Names of the Dead
1 11 2009I like the days of October 31 and November 1. Not for the costumes and the candy and the bobbing for apples, but for the more reflective meaning of this holiday time. Many ancient cultures celebrate the lives of their ancestors – those people without whom we would not be here, and the vast majority we have never known, and whose names and deeds are lost to the ages.
We live in a culture that doesn’t want to talk about or think about death. We find it uncomfortable, and I think that’s a pity. Remembering and dwelling on our impermanence reminds us not to squander our time. It creates what Barack Obama talked about in the campaign, and described as “the fierce urgency of now.” Now is all we ever really have, because tomorrow is never certain.
Every year, my church has a tradition of “reading the rolls” in which the names of all those members who have died over the years are read aloud and remembered. Every year that goes by, the list gets longer, and more of the names on that list are real people to me. I’ve broken bread with them, and hiked trails with them, and learned from them. And I realize too that the “real” people on the list are all of them, whether I knew and loved them or not. And when you take a day to really think about the people who have touched your life and are gone, you realize how much you’d give to have them back, and how precious their time here really is.
That’s why I think what Rep. Alan Grayson is doing is a tremendous thing. He is standing on the floor of the congress and he is “reading the rolls.” He is reading stories submitted by people to the website namesofthedead.com. These are the stories of those who died because they did not have health insurance. In the ancient days when ancestors were first celebrated, nobody had health insurance. Life was hard, and death came early for many. Mothers and sons and husbands were lost who could have been easily saved by today’s modern medicinal miracles. Those people would have done anything to get the dead back too, but for them it was an impossibility.
But right now, we do have the modern miracles of surgery, drugs, and medical treatments. We have the means to give those real people precious days or months to be with their families and their friends, to say goodbye, or even to overcome the diseases and conditions that would otherwise be a death sentence. How can we call ourselves civilized people and say no to them, when we can help? How can we say, “We could help you. We have the ability to help you, but we won’t do it.” No, you may not have this lifesaving drug. No your child cannot have this treatment. No, your wife is going to have to die because she has a “pre-existing condition.” No, the bottom line and corporate profits are more important than your brother’s life and what it will do to his children when they lose him.
Listening to the stories doesn’t make these people real. It reminds us that they already are real, and any one of them could be someone we love.
I went to namesofthedead.com today, and I decided I’d pick a story to print. I decided to choose someone who was about my age and my gender, and decided I would print their story, whatever it said.
Josephine Hoist
42, Huntington Beach, CAScott Hoist writes:
My mother died of colon cancer when she was 42 years old. She had 5 children, ages 6 to 17. I was 9 years old when she died. She suffered for 3 years. The night she died, my little brother and I lay in bed crying. We could hear her screaming in pain. The echoes of those screams have never left us. We as a family were very poor. My father was a self employed carpenter. It took him and my two older brothers five years to pay off the doctor and hospital bills, and that was in 1963. Of course, we did not have health insurance then, but that horrific experience taught me a lifelong lesson of empathy and compassion toward others who have suffered the loss of a loved one from illness and disease. I share this very personal and private story with all of you so that we as a nation can finally recognize and acknowledge the needless pain of our broken health care system. All of us will die. Some of us will die peacefully with all the comforts of modern technology at our disposal. Others of us will be cast aside, marginalized, ostracized, abandoned, and discarded by cold blooded corporate selfishness and greed. What we do now as a nation will determine the extent and scope of perpetuating needless suffering not only for the injured, but for the survivors. We, the walking wounded must do more than pick up the shattered pieces of our lives and struggle to carry on. The time has finally come. Now, it is up to us to do the right thing. Let us work together to create a more compassionate nation. We must become a civilization where families can live (and die) in the warm and comforting embrace of a caring society. I ask you to do this in honor and memory of my mother.
They are all like this.
I encourage everyone to read some of the stories, and listen to them being read aloud on the House floor. If you have a story to share, please do it. It seems like a beautiful and fitting way to honor those people who can no longer speak for themselves.
And maybe send a thank you to Alan Grayson for using his position to tell their stories, not like so many, to pander to the insurance companies whom he hopes will finance his next run for office.
[from the fourth video clip]
These are the stories of America. People who are suffering and people who sent us to Washington D.C. to solve their problems for them – not to debate, not to delay, but to keep them alive. Now, the reason why I read these stories is this… Again, as Lincoln said, in talking about these people, it’s their loved ones who’ll speak best for them. As Lincoln said in the Gettysburg Address, “It is far beyond my poor power to add or detract. Rather, it’s for the living to be dedicated here to the unfinished work for which these people have died.” And that, my friends, is the unfinished work of universal health care in America. That is our unfinished work. And I look forward to a day which I hope will come very soon – not soon enough for all these people, all these people who have died – but a day to come very soon when there will be no more stores like this… when there will be no more names to add to this website. And for God’s sake, I look forward to a day when we will finally have done our jobs.
