BY SHARON MARTIN
Speaker Ryan, are you and your party trying to destroy the United States’ economy? Are you trying to speed up the destruction of Earth? And I wonder, do you understand exactly what a representative democracy is?
You guys did a lot of damage in just one month. Consider your move to dismantle the ACA – flawed, but a start toward universal coverage. What if your grandchild is born with a congenital heart defect? What if his parent, your child, loses the corporate job that provides insurance?
Don’t you want to keep the pre-existing condition provision in the Affordable Care Act, just in case? Will the unemployed be able to afford the High Risk Pool? If not, who’s going to pay for it? What affect do uninsured people have on the economy?
What about privacy? Are you OK with your own personal information being sold?
Why do you want to limit women’s access to birth control? You don’t want to raise the minimum wage so all children can be fed and housed. You were willing to cut maternity and other essential health benefits. If a person gets laid off, you don’t think it’s your job to provide housing, food assistance, or quality job training? You don’t want to help organizations that provide free services? Does this mish-mash of stances make sense to you?
Do you think Scott Pruitt is doing a good job? Maybe you’re planning to move to some pristine island while the rest of us drink coal ash and mercury-infused water. Did you know that in Pruitt’s home state of Oklahoma, women of childbearing years and children under 15 are advised to not eat the fish in many Oklahoma lakes? Thirty-two lakes were on the list in 2013. Eight more were added in 2016. What about clean air? Don’t you and your fellow lawmakers breathe the same air we do?
Speaker, whatever you and your fellow legislators, servants of the people, do to “the least of these my little ones” you do unto everyone. That includes your children and their children. You know, don’t you, that global warming, bees dead from pesticide use, and the breakdown of democracy will hurt you and them?
Are you willing to destroy the promise of a good life for generations in exchange for a few dollars now?
It really is about the money, isn’t it? And the power.
– Sharon Martin lives in Oilton, OK and is a regular contributor to The Oklahoma Observer
