My middle initial is E, and trust me, that does not stand for Earnest. It takes quite a lot for me to shuck aside my crushing cynicism (which is really bad for your skin, by the way), and join the lemmings in a viral Facebook campaign. But that's just what I did yesterday, changing my status update to raise awareness about the need for health care reform. And I've been attacked for propagating a useless platitude. Is it a corny, worthless gesture?
In case you are not on Facebook (gasp!), the status update in its original form went like this:
"No one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick. If you agree, please post this as your status for the rest of the day." (And later, many people added a link to your congressman's office, to make the update more useful.) When I saw the update, I had the choice of telling my 300-odd friends about A. my favorite hilarious hair-device commercial (BumpIts) or b. voicing my feelings about the most important domestic policy debate of our time. I chose "B." I have hard time seeing that B. was somehow the bad choice there.
Corny? Earnest? Yes, and yes. But is it worthless? One of my favorite professional arguers (Mike) made the case that the statement was simply empty boilerplate that does nothing to advance the debate, and is akin to saying "be nice to puppies!" I would agree that it does nothing to address how to fix the system. But many reform opponents do not even believe there is a problem, a fact that was driven home to me again this week after I wrote in HuffPost about a friend who is gravely ill with cancer, who has insurance and has still gone bankrupt. Some friends and readers expressed shock at her story, which is not uncommon. So this status update was a way to tell my Facebook universe: I think there is indeed a problem.
Now, if i had an ideologically pure friend-list, then yes, stating this surely would be worthless.
Granted, the vast majority of my friends are like-minded. But a good ten percent are not. I respect them, and I think they respect me. Telling them that I believe there is a problem has value to me. I have also seen many debates erupt because of the update, and while some have been reflexive scream matches, several reform opponents have brought up some good points that perhaps I have overlooked. And no one got a finger bitten off.
I would also add that sometimes it's easier to talk to your friends about politics online than in person: I don't typically yip-yap about the op-ed page on the phone with my best friend David. But he's been a very aggressive advocate for health care reform, among other issues, on Facebook, and his civic outreach and enthusiasm has had a lot of persuasive power with me.
I will admit I did not care for the wording of the update, or the implication that people who oppose reform might want other people to die and go broke. I didn't want friends to think I believed that reform is a simple matter of morality and random acts of kindness and blowing pretty bubbles. I view it as a practical issue, a disastrous mess that left unchanged will hurt all of us. That's why I changed it to this: "No one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick, BECAUSE I THINK THIS IS BAD FOR AMERICA, NOT BECAUSE IM A BRA-BURNING HAIRY HIPPIE." Yeah, I'm a Crazy Bitch. Which Crazy Bitch Am I? Courtney Love. I know, because I took the Facebook quiz. Actually, that would make a good status update. Crazy Bitches for Health Care Reform. I'm changing it right now.
No one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick. If you agree, please post this as your status for the rest of the day (personal note: our system is broken and something has to be done both for economic and moral reasons. There are different ways we can try to fix it but right now there is no rational conversation about that. We as Americans deserve better)