November 1st, 2009 at 3:53 PM
Excellent post.
Thank you.
November 1st, 2009 at 3:53 PM
Powerful – and heart rending!
November 1st, 2009 at 4:07 PM
Powerful..yes. Here tomorrow..I will make a small altar of fruits, vegitables, golden leaves, purple ribbon, a candle to ‘light the way’, a full hearth-baked round of bread, a sm. bottle..to be offered..then raised in celebration of a life..’gone on ahead’, and a few marigolds..that their scent may lead those whom one of my renters loved.including his mother in Mexico..a full 3 years ago now. I have made a new alter each year for 5 years..because it is his chance to come home from work..and know..that we..fully understand. Each..in our own way..we cherish those who brought us into the world, gave us chances to grow and become better, stronger. We are all..our brothers keepers.
November 1st, 2009 at 4:12 PM
I just finished reading these letters and came here to see what’s new. It is really kind of amazing how this is spreading. There is a fan base on Facebook for Grayson, that’s where I saw it first. But, of course, here’s where I heard about him in the beginning.
November 1st, 2009 at 4:32 PM
Thank you AKM for a well written and heartrending post.
The theme most often mentioned in these stories is not I, I, I, Me, Me, Me. It is always concern for others that will unnecessarily suffer as they have done. Compassion towards our neighbors.
I keep asking myself why, why do these CEO’s need to have the personal wealth that is equal to a small country. And because of that, they act as if they are a country unto themselves. What drives these people? It can’t be greed alone can it? There is so much more to life.
I have tears, but now I also have hope seeing that so many people still care about one another, and we are not fighting this fight alone.
Thank you all.
November 1st, 2009 at 4:34 PM
There are not exuses any more. There never really were.
If we are a Christian nation then we must lay on our hands and heal, or at least ease the suffering.
If we are only an humane nation, we still must do the same, or see ourselves as savages.
November 1st, 2009 at 4:40 PM
I admire his efforts. There are millions of stories just like these. My nephew died at 25 from easily treated cancer but his insurance company stalled him for a year. He kept insisting they do something. It was not until he was able to pay for a scan himself that it was discovered. By that time it was to late. He left a wife and 6 month old son. Thanks for the post.
I hope you’ll go share his story on the website. 25 is too young. So sad. AKM
November 1st, 2009 at 4:59 PM
…About time !! Every single member of Congress who votes against Universal Health Care should be voted out of office and then spend some time with people who are seriously ill and take over having to deal with Insurance rigamarole for them… 24 yrs and counting for us !
November 1st, 2009 at 5:06 PM
It is just so wrong that these stories can even be told in this country. Unbelieveable…..
November 1st, 2009 at 5:07 PM
May God bless Alan Grayson, I pray. Protect him also from all the idiots that he is threatening. May his stand for justice embolden others to speak out against the corporate interests that dehumanize our great land.
Thanks AKM for supporting this noble cause! May the eyes and ears of our countrymen be opened to recognize the atrocities committed in the name of profit.
November 1st, 2009 at 5:16 PM
This is absolutely disgusting. Every time I hear stories like these it bewilders and infuriates me that a country like America doesn’t have – indeed, has seemed to actively NOT WANT – universal healthcare. The argument that it is too expensive is nonsense – other countries manage just fine. (And how much does the US spend on it’s military every year?) The paranoia some exhibit about helping others less fortunate than themselves is… words fail me… “They should get a job”, “They should work harder” or “Everyone else has to pay for it, why should they get it for free”… It all makes me so angry. What planet are people like this living on? The greed and selfishness, coupled with the whole anti-”socialist / communist” psychosis just blows my mind.
As far as I’m concerned, providing a good health care system is – or at least should be – one of the primary roles or government (along with education, law and order, managing / protecting the environment and providing some other important infrastructure and services that private enterprise is not suited to providing).
In Australia we have universal healthcare. It’s by no means perfect (and yes, it is expensive for government / tax payers), and waiting lists for some procedures are long, but it’s light years ahead of what you have in the US. People who want private health insurance buy it themselves (and receive a 30% rebate from the federal government, as an incentive), and get a level of cover appropriate for their personal budget. (Also, if you earn over a certain amount and don’t have private insurance, you pay extra tax – another incentive to “pay your own way”, if you can.) The system you have in the US where your employers pay your health care for you has never made any sense to me. Does it make any sense to you?
