Comments on: Distance

By: On Class, Health Care, and Being Heard « Education and Class

On Class, Health Care, and Being Heard « Education and Class — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 23:49:44 +0000

[...] freely acknowledge that it’s likely because I had to come face to face with my own inadequacies in responding to fear about failing health and my deep frustration that I had no way to counter [...]

By: janevangalen

janevangalen — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 13:51:46 +0000

Thanks Julie…it’s never comfortable writing about such moments. I appreciate your feedback a great deal.

By: Julie

Julie — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 04:58:58 +0000

I’ve shared this beautiful post with other colleagues who share (with you, with me) the pain of family ties across the political divide. One, a preeminent scholar, wrote that you should seriously consider submitting it to the New Yorker. I hope you do.

By: janevangalen

janevangalen — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 21:52:29 +0000

Hi Alison,

It is heartbreaking.

And I feel so ineffective. And I have absolutely no idea how to find a way into the conversation in a convincing way. It’s not about logic and evidence; it’s about some other deep-seated, emotionally-charged defiance of the ideas of people *like me*, even though I’m family and otherwise loved…

I really do want to know if others have been more successful in moving past the slogans of “socialized medicine” and “death panels”. What, other than argument, works?

By: Allison

Allison — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 13:51:03 +0000

I have an aunt who is battling cancer. She is unemployed and has no healthcare insurance. How does she pay? By signing up for experimental treatments. And her sister and best friend, my aunt who takes her to treatments and watches over her, is afraid of socialized healthcare. It breaks my heart.