I am proud to say that I, as well as several other residents of Waitsfield, were among them.
Sitting on the edge of our seats in the auditorium, we listened to the
stories of local residents who have suffered under the current,
profit-driven healthcare system. They were stories such as the one told
by Liz Zundel -- a Barre resident, registered nurse, mother and Lupus
sufferer -- whose health care benefits have been cut off, leaving
Zundel over [her] head in debt.
Or take the story of Montpelier resident Walter Carpenter, whose life
was saved by an MRI that his insurance deemed unnecessary, and who
likened dealing with the insurance magnates to "negotiating like I was
buying a used car."
The mood in the auditorium that night was clear; the people of Vermont want meaningful health care reform now.
Several of our local legislators were in attendance: Representatives
Paul Poirier, Mary Hooper, Janet Ancel, Tony Klein, Tess Taylor and
Francis Topper McFaun and State Senators William Doyle and Ann
Cummings.
But as Poirier suggested at Tuesday's forum, the problem may be that
our legislators themselves may be an impediment to progress.
Sometimes, it takes more than just showing up.
"I think that the problem is us, the elected officials," Poirier said,
as the crowd gave its biggest applause of the night. "We as politicians
are afraid to step up. You've never had numbers like we do today to
move an agenda. And what are we doing? We are doing zero."
But if our legislators are not serving the will of the people, what recourse do the residents of Vermont have?
The answer is simple; we need to get angry. We need to make our voices
heard -- vehemently -- for these are vehement times. The matter is not
out of our hands as citizens, and we are not dependant on our
legislators. They are dependent on us.
Maybe it's time that we remind them.
Because, as Rep. Tony Klein so candidly put it on Tuesday, if
meaningful health care reform is not forthcoming, we're going to have a
revolution in this state.
Eric Kiefer of Waitsfield is a Vermont Workers' Center volunteer.
