I want to have affordable heath care in this country but after what I just saw I’m throwing up my hands on believing it will occur. John McCain his having a town hall meeting, which is being covered by the major cable news networks. The debate is being held at 11am Arizona time in a small bedroom community. By the looks of the audience, the crowd is filled with a lot of respectable AARP type people, all concerned about God, country, the right to bear arms and keeping the government out of their health care.

About 40 minutes into the town hall, there was a woman who stood up to say her piece. She said she got a lot of her information from JD Heyworth. This person was a Republican representative from Arizona who now is the host of a conservative radio show. Think of his show as Rush Limbaugh lite. Instead of trying to look for the information herself on health care issues she relied on a talk show host.

Earlier in the meeting McCain said that Obama respected the Constitution. Do you know a lot of people booed that statement? McCain kept saying it and the audience continued to boo the statement. I look at the audience and I see, and I’m going to be blunt about this, a whole lot of old white people afraid of phantoms. I have yet to see a black or brown face in the audience. I’m sure they are there, they would have to be there, but with the town hall format and when they are scheduled it fits perfectly for people that are retired or out of work.

It hasn’t just been with the McCain town hall, but many of the town halls have pandered to the unfounded fears people have. The people in the audience are propped up by stale slogans. I am tired of politicians like McCain standing in an audience declaring the United States is the greatest country in the world or has the greatest health care system in the world. Statements like that make many people feel if its not broke don’t fix it. If their little corner of the world is fine, they don’t see why others are complaining. Hey, two months ago, hey even a year ago my health care was great. I got very good health care from my company and when I got sick I was able to go to the hospital and get some of the medication I needed.

Things have changed since then and it’s not so easy. I have a few aches and pains right now I should probably go to the doctor for. I can’t afford it. I had someone suggest I should try to see if I can apply to Medicaid. I can do what a friend of mine and a lot of other people do and go to the emergency room of a hospital. The complication there is they can look me over and see what’s wrong but if I need medication outside the hospital I’m not going to be able to afford it.

See there’s no argument that America is a great country, but I don’t look at that and say we can’t do things to make it better. I’ve been on the other side of the fence. I’ve seen the good health care and the bad. I’ve seen the great economy and the bad. I don’t feel arrogant enough not to want to help others who might be in need because I’ve been the person in need. What I see now in the meetings are people who aren’t thinking past their nose. I see people who talk about not wanting to bankrupt the future but are willing to keep this same path which will end in bankruptcy. We need to change but too many people are fearful of change.