hoping that we get the "cause of his lifetime" achieved for the sake of ourselves.

[KenHartleyReed]

I think you all should pay for your own insurance... I'm not going to.

[JohnFromCensornati]

We'll see.

[StPeteDave]

You're already paying, see my earlier post.

[standard]

You can afford to pay for your own insurance? How nice for you.

Just understand that YOUR HEALTH INSURANCE WOULD COST YOU LESS THAN YOU PAY NOW--and be there without fail if you needed it--with health care reform. Right now, part of what you're paying goes to offset the cost of the uninsured being treated in emergency rooms instead of doctor's offices. Right now, part of what you're paying goes to inflate the compensation of the senior executives of health insurance companies. Right now, part of what you're paying goes to political contributions to your elected officials to protect the financial interests of those senior executives, and not tp protect your best interests--and, in fact, to undermeine them.

If you love your co-pays, deductibles and risk of being disapproved for treatment (or dropped from coverage altogether), bully for you! But you might want to rethink that.

[standard]

The fourth patagraph of your post is among the most moving prose I've read in many years.

Thank you. Well said.

Let me respond that you and I--and countless other men, women and even children--yesterday became, of necessity, the Fifth Kennedy Brother. Adequate, affordable health care as a civil right for every American is a cause that completely transcends whatever pain and bother is entailed in confronting all those whose personal greed, complete ignorance or scalding anger are needless and obnoxious but whom we must not allow to exterminate what is recognized as right and just throughout the free world--and so badly needed by actual fellow Americans: our colleagues, friends and neighbors, our brothers and sisters.

Again: Thank you. Well said, indeed.

[Chip Berlet - Huffpost Blogger]

Struggling for real healthcare reform and defending the public option and single payer is the best memorial we can build.

[JohnFromCensornati]

I agree, but I don't think any dead guys are watching. We need to sell it on the merits.

[Chip Berlet - Huffpost Blogger]

This is why we are losing. We do need to build a foundation of facts, but people are recruited into a social movement and most political campaigns through an appeal to emotion that involves stories (Narratives) set in Frames that reflect and explain an underlying Ideology in an intuitive manner.

This is Sociology 101.

Facts plus emotion...not one or the other.

(and making fun of religious belief alienates 70% of the U.S. population, which no experienced organizer ever wants to do.)