In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “The moral arc of the universe is long but it bends toward justice.”
That is exactly what the historic health care legislation proved on Sunday before the eyes of millions of disenfranchised taxpayers who have been waiting on the government for five decades to finally deliver what was a historical and moral obligation.
For too long this much needed change was locked in the belly of the beast, victimized by partisan politics and shackled by the ultra egos of politicians who are so self-centered that they cannot look beyond themselves to see the suffering that their constituents are going through.
On Sunday we saw a courageous move to finally include the least of these in our communities, those who because of their financial and social standing don’t have access to better health care.
We witnessed the gradual but powerful change that the election of President Barack Obama promised, and some who have long been skeptical about government’s delivery to its people because of the ever-present double-talk of politicians can now agree that America indeed is changing for the better.
The welfare of the nation is now being taken care of because those who have lost their jobs due to the economic tsunami brought about by Wall Street and as a result instantly lost their health insurance can breath a sigh of relief.
And those disadvantaged communities that have historically lagged behind every other upgrade because of an unequal playing field amassed with the stench of racism that they have had to battle, can gradually begin to free themselves from the statistics of health disparities.
The insurance practice that places a premium on how much money you have instead of how sick you are and need treatment will soon end and these communities will have access to health care. With this legislation more money will be pumped into community health centers to meet the crucial needs of the uninsured and low-income earners.
The nation elected a community organizer as president, and Obama understands the depth of the health care crisis that is ravaging communities across the nation and that to solve it requires a from-the-bottom-up approach.
To wake up the next day after the legislation passed and realize that your insurance company can no longer cancel your policy or deny you coverage for a preexisting condition is a major step forward.
Small businesses that have always been the driver of the economy can now claim a tax credit of up to 35 percent of the cost of providing health insurance for their employees. Children can now be covered under their parents’ plan up to age 26 and senior citizens under Medicare will get a $250 rebate beginning this year.
President Barack Obama did what President Bill Clinton, Lyndon Johnson and Harry Truman failed to do in more than half a century.
Obama has boldly opened the doors for meaningful health care to some 32 million people who will now be treated with respect and receive the full measure of the right to life — just like every member of Congress and those with deep pockets do — when they get sick.
Tragically, the GOP opposition from the beginning of the health care debate was not about cost even as they tried to hide behind figures.
A Republican lawmaker had reminded us from the genesis of the debate that if the GOP can successfully kill any health reform that comes from the president, it will be Obama’s Waterloo. They can now in fact cripple his presidency and accomplish what right-wing talk show host Rush Limbaugh echoed after the inauguration — that he wants Obama to fail.
So the fact that the GOP was dumb enough to expose its hidden hand early on before the health care debate started showed that the questions around the cost of the legislation were mere political semantics and gamesmanship.
Let’s be realistic. If the GOP really cared about costs of a watershed health reform like the one now in place and its impact on the burgeoning federal deficit, they would not have taken this nation to war on false pretenses that ended up costing taxpayers billions of dollars.
When President George W. Bush and his cabal were taking the country to war and Secretary of State General Colin Powell was beating the drum before the United Nations, there were no Tea Party protesters on the lawn of the capitol to stop the Bush presidency.
There was no opposition among Republicans to stop the aggression and later what would be revealed was a highly orchestrated and sophisticated move to forcefully politicize the intelligence community to endorse the Republican administration’s move to war in Iraq.
Michigan Republican Attorney General Mike Cox is joining 12 other attorneys general around the country to challenge the constitutionality of this new legislation and exclude Michigan from it. His reasoning is that people should have the option to opt out of this new legislation if they decide against it. Perhaps Cox is referring to all members of the Tea Party movement who are galvanizing their supporters around a ballot language that would be placed on the November ballot.
But interestingly, Cox did not take the Bush administration to court over a war that failed to identify any weapons of mass destruction and cost many lives. Cox did not go to court to exclude Michigan soldiers from taking part in a war that has now created a dent on the image of honest Republicans, some of whom have repented.
But, then again, Cox is a candidate running for governor this year and perhaps has been advised to take this issue head-on and make political hay out of it. And interestingly, some of the other attorneys general are running for office as well.
Let me remind Cox that Michigan is more diverse than his advisers might think. The repulsive and cancerous notion of the Tea Party movement will not resonate in the Hispanic, African American, Native American, Arab American, Asian and other communities of color.
Why?
Because these communities have had to bear the brunt of medical apartheid — the cruel, telling and disturbing health disparities — that have long been the textbook case for medical scholars, the Centers for Disease Control and other study groups.
For example, African-American women are 35 percent more likely to die of heart disease than their White counterparts, and 28 percent of Latinos have nowhere to seek health care compared to 15 percent of Whites. Black babies are dying three times the rate of White babies.
The legislation contains programs to promote access for Medicare beneficiaries with limited English proficiency by providing reimbursement for culturally and linguistically appropriate services.
If Cox, under the pretext of constitutional legality, is willing to go against these mammoth improvements in the legislation that show how communities of color will greatly benefit, then he may soon be approaching his gubernatorial Waterloo.
The daily hypocrisy and unchecked double standards of the GOP leadership in Congress and its new propaganda machine, the Tea Party movement, must be seen for what
it is.
The opposition to President Obama was not about cost as was revealed by the deliberate invoking of scare tactics like death panels. The GOP and its massive right-wing propaganda machine are opposed to President Obama because of his common sense ideology, compassion for the common man and an unwavering recognition that America with its bountiful resources can, in fact, solve seemingly unsolvable problems the country faces.
It is time for those who bring no meaningful alternatives to the table of equity to realize that the pendulum has swung. Even conservative columnist David Frum told his colleagues passing the health care legislation was, in fact, the Republican Waterloo. And it will be suicidal on the party that tried to take the thunder off the Obama election by placing an African American, Michael Steel, at the helm of the Republican National Committee, to now campaign to repeal and take back the health benefits that 32 million stand ready to receive. They must have forgotten that most of those 32 million are voters.
What the Democrats have demonstrated is that they can solve big problems with a president who is determined — and not afraid of being castigated by his opposition.
Welcome to a new day. It’s been a long time coming.
Senior editor Bankole Thompson, whose coverage of the 2008 presidential campaign included a series of sit-down interviews with candidate Barack Obama, is the author of an upcoming book on President Obama and Black America, to be released soon. Watch his weekly show, “Center Stage,” on WADL TV 38, Saturdays at 1 p.m. This Saturday’s program, March 27, will feature a roundtable with State Sen. Hansen Clarke, Republican strategist Paul Welday, and Detroit restaurant operator Frank Taylor discussing a new senate Democratic proposal in Lansing that would create a state bank to address the economy. E-mail bthompson@michronicle.com.