November 1st, 2009 at 5:25 PM
The post and the videos of Rep Grayson are both incredibly powerful and heartbreaking. Alan Grayson kind of reminds me of Jimmy Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
November 1st, 2009 at 5:33 PM
Thank you, AKM, for drawing the connection between reading the names of the dead in church today, and what Alan Grayson is doing. That connection seems obvious now, but I had not made it. Your writing sheds light.
Thank you.
November 1st, 2009 at 5:44 PM
There is so much each of us can gain from watching the direction this young Congressman is taking in comparison to the long-sitting, older gentlemen holding ‘way to long’ seats in Congress. I so agree that they should be made to drop their ‘government’ insurance and made to ‘live in the lives’ of their constituents. It might even be wonderful to see them having to assist in the care of those w/sick family who were denied care from their insurance companies. And, thank you, President Obama for trying to gain the insurance coverage each of us needs….that somehow compares to other countries in our world.
November 1st, 2009 at 6:18 PM
Thank you for helping Rep Alan Grayson keep this topic in the forefront. These stories of peoples deaths may be hard to read but we all should be reading them. My 30 yr old niece had a friend die this last spring …why….she lost her health insurance and was too embarassed to borrow more money from her friends to buy another asthma inhaler. A young lady died in the prime of her life over a $27 inhaler. We as americans should all feel shame over this. $27 dollars and one asthma attack KILLED a 30 yr old young woman, how sad is that in the so-called greatest country in the world….
November 1st, 2009 at 6:31 PM
I really do appreciate the calm, yet meaningful way you share – ALWAYS. Today, I think I understand .
Thank you.
May you continue to ‘lead’ with insight and love.
November 1st, 2009 at 6:39 PM
AKM Thank you for posting this. It really hits close to home. One of the first few stories that Grayson read was mine. It was not my family, but of a close friend who was very dear and whom I miss very much. Statistics can say one thing, but real names of the people lost because of this issue lend much to the discussion. I applaud Rep Grayson for this.
November 1st, 2009 at 6:46 PM
How can any human being ignore these stories. Thank you for this AKM. A comment above said what exactly what I feel, we are our brother’s keeper. When we forget that, we diminish ourselves.
November 1st, 2009 at 7:52 PM
Another zinger of a post; thanks for getting this word & work out, AKM. I liked Grayson before learning of this, but even more now. Compassionate statesman….. it is so refreshing to hear from a Congressperson who has both heart and logic going for him!!
November 1st, 2009 at 8:12 PM
You know. Sometimes I forget just how lucky my family is. Sure, we have had really horrid things happen, but. Well.
Thank you for the link. I have spent some time there. I should have spent more, but I just couldn’t. I will go back. Every day. And, I will remember, and I will keep on fighting, and I will not give up.
You are in our family’s prayers as well. Your strength is a touchstone, and I thank you for offering it to your readers wrapped with your words. Peace.
November 1st, 2009 at 8:16 PM
My Father had insurance, and for 7 years I watched him suffer and fight to get treatement he needed. He died at home of metatstatic Stage 4 colon cancer that spread to his liver, spleen, and bones after a year of top notch hospice home care. Reading these names and hearing these stories makes me feel guilty, because he had the care everyone deserves, and angry because people are too callous or dense to see how important passing this bill is to REAL people.
I’m also ticked off at Rush Limbaugh for calling President Obama’s visit to Dover AFB to pay his respects to our fallen soldiers a “Photo Op”. We cannot ignore our fallen heroes like the Bush Administration did. It “sanitizes” and marginalizes the true horror of war.
November 1st, 2009 at 9:03 PM
Hi Guys- a continuation of what is probably not the tip of the iceberg- but our boy Samson down in Texas- could use your prayers.
Days 8 and Beyond : Clarity of Purpose Trumps Desperate Measures
Resurrection or Death ?
That doesn’t seem to be the pressing question anymore as much as it is treading water with a purpose. You can see the shoreline from the distance, and you try to ignore the predation lying in wait- in the form of hidden reefs, rip currents, and unknown ichthyasaurs. Fate harbors a full house of hidden agendas for souls on the edge.
But today the game waits for you. Nature’s lottery is not often thwarted, but perhaps just on this particular day, Darwin will take a pass. Either way, we can only trim the sails to match the gusts, but the wind will ultimately decide.
So it goes. You kind of have to throw out the “why do we do this” questions, and ignore the “exhausting our resources” mantra when trying to come to grips with this swine flu thing at the human level.
We exhaust our humanity and thus our resources with the lives we lose to combat on a daily basis. Of the 30 people that will watch a man helplessly flail in rough waters, one of us will jump in to make a difference. We become hero’s when the sum total of our unconditional effort gels to victory. Anything less, an effort not retrieved because of second thoughts or attention to a purse, well that diminishes us and our human spirit.
