"Dream Big Dreams" -- President Barack Obama Signs Health Care Legislation Into Law

For a long time, it seemed like it would only stay a dream--a wish. But today, we've broadened the reach of our social safety net, adding health insurance reform to Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP, and a host of other ways our government helps us help each other. President Obama signed this groundbreaking piece of legislation into law after more than a year of uphill battle to pass versions in the House and Senate. (As of this writing, the Senate has yet to pass its version of the reconciliation bill; it's expected to do so by the end of the week.)

The signature above was scrawled on a school wall back in June of 2009 (photo credit: Pete Souza, Official White House photographer). Our President had just led a town hall on health care in Wisconsin. The rhetoric had yet to turn ugly, the public option was still in play, public opinion was still elastic.

Health insurance reform may have remained a dream if it weren't for the efforts of so many tireless people who wrote, told their stories, called, faxed, emailed, showed up at town halls to support health care reform, talked to friends and neighbors, countered astroturf, made fun of the sillier protests, tweeted facts, or leaned over the electronic fence on Facebook and explained to virtual neighbors how it would work and why it was needed. It wouldn't have happened without you, and me--and all the public officials who seized their chance to do something that would bring lasting relief to millions of people.

There were times it looked like it wasn't going to happen. A lot of people lost faith, or had it severely shaken. Many wondered how they could've possibly been so naive as to believe this Obama guy's promises. I myself wondered how a man who could've so passionately shared the heartwrenching story of his own mother's death from cancer, and her battle against the insurance company that wanted to deny her care procedure by procedure, could also appear to loosen his grip on the promise I'm certain he made to himself to do right by the memory of his mother. We all had our doubts, moments where we wondered who'd relent and who'd abandon the fight, and who had resolve like Harriet Tubman did.

I wonder if our president ever thought we'd give up and leave him stranded? Thank goodness we didn't.

 

(Photo credit: J. Scott Applewhite, AP photo)

I remember in the days of the struggle between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama to win the Democratic nomination, a sniffy PUMA-esque meme went around that Obama had written a book about his unavailable father but had never written a book honoring his mother (hence, suspect feminist credentials, you see).

But I think, looking at the signature scrawled on the wall of the Wisconsin high school and the one here, he managed to write something far more powerful than a book in tribute to his mother. With the scratchings of 22 pens and his name on H.R. 3590, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, President Obama manifested a dream for his mother that any American can relate to--the beginning of freedom from financial worry when our loved ones or ourselves are sick and in pain.

 

(photo credit: Chuck Kennedy, Official White House photographer)

It's a beginning. But I'm hopeful that my son will only know a time when we the people decided, as a people, that the highest purpose of a civilization is to cultivate the capacity of all of us to better care for one another, starting with our health.

And by the way? The young man watching President Obama sign the bill? Marcelas Owens for president, 2034. I totally see it. I feel confident he'll find some other, new frontier to help people take care of each other better.

Cynematic thinks a literary president is a good thing. She also writes at P i l l o w b o o k and contributes to the MOMocrats Facebook page, where there is even more pot-stirring and hell-raising to be had.