How do I feel about the public option in the health care debate?
I know how absolutely sick of the subject of healthcare reform we all are. Well, I know how sick I am of the subject, but I can’t help remembering something I heard Gloria Steinem say in an interview once. She was talking about the radical feminist movement and how some of the early leaders in that movement were almost consumed by the battle. She talked about how women like Betty Friedan and Angela Davis were feared by men and women who saw in their “radical feminism” something to be afraid of, a woman in touch with her own humanity and refusing to believe the myths and lies that society had fed them for so many years. Ms. Steinem was also referring to the “bra burner” feminists, the women libbers, and the other derogatory remarks made by opponents of the feminist movement.
Ms. Steinem made the point that no bras were ever burned, that it was a myth created by the news media inadvertently when a reporter saw women tossing their bras into a trash can and somehow confused that with draft cards being burned and combined the two to create bra burning women gone mad. It was an image that stuck in our minds. Society “radicalized” those early second wave feminists and turned them into symbols of mockery, even labeling them “demonic”. The Jeremiah Project online still glories in this demonizing, calling feminist women, Jezebels and claiming that the feminist movement is sinful, from the devil, with at its core, a secret goal to destroy America.
Ms. Steinem, one of those radical feminists, said, “I knew we wouldn’t pass the ERA amendment, but I knew we had to be radical to get our point across.” As I listened to her talk, I thought she’s right, because no change ever occurs without someone rebelling first and leading the charge with radical ideas, radical thought and radical action.
Every social justice movement of our time began with radical ideas, radical thought and radical actions and then somewhere after the radical movement burned out, real change occurred. It’s as though we must have the pump primed first. We watched the civil rights movement erupt into fires in the cities, riots, and rage and then we slowed down and we began to think about what we had seen, those radical actions that had scared us so much, but sure got our attention. And then, our leaders, even George Wallace, began to think about why we might need to change the laws of our land. We began to see the pain of the victims of racial injustice. We really saw..with our hearts and minds the need to change. The radical thinking of Malcolm X sure got our attention and the sweet calm face of Rosa Parks brought it home.
We changed. Our entire country changed and we’re still changing on the race issue, but we know now that it’s shameful to be a racist. We scorn people who use racial epithets, on both sides of the race card. Americans are no longer racist to the core.
We scorned the women who led the feminist movement of the 60 and 70’s, but yet they changed us. They changed our lives. Hell, they changed mine! And despite the ravings of people who agree with the Jeremiah Project, most of us know that a girl born in the United States today, can pursue whatever dream she chooses and that our society will support her. Athelete, politician, leader, scientist, doctor, American women are among the freest in the world, thanks to Gloria Steinen and her radical feminist allies. We don’t want their brand of feminism. We don’t hate men, or want to all become lesbians! But we owe them for their radical thinking.
You ask me what this has to do with the current hot rhetoric surrounding the healthcare debate in our country and whether we are ready to embrace the “radical” idea of a public option in the healthcare reform. And I would say, that it’s too radical right now and the hate and scorn we see tossed at our President and those Americans who do endorse a public option as part of healthcare reform if part of the backlash against what they perceive as “radical action” by our government.
But I would say, that is was radical to think about desegregating our schools. It was radical to think about a Voting Rights Act. It was radical to think about letting women vote back in the early 20th century. It was radical to think about providing social security for our seniors. It was radical to think about medicare for our seniors. It was radical to think about women getting paid the same amount as men. It was radical to fight for girls to play sports in their schools. It’s always been too radical to make the change we need to improve society.
And while it might be too radical for some Americans to understand, the need to make sure that Americans join the rest of the civilized world in insuring adequate healthcare for every citizen, is a radical idea whose time has come.
I’m not going to burn my bra, or torch my social security card, or carry a banner claiming that the opponent is the Devil or a Communist Hitler, but I am going to stand and say, that we need to pass the Healthcare Bill coming out of Congress now, without it’s public option, with the sure understanding that it may be too radical now. But it won’t in the near future,
Americans will begin to calm down from their radical fear and realize that the sky hasn’t fallen on their heads and that as always, we continue to progress down a path toward a more just society for all of our citizens, Christians, Muslims, women, children, the rich, the poor, and you and I.
