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I 100% disagree. Class is one of the greatest determinants of how you handle chronic illness. Ann Romney can afford to buy $250,000 of European riding stock to treat her MS through horseback riding. The average mom with MS will need to work full time and struggle to pay her bills. MS is a disease that tends to strike young adults who as an aggregate have less access to health insurance - especially now when so many entry level jobs are underpaid and do not have benefits.
When I sat in the chemo lounge or in cancer support groups, there was a huge difference between me - a 23 year old forced to work full time and panicked about bills constantly - and some of the wealthier women in the very upper class town I was being treated in. Wealth affects everything from prognosis to mental health and even often the stage at which you are diagnosed.
Ann Romney was diagnosed with Stage I breast cancer and had a lumpectomy. Not a walk in the park, but very survivable. She got to go home and recuperate (she was also done raising children when diagnosed with both MS and cancer). I woke up from surgery having several lymph nodes in my armpit removed, was told I had cancer and that it was more extensive than they expected, and had to be back in the office less than 12 hours later. I later found out I was stage IV and was in the office less than 3 days after having chemo for 6 months.
Health issues is only an equalizer when facing imminent death. When living with chronic illness or the long term effects of acute illness such as cancer, there is absolutely nothing equal about it.
Mitt has chosen to use his wife's illness as a campaign stump speech. When he was the governor of Massachusetts, he used her MS as an example of why he had a stake in the medical marijuana debate. And yet, he could afford to get her the best alternative treatments. What about the rest of us? My oncologist and onco-psychiatrist strongly recommended the use of medical marijuana to treat the severe pain of tumors dying in my bones, anxiety, and sleep deprivation without the serious side effects of painkillers and anxiety medications that made it more difficult for me to complete my duties at work. Why is Mitt making decisions, citing his wife, that some of the best doctors in the country disagree with?
I do not want anyone to attack Ann Romney. I'm sure she's a lovely person - but she simply cannot relate to the average chronically ill person. The work the Romneys did in Massachusetts has changed so many lives for the better - and saved many of my young adult cancer friends' lives as well. But they run away from it like a hot potato. Why is that?
I agree with you 100%; however, your points go back to "economics" of Ann cannot relate to the average chronically ill person. I believe I meant to phrase it as such that she could be the face of MS or a spokesperson for MS or any other type of chronic illness because she suffers from it. I'm sure she could sit in a support-group type environment and be helpful. As to the economic aspects of having cancer or a disease such as MS, she has been able to afford all the best that is available for her disease.
I 100% disagree. Class is one of the greatest determinants of how you handle chronic illness.
Mitt has chosen to use his wife's illness as a campaign stump speech.
Obama used his mother's cancer as a stump speech as well.
I'm curious...If your a fan of Obama, Surely, you saw a big FAIL in the
health care bill. The individual mandate did nothing but put more
money in private insurance company pockets, and makes folks who already
pay high insurance premiums pay higher ones, while those who were poor
in the first place, get medicaid at the state level.....
I saw nothing in that health care reform bill that spoke: health care
reform. Asking other folks who are not sick to pick up the insurance
premium for those that are already are sick, is merely transferable
responsibility of payment. You want health care reform you
demand health care reform for everybody: Medicare For All via payroll tax.
Agreed. When she has to walk in the shoes of women who are single parents, the sole support of herself and her children, getting up at 5:00 am, dressing, feeding and dropping them off at daycare, catching a commuter train on a daily basis to and from work, working all day and paying all of her own bills, attending parent teacher conferences, owning her own home, cutting grass, shoveling snow, raking leaves, and parenting then she would have a reason to be offended. I wish Ann could walk in what were my shoes for more than 18 years.
Since she has no clue what the average American working woman goes through she and the media need to shut up.
If you apply that standard, everyone in Congress and the President would have to shut up.
She was a four year honor student in high school. She won a full academic scholarship to Princeton University. She got a law degree from Harvard University without the use of legacy admissions or prominent social connections.
She obtained a position at Sidney Austin one of the oldest and most prestigious law firms in the world.
She has held positions as:
Assistant to the Mayor of the City of Chicago
Assistant Commissioner of Planning and Development for the City of Chicago
Executive Director of the Chicago of Public Allies
Associate Dean of Student Services University of Chicago
Vice President of Community and External Affairs University of Chicago Hospitals
Member of Board of Directors Treehouse Foods.
If you took her personal accomplishments outside the context of race and politics I don't know of any American parent that wouldn't be proud of their child for these types of accomplishments.
