elizaskinner.net - the jambox

My grandparents used to send me checks on my birthday & christmas well into my twenties. I’d get a couple hundred dollars a couple of times a year - usually at moments when I really needed it. After 28 years, it adds up. Then when my grandfather died, I inherited a little bit of money. Not a crazy amount, but a couple of rent checks were easily accounted for. These things are true not just for me, but for my mother, her sister and three brothers, my sister, my seven cousins, and their kids - not to mention many charities. My grandparents had this kind of money to throw around for a couple of reasons:
1) My grandfather was a doctor, as was my grandmother’s father. He was a top notch OBGYN. Most of his time as a doctor was before health insurance companies started preying on Americans, but he still did very well. I learned to golf at a country club when I was 5, then Bepa gave me a ride home in his Cadillac. He did well.
2) My grandparents both came from southern money. Southern money comes from the farmers and landowners who were able to work and maintain their crops by using the South’s greatest resource - African Slaves. Of course, my grandparents were never slaveowners themselves, but look back down the family tree far enough, and someone was.

My grandfather and grandmother, and their families, did not do horrible things to anyone. In fact, my great grandfather lobbied to end slavery, and people still thank my mother for my grandfather’s tireless work. But, when I hear arguments against universal health care that say that socialized health care would hurt doctors, that it would take away their right to practice where they choose and lessen their prestige, I want to burn every one of those birthday checks and christmas gifts. A country club membership is not worth killing people.
My family of doctors would be just fine with National Health Care. We’re doing a-ok - don’t worry about the prestige, really. When I see a dude begging for change on the subway with one leg and his fucking EYEBALL hanging out of his face, I don’t think “I sure am proud that my grandpa was a doctor.” I’d gladly trade that honor for someone putting that eyeball back in that head.

When I find a presidential candidate who will get me National Health Care coverage for everyone, I’m giving back my birthday checks in the form of a campaign contribution.

I never owned slaves or discrimated against someone because of their race, my parents didn’t, their parents didn’t, blahblahblah. But honestly, the financial wheels set in motion hundreds of years ago when someone in my bloodline did made it possible for me to go to college. So I’m giving back my christmas checks, too, to the United Negro College Fund. That money should have been there in the first place.

It’s not much - I’m not fixing anybody’s problems, I know. But this country is totally fucked up right now, and it’s all because of the shady places money is coming from and going to. If we each look at where our money really came from, and try to put it in the right places, maybe we care start to make things better, and stop feeling so helpless.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 9th, 2007 at 12:05 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.