Organizing for America | mia pratt's Blog

mia pratt's Blog

Return to Civic Conscience vs. Corporate Consumerism

By Mia from Scottsdale, AZ - Nov 12th, 2008 at 11:19 am EST

Dear Mister Obama, I supported you because I’m 50+ and own a tiny art business that employs 4 people, and we don’t have enough work to pay our bills now that the housing market has collapsed.…I supported you because as an aging worker I don’t have health insurance or a retirement account and I’m suddenly scared to be living just a few paychecks away from homelessness.…I supported you because for 11 years I owned a lovely little home of my own, and now I live in a small apartment due to the devastating changes in our economy and burgeoning medical bills.…I supported you because someone close to my heart just lost their job and was also diagnosed with a serious illness, and their Cobra insurance, while it lasts, will only cover a small portion of the thousands of dollars a month required for treatment - and so it has fallen to me to try and keep homelessness from their doorstep.…I supported you because my mother died needlessly from medical starvation after surviving treatment for lung cancer, due to the nightmarish bureaucracy of the Medicare warehousing conglomerate into which she was abandoned in what was to be the golden years of her life.…I supported you because I still see our country as a glorious and miraculous paradise of abundance, which only momentarily lost its humanitarian compass in its pursuit of unchecked consumerism that rendered it devoid of civil conscience and social responsibility.…I supported you because finally, after growing up in a country where racism once dominated the landscape, I now live in one where only its shadows remain, accompanied by a kind of social “phantom limb syndrome” where although the pain of its existence can still be felt, the malignancy has finally been excised.…I supported you because the republican party I once loved has ceased to represent the very people and principles it supposedly championed – feeding the poor, aiding the sick and guarding the well being and civil rights of the least of those among us; all that is left now of its grand beginning is a sterile doctrine that represents only the narrow views of its innermost core, which is all but devoid of its once precious cargo – the commitment to, and love of, our uniquely American brand of humanitarianism.…I supported you because I still believe it is possible for this miraculous experiment called America to find a way to allow a simple artist like me to remain an artist, without being forced to abandon my God-given life purpose to seek corporate factory employment for the sole purpose of obtaining that elusive diamond known as health benefits – since due to my age and pre-existing medical condition, I cannot afford or obtain them in any other way. ....I supported you, Mister Obama, because despite all that some may say is wrong with our society, I truly believe we are a nation of compassion just waiting to be awakened again to our inherent humanitarianism. We are still that sleeping giant of yesteryear, but this time it is not our enemies who will awaken us from our complacency; it is time for us to awaken ourselves…to a new purpose and a new beginning. It is time for us to awaken ourselves…to the potential of our deep and abiding humanity. It is time for us to awaken ourselves…and you are, Mister Obama, that shining beacon we hope will announce boldly to the world in no uncertain terms, from the balcony of the highest office in the world, that we are finally and deliberately, awake. Sincerely,Your Loyal Supporter

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