How low can they sink?
Marcelas Owens, 11, talks about his late mother, Tifanny, as his grandmother, Gina, holds her hand across her face.
We in the “survivors’ group” called him our Marcelus. He is a brave and bright boy who chose to spend his 11th birthday advocating for health care for all, and he is being attacked by the right as a trick pony who has been fed the lines.
Let me tell you, Marcelus is sincere when he talks about wishing his mother were still here with him.
Tifanny had a job, so she idn’t qualify for Medicaid. Rush Limbaugh attacked her for not going to the doctor when she threw up blood, but she didn’t have coverage, even though she had a life-threatening — and eventually life-ending — condition called pulmonary hypertension.
Do you know how low a person’s income has to be to get Medicaid?
Thousands of people a year who receive federal disability benefits lose their Medicaid and then have to wait two years for Medicare. That’s how low.
Mike and Janet had to split because she had a couple thousand dollars of student loan money in the bank. She had to take title of his 10-year-old car. That’s how low.
And Rush sits there with his millions and judges a woman whose only income is from a job at Jack in the Box.
He criticized her for being a single mom, but she didn’t chose to have an abortion when she got pregnant. Maybe the father was a scumbag who bolted when he learned she was pregnant; maybe he’s in the child’s life. I don’t know and neither does that blowhard buffoon Limbaugh.
Tifanny was a health care activist, so Marcelas knows what it looks like to advocate for health care for all Americans.
We called him “our” Marcelas because we all felt a connection to him as soon as we met him.
He could have gone to a wrestling match on his birthday — and he LOVES wrestling — but he chose to come to Washington and tell his story. His passion, his intelligence and his beautiful smile reminded me of Mike.
It’s no wonder Harry Reed wanted him at the press conference.
Rush acted as though it’s wrong for people who want health reform to organize, as though no one had ever called people together for a Tea Party rally (all of Fox News, for example).
Our rally was organized by Health Care for America Now and SEIU, the Service Employees International Union. There’s nothing wrong with organizing a demonstration of like-minded people. Fox News and right-leaning organizations do it all the time. The difference is that we don’t pay everyone to come. I got expenses and nothing more. I was one of 26 people who got expenses paid. That’s it. 26 out of more than 3,000. Marcelas and his grandmother were among the others.
We have powerful stories, we 26 survivors. We have lost our health, our homes, our loved ones.
I advocate for health reform because if I didn’t have this hope for a better country, I wouldn’t be able to get out of bed in the morning.
I can’t have my child back even though my heart aches for him every day.
Marcelus can’t have his mom back.
Regina Holliday can’t have her husband back.
As for Rush, I can only hope he does choose to leave the country he supposedly loves when things don’t go his narrow-minded, mean-spirited way. I can only hope he winds up in a place where his anal cyst recurrs and he can’t get care for it, because he’s a pain in our national butt.
I don’t usually say such things — in fact, I’m uncomfortable saying such things. But to tear down a little boy who has lost his mother, to criticize her for having a child and then dying, he deserves far worse than anything I can dish out.
And to Marcelas: You keep going. Keep telling your story. It WILL make a difference.
Patient Pals & Family Friends
Life o' Mike has a peer support program for people with one or more serious or chronic medical issues or disabilities.
We aim to reduce isolation and fear among people who have conditions, including psychiatric illness, HIV/AIDS, diabetes, mild dementia or other cognitive disorder or disability, thereby reducing depression and complications as people learn to improve self-management of their medical conditions.
Patient Pals help alleviate feelings of isolation and frustration. They can help people develop a list of questions to ask the doctor and then accompany the person to the doctor to make sure all the questions are answered, taking notes to be sure the person understands the doctor’s answers.
Our trained volunteers also accompany their “Pals” to art exhibits, movies and walks outdoors, meet for coffee, call to check in and more.
Our Pals have experienced weight loss, improvement in diabetes, HIV, psoriasis, depression and more, just because they have someone who cares about them. Some relationships develop into longer-term friendships; other Pals move on to more independent lives.
Family Friends are there to help caregivers and other family members grow into their new role.
We need volunteers, who are asked to donate a minimum of one hour a week. Training is free and includes information on active listening, ways to help and when to know more help is needed.
And of course, we need funding.
To learn more, call Leslie Boyd at 828-243-6712 or e-mail lifeomike@gmail.com.
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