Blueprints and Beginnings
Finding our way through...
Like multitudes of others, I wake and read the headlines in disbelief. We see the danger coming for us now, though there were many that found themselves in the thick of the storm without clear warning of a darkening sky. A sector I choose to support—the early childhood workforce, young children, and families—has long been underserved, and how the tatters of its rug are being pulled out from underneath its feet. The ice we are standing on is thinning. I keep seeking refuge where there isn’t any. What a privilege to have solid ground, to work and laugh and live with the assumption that the government with its checks and balances have your best interest at their core. And I admit I had no clue what it meant until that particular privilege was threatened, a reality that is hardly new to many.
As a highlight, I share the impact of Medicaid cuts to North Carolinians from the Office of Representative Allen Buansi of Orange County, NC:
When Medicaid expansion was passed in NC, over 600,000 citizens obtained health coverage. Of the three million people enrolled in Medicaid, 563,000 are infants or children, and 31,000 are children in the foster care system. Congress is looking to cut $800 billion over the next ten years. If that happens, the bulk of those cuts will likely come from Medicaid. This translates to a potential $27 billion in federal cuts to North Carolina.
NC Session Law 2023-7 stipulates that NC Medicaid expansion will be discontinued if Federal funding match falls below 90%. This would result in 630,000 North Carolinians losing their health coverage. No one in this country should have to choose between seeing their doctor or buying groceries. But that is precisely what happens when folks can't afford to purchase health coverage. Some people will use their local emergency department for non-emergency illness because they no longer have a primary care physician. Citizens put off preventative treatment, which may result in more expensive treatment later.
It will without a doubt result in costlier treatments, and more of them, down the line. When clinics must write off expenditures, it becomes the responsibility of everyone to pay it back. Simple cause and effect.
Within my circles, I hear despair over the inaction surrounding cuts to Medicaid expansion and myriad other threats. I hear the desire to do something, anything, to hold onto a semblance of agency and hope. It feels like time to determine where to fall into that fight. We need a unified and thunderous voice, one that keeps growing in force until the vibrations hit exactly where they are needed. I know what I stand against, and it is the richest of the rich taking individual agencies and rights to a comfortable life away from swaths of people in the name of eliminating waste, particularly when these tyrants can afford to transform the lives of these people for the better with a portion of their hoarded means. They could give us health. They could bring us peace of mind and the security of nutrient-rich food on the table. Instead, they guard their purses and treat the United States public like a corporation.
While my outrage is clear, I need something more directive to come into focus. What am I standing for? And you, readers, what is your message? Is it related to your health and wellness in some way?
This morning, I spoke with a psychiatrist who told me about a spiraling mental health crisis among her patients. A dear friend told me that she received notification that she has ten days to justify her disability checks or they will be denied, even as she has spinal surgery scheduled for later in the month. She is in tremendous pain. Colleagues, coworkers, people standing in line at the pharmacy, family, friends…most of them contending with deepening chronic issues or illnesses that our disjointed medical system cannot explain in its shambles, and that household incomes cannot attempt to afford. Our individual and collective experiences are dismissed, and we are left without compassion, with little courage, with no room for curiosity.
What we need is a platform centered on Wellness for All. Rather than this chaotic evil, we need chaotic good. We need an insider in this system to throw a wrench in the gears. Have the courage to take drastic measures even with the remote possibility of improving lives, not already padded bank accounts. Have the curiosity to fund scientific research and to make education accessible to all who want it. Have the compassion to honor identities, to fund medical advancements, bolster public health initiatives whose work is based on truth, eliminate the cost of healthcare and make every single possible effort to protect our planet in its crisis. We need those whose message is local community, making more sustainability out of way less, who think circularly rather than linearly. Right now, it seems as though we are all being tasked with letting go of unsustainable things that bring us comfort, voluntary or not.
I am in the process of finding out where more of my lifelines lie. A monthly potluck gathering of people wanting greater awareness and action-oriented discussion. Neighbors who cultivate gardens and share their bounty. All that brings belly laughter and does away with too much seriousness. Advocacy organizations that connect critical messaging to appropriate contacts.
ZERO TO THREE’s Policy Center fights for policies that prioritize the needs of young children so they can thrive. They interact with national, state, and local policymakers to demand the programs babies need, such as child care, paid family and medical leave and the expanded Child Tax Credit.
Patient Advocate Foundation (PAF) is a national 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization which provides case management services and financial aid to Americans with chronic, life threatening and debilitating illnesses.
Please share anything that brings you light in the darkness of this discomfort.
As someone with a disability that colors the lens through which she experiences the world, I am absolutely terrified, and I am using this as an outlet for my despair. That being the case, I also understand that hope is easy to have when the skies are clear. It only becomes meaningful in the tempest. It only becomes hope out of its counterpart, grief. With my hope muscle getting in a tremendous workout, I send out love to you all. I am curious about your realities, what matters to you, and the change you want to see most swiftly and desperately. Give life to your needs, articulate your visions so we have the beginnings of a blueprint.
I will leave you with words that were shared with me last night during my beautiful book study group, Nesters:
The work of the mature person is to carry grief in one hand and gratitude in the other and to be stretched large by them. How much sorrow can I hold? That’s how much gratitude I can give. If I carry only grief I’ll bend toward cynicism and despair. If I have only gratitude I’ll become saccharine and won’t develop much compassion for other people’s suffering. Grief keeps the heart fluid and soft which helps make compassion possible.
-Francis Weller, The Wild Edge of Sorrow: The Sacred Work of Grief
As always, your writing leaves me filled with thoughts to ponder and action to take. I appreciate your feelings and the facts you share.
I combat my despair with hope and by staying focused on my heart, sending love and having faith that we will all somehow be ok. But…. Is this really enough??🥺