Look Closer — Citizenship
“Citizenship: the character of an individual viewed as a member of society; behavior of the terms of the duties, obligations, and functions of a citizen.” Dictionary.com
I am no one. I get up and go to work. I eat supper with my family and listen to details of their day. I worry about money. I dream of vacations. I read the headlines and I feel angry. I read the headlines and feel despair. I read the headlines and I feel powerless. I look at my phone about ten times more than I need to or should and my head fills with details that mostly don’t matter. I dream of writing more, exercising more, reaching out more, volunteering more, contributing more. I think “I should call my mother.” But instead I flip through the DVR and I watch a show I’ve seen before, maybe I laugh a little bit, and then I fall asleep in my chair. Wake up, wash, rinse, repeat.
I read a headline earlier this week about Medicaid expansion passing the Virginia legislature. I learned that people at the poverty line (around $17K per year for an individual, $34K for a family of four) and up to 130% of the poverty line would now be able to participate in Medicaid here in Virginia. Four hundred thousand people, give or take, would have access to a payment system for their healthcare needs. The able-bodied among these four hundred thousand would have to work or volunteer to earn this benefit, but the disabled and otherwise disadvantaged among them would not. Four hundred thousand, so more than the entire population of my county, which is the fourth most populous county in the state of Virginia.
Yet this Medicaid expansion has nothing to do with me, right? I have a generous (albeit very high deductible) health plan through my employer. I have not worried overmuch about healthcare costs since the bills for the birth of my son stopped rolling in thirteen years ago.
Once upon a time, though, I stood in a doctor’s office and asked for help, but also told him I had hardly any money to pay for that help. Once upon a time I went without health insurance for years and simply hoped for the best. Once upon a time I too earned an annual salary right around the poverty line. And even now I may only be one job loss followed by one healthcare crisis away from having to move back in with my mother, who I do not call often enough.
Back in 2009 and 2010, though, I wrote my congressional delegation urging them to vote for the Affordable Care Act; two of them listened and one did not. The ACA did pass in 2010, thanks to the president I voted for in 2008 and the senators I voted for. In 2015 I voted for a state senate candidate who would have supported Medicaid expansion, but he lost by a narrow margin. In 2017 I voted for a governor that fully supported Medicaid expansion, and I voted against my state legislator, who opposed Medicaid expansion. I was published in my local newspaper explaining why my former state legislator no longer deserved my vote; I named his failure to support Medicaid expansion as one reason. My new state legislator was part of a Democratic wave that greatly affected the balance of power in the state capitol. My new state representative voted for Medicaid expansion. My state senator opposed it. (I am disappointed, but I still have respect for the man, and will only vote against him for a more worthy candidate.)
Now, here in Virginia, four hundred thousand people, many of them physically or mentally disabled, will have greater access to healthcare and less fear about entering our healthcare system. That’s the thing about healthcare; everybody needs it, and deserve has got nothing to do with the equation. One of these people will go to a clinic and begin on a path of healing a pain that they were simply living with before, that they had little hope of healing before. I will have played a tiny little role in that person’s healing, me and a couple million other voters.
A man repairing my refrigerator once said to me, “I fought in Vietnam. I know political choices have serious consequences in people’s lives.” I have never served in the military. I have never been to a protest. I have written many letters and emails to my elected representatives, but I have never picked up the phone and called one. I have given plenty of money to help the environment, but I’ve only cleaned up the litter in the woods near my house twice. I keep meaning to get to it, but I never quite squeeze it in. I think my way with words and analytical mind may be of some use to a worthy candidate for office, but after a day of work, chores, dreaming about vacations, and falling asleep in front of TV shows, I don’t seem to make the time to go volunteer for a political campaign.
Yet I am someone. I am a husband, father, son, brother, friend, Virginian, and a citizen. I am an American.
I am convinced that if more of us took one step forward as citizens — by voting every chance we get and then simply letting the people who represent us know what we think — America will begin to emerge from this national nightmare and start moving forward slowly once again. Greater turnout, and greater participation in the democratic process, always goes my way.
Today I’m looking closer at the ripple effect of the choices I have made in the voting booth, in a quiet elementary school gym for a third-tier election — state representative. My choice in that moment made a key contribution to four hundred thousand people gaining access to the healthcare system. I am dreaming of an America where the true will of people — not the will of those drawing the district lines, not the will of those spending the most money, not the will of those erecting new hurdles between citizens and the voting booth, not the will of those yelling the loudest — but the true will of the majority of the population is reflected in our local, state, and national governments, and therefore in our national character. I am dreaming of millions of someones deciding what they want America to be, and then leaping whatever hurdles are there to go and vote for that vision.
“America is at its best when people from all walks of life add their voices to our national conversation, and when we all come together to shape our country’s course. …Our brand of democracy is hard, and we are a constant work in progress.” Barack Obama, in a letter dated January 3, 2017
