Via Bruce Maiman at Examiner.com:
During a Tuesday rally on health-care reform outside the office of Congresswoman Mary Jo Kilroy in Columbus, opponents of the effort berated Robert Letcher, who suffers with Parkinson’s disease. He was holding up a homemade sign that read, “Got Parkinson’s? I Do and You Might. Thanks for helping!”
[…] Turns out 60-year-old Robert Lechter was first diagnosed with Parkinson’s 15 years ago. He has two Master’s Degrees and a PhD from Cornell. He taught at the University of Michigan and worked as a nuclear engineer.__
Lechter was able to have a $150,000 surgery thanks to Medicare and the Cleveland Clinic. It has greatly increased his quality of life. He attended the event in Columbus because he believes in giving back and thinks everyone should have access to affordable health insurance and quality health care.
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Maiman continues:
We say we don’t trust the government, we don’t trust the political class, we don’t trust our community institutions. Mostly, we don’t seem to trust each other. The comment that struck me in the video clip was, “I’ll decide when to give you money.”
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It’s all about me.
[…] Do you think we’re suffering a lack of unity and is that lack of unity underscored by this debate over health care?
P-S: Mary Jo Kilroy is a freshman Democrat who won by a slim margin in this swing district in 2008. She’s considered vulnerable in this year’s midterm. She’s decided to vote yes for the final health care overhaul.
(Teabagger video at the link, if you haven’t seen it yet. Hat tip to commentor PeakVT — thanks!)