Reminisence triggered by all the talk about a public option. (written 09.05.09)

Just picked Sam up from the train station, mind wandering while driving and realized that I have a lot to be thankful for; two wonderful kids, a nice secure home and a positive outlook for my future.
Why do I have all of this? I've been lucky, that's why. I was lucky to be born in an era which was reaping the benefits of the New Deal and when the dominant view for government was to create the Great Society.

My dad received a wonderful education, including his Bachelors degree and two Master's degrees; thank you to the G.I. Bill and the United States Air Force. Think for a minute of all of those who use the G.I. bill for help buying their first home. This is our government helping these working class kids to realize the American Dream. And even now, thank you for allowing me to write off mortgage expenses for my home, a huge government program of monetary redistribution.

In addition to this everyone in my family, my parents, my sister and myself, my ex husband and my children received good sound secondary educations. Thank you to my government for making quality education available to me and my children. In addition to this I received my bachelor’s degree from a public college. Again, thank you to my government for subsidizing my higher education. When I had to come up with college tuition for three family members, who did I turn to for help? My state government, thank you Massachusetts for the MEFA program so that my children and I were all able to attend college.

While driving to get Sam I thought, how wonderful that my teenage daughter who does not own her own car is able to have the freedom and independence of mobility, so that she can visit her friends at their colleges. Again, thank you to my government for providing a good system of public transportation. This led me to think of all the times in my life that I’ve taken public transportation. As a young mom so that I could get my son to appointments at Children’s hospital, even though I didn’t own a car, as a graduate student and as a college student myself; today my son would not be able to get to work if not for his access to public transportation. Again, thank you.

Thinking about public transportation of course led me to appreciate that I was driving to the train station on a perfectly smooth, newly paved high way. Thanks to the government for creating and maintaining the roads so that when the train is not an option, I have a simple, rational system to facilitate my travels. This summer I was able to take my mom to our family reunion, half way across the country, by accessing this publicly funded program.

Now, sitting here, procrastinating on starting my “weekly” house cleaning I’m remembering when my dad was sick. How thankful we were that as retired military he had some of the best health insurance you can get. In fact, all military people enjoy this option. Doctors, when they heard of it were thrilled because they knew that this insurance would assure the best possible treatment and timely pay. In addition to this health insurance he enjoyed Medicare, another form of public health insurance for our elderly.

As the future primary care giver for my mom I have a small degree of peace of mind knowing that she, too, holds both of these health care options. Then I remember when my two year old son needed major surgery and less than one week before his surgery and after our private insurance company approved the surgery, they canceled our insurance. We didn’t find out until after he had the surgery and we had no money to pay out of pocket. Thank you to our public hospital for covering the hospital expenses, only leaving the doctors fees to us (which still took many years to fully pay off).

I also realize that this is really just the tip of the iceberg for the many ways that my government has fulfilled its role by protecting me, one of its citizens. Think about all those things we take for granted, that if we have a crises the Fire Fighters and EMT’s will come to rescue us, we have Police officers assuring our safety and maintenance people maintain our water, buildings and roads. Our libraries assure that all people have access to information. Stop for a minute and think of how often and in how many ways our government has helped you and remember to be thankful that we have a government that remembers its role.

So yes, while I’ve worked hard and certainly earned much of what I have to be thankful for, I did not do it on my own. Without all of these programs my life would not be as wonderful as it is.