An argument can be made that she is one of the most accomplished First Lady's in American history.
And yet, now she doesn't work
No one is dismissing Michelle's accomplishments. But, I bet you'd
have a problem naming one of Anne's.
If you apply that standard, everyone in Congress and the President would have to shut up.
ITA. The problem with the majority of those of wealth (particularly those in governmen)t is they really have no clue what many in the real world accomplish and endure in their lives. They are insulated from the trials, tribulations and reality of everyday life of normal, working class America. Most have no clue how much the basics of clothes, food, daycare or housing costs. They don't know how it feels or affects working people when fuel prices rise based solely on speculation. They have no idea what it feels like for those of us who work and pay our way and taxes as well as through taxes are forced to pay for those either to lazy, in the country illegally or unable to work to pay for their free rides. The average working American can't afford to even have a dream, let alone live the American dream because our government is too busy deciding who we should share out hard earned dollars with.
Last edited by PurpleRain_1; 04-14-2012 at 12:13 PM..
She's proud of her country. She's already more accomplished than the other one.
I don't recall her country putting her ancestors in chains, and spending about 250 year doing everything possible to socially, politically and economically disenfranchise them.
Romney shoved Ann front and center, as his ambassador to the World of Women. It is perfectly legitimate for the Dems to question her credentials.
That being said, the Romney Team response WAS very effective in pouncing on Rosen's faux pas. They've been pretty hopeless till now, so maybe they are quick learners.
Hey, look at the bright side. Ann learned to tweet!
Which also gives her the opportunity to make a gaffe. Of course chance are whatever she tweets with be run by a gauntlet of political advisors.
Obama used his mother's cancer as a stump speech as well.
I'm curious...If your a fan of Obama, Surely, you saw a big FAIL in the
health care bill. The individual mandate did nothing but put more
money in private insurance company pockets, and makes folks who already
pay high insurance premiums pay higher ones, while those who were poor
in the first place, get medicaid at the state level.....
I saw nothing in that health care reform bill that spoke: health care
reform. Asking other folks who are not sick to pick up the insurance
premium for those that are already are sick, is merely transferable
responsibility of payment. You want health care reform you
demand health care reform for everybody: Medicare For All via payroll tax.
And that stance, isn't Obama's or Romneys.
I am not a fan of Obama's and certainly not a fan of the joke of a health reform bill he put forward. We need to go to single payer, period.
And Obama's mother's story is one that is much more in touch with the average American. Quoting Obama from Wikipedia:
"I remember my mother. She was 52 years old when she died of ovarian cancer, and you know what she was thinking about in the last months of her life? She wasn’t thinking about getting well. She wasn't thinking about coming to terms with her own mortality. She had been diagnosed just as she was transitioning between jobs. And she wasn’t sure whether insurance was going to cover the medical expenses because they might consider this a preexisting condition. I remember just being heartbroken, seeing her struggle through the paperwork and the medical bills and the insurance forms. So, I have seen what it's like when somebody you love is suffering because of a broken health care system. And it's wrong. It's not who we are as a people.[52]"
I am 24 now, less than a year out from chemo, and I cannot leave my dead end job because if I relapse in the first year of my new job, I will not be covered from FMLA. I will not be able to afford COBRA premiums when I invariably lose my job in order to undergo a stem cell transplant (similar to a bone marrow transplant). Even in my current job which pays well above average for my age, I do not know how I will keep a roof over my head if I relapse because I am in so much debt just from frontline treatment with what is considered stellar insurance.
I could die before my 25th birthday, and that's not even what worries me. What worries me is how I will pay for it and how much of my life insurance will be left over for my parents to afford to bury me. That is the norm in this country. Not buying horses from Europe as alternative therapies, but filing for bankruptcy for medical issues. 42% of bankruptcies in America are caused by medical emergencies. It's easy for some (generally on the right) to cite personal responsibility and that one should have planned better financially - but how does one, no matter how successful or smart, plan on medical emergencies when they are 23? Or 29? Or even 35?
Even people in the upper middle classes who are insured and have sound financial planning are at risk for losing everything with one cancer diagnosis or car accident. And if one of their children is diagnosed with autism, cerebral palsy, etc etc, they could also lose everything between the medical and therapy expenses, needing to leave work to take care of the ill family member, and incidental expenses.
So honestly, excuse me if I don't take someone seriously when they cite an ill family member as an "in" with the chronic illness community, especially when they do not admit that we need an overhaul from the ground up.
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