Thomas Jefferson is Rolling in his Grave

As I write this post I am wiping away tears. I have been on the phone with our senators and representatives in DC and have also sent them emails. I just got off the phone with Heath Shuler's office. I was hoping to get an audience with him in DC when we go up on the 29th of this month. He will be home for the weekend as will most of Congress. Why are we having such a big march on a Saturday when no one we want to hear our message will be there? Here we go again...preaching to the choir.
I never mean to start crying, but when I start to speak about the war in Iraq, I get emotional. I have always been overly sensitive. I have joined groups on two different occasions speaking to Mr. Peterson in Rep. Shuler's office in Asheville. The second time, I cried also. The other people spoke so eloquently and I just blubbered.
My daughter has my sensitivity. We went to meet Salee, the Iraqi girl who lost both legs in a US missile attack last year. They showed a video of other children that No More Victims has helped and my daughter, who is 7, had to leave the room because the images made her cry. I sincerely hope she grows up to make big changes in our country.
I called our Senators to express my disgust at the time and taxpayer money they wasted condemning the Move On ad. Is free speech only OK when Congress approves? Or have we lost that right when I wasn't looking? They have sit on their hands and let our civil rights be stripped from us, one by one. They continue to fund this illegal occupation. They ignore our cries for health care. I am one of the million of uninsured Americans. My doctor sent me a letter saying that he will no longer be able to provide care for me. You see, I owe him money and have no health insurance. We can barely pay our basic bills. We cannot afford an extra $500 for health insurance. I guess we could, if we stopped eating. But I like keeping my daughter's belly full. We are a family teetering on the poverty line. We make too much to qualify for any government assistance but not enough to afford the luxury of seeing a doctor. So we ignore our pains or take a pain reliever and suck it up. Since we cannot get preventative care, we run to the emergency room when our illnesses have gotten the best of us.
What about universal health care does Bush find so awful? He has obviously never been in our shoes and been turned away from a doctor's office. I could wax on and on about the ills of our government. But I will end with a few quotes from Thomas Jefferson:

"Time indeed changes manners and notions, and so far we must expect institutions to bend to them. But time produces also corruption of principles, and against this it is the duty of good citizens to be ever on the watch, and if the gangrene is to prevail at last, let the day be kept off as long as possible." --Thomas Jefferson to Spencer Roane, 1821. ME 15:325

"More attention should be paid to the general opinion." --Thomas Jefferson to George Mason, 1791.

"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all. I like a little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the atmosphere." --Thomas Jefferson to Abigail Adams, 1787.

Thomas Jefferson is probably rolling in his grave.