We are common men and women in uncommon times, but together the last loaf of bread shared shall seal our fate as a group of beings that have momentarily conquered jealousy and selfish things and have glimpsed the world again through the simpleness of a child’s eyes.
That is why we continue. And that is what the Swine Flu has delivered back to us. Our children’s eyes.
November 1st, 2009 at 9:04 PM
Fantastic post, thank you AKM. Powerful, very powerful. Thank you.
November 1st, 2009 at 9:08 PM
There is something very wrong with the way the US runs health care. I will give a small example. We were in Europe and Mr. Lewis forgot to bring his medication with him. A pharmacy near the hotel (France) agreed to fill his prescriptions if the doctor would fax them. In regard to just one medication, my husband paid all of $3.50, total, that was it (we have no insurance in France). In the US, he pays over $25. as the co-pay; we have no idea what the insurance company is getting. The same medication sells for slightly different prices in Spain and in Italy, but still well under half of what we pay as the co-pay.
Here, we are paying for advertising, for the detail men and women who make the rounds of doctors’ office handing out literature, samples and goodness knows what else. Some of our additional costs are due to research and development. Many of our drugs are not even manufactured in the United States anymore, but in foreign countries (subject to inspection by the FDA). And this is just one segment of the health care business. (Those should be dollar signs, as in busine$$).
The thing preventing our representatives and senators from voting for the people they represent and their health interests is all of that lobbying money, thanks to big pharma and big insurance companies who are raking in big profits and don’t want to see things change. The shame of Congress is that people who should be looking after our interests are looking after their own selfish (monetary) interests instead. Thanks to Grayson, he has put a human face on the discussion!
For eight years, when Bush was president, he did not allow the coffins of soldiers being returned to the US to be photographed. That would have personalized the war. President Obama’s recent appearance at Dover changed that dynamic. I hope that by personalizing the stories of health care tragedies and victims, they will move people to demand the correct action from our politicians.
November 1st, 2009 at 9:15 PM
# 20… Samson is in my thoughts and i will see him surrounded in white light. Good thoughts also to the health care provider. God luck.
November 1st, 2009 at 9:27 PM
#20 @ Frank, I assume you guys are at South Park. May the Holy Spirit fill the room with His presence and bring healing, comfort and renewed strength to Samson, I pray, to the glory of God who gives breath to all living things.
November 1st, 2009 at 11:02 PM
My father passed on in February 1986 of colon cancer – he had insurance – so can not be listed on the website for uninsured Americans.
The point I want to make is on the so called (aptly debunked) Death Panel, where Medicare/Medicade would actually pay for a doctor to discuss potential end of life decisions with the patient and family, something not covered now.
About two weeks before my father died – his physician (and long time fishing buddy) came to their house – not to discuss pain meds, or talk “what my father wanted”, not to relive those fish trips or talk about the good times they had — but to try and push my father into more chemo & radiation. To have him spend more of his limited time away from home and family in hospitals a couple hundred miles away.
He was very disappointed with the Dr., but felt more betrayed by his friend.
Everyone that WANTs to discuss their end of life decisions should be granted that right.
All those stories on the website – how very sad. And so many more whose stories aren’t told.
November 1st, 2009 at 11:04 PM
Eloquent and moving post, AKM.
The legislators get bogged down in politics, statistics, lobbyists…..
The right wingnuts get bogged down in ideology, anger, and bias……
Telling the stories of the dead reduces the legislators’ and wingnuts’ concerns to the comparatively petty status they deserve.
Excellent.
November 1st, 2009 at 11:18 PM
My niece is schizophrenic. My sister and her husband went nearly bankrupt, even with Medicaid, trying to provide care for my niece. As it is, they will be paying off hospital bills for her until they are dead and in their graves. I’ll enjoy personally directing the hospital bill collectors to the cemetery when that happens.
If you think regular health care in the USA is abysmal, you haven’t plumbed the depths of mental health care in the USA.
The chronically mentally ill in our country are the “walking dead’ and their stories should be heard as well.
November 1st, 2009 at 11:59 PM
@ hr1: You are right – it doesn’t make sense that employers are paying for their employees’ health care. It works well if you work for a large company, but not if you work for a small one or are self-employed or if you aren’t working because you can’t find a job but don’t qualify for Medicaid or Medicare or something else from the government.
The explanation I heard on NPR for the reason employers got into the health care providing business goes back to World War II. There was a freeze on wage increases and to make that more appealing to people, companies started offering benefits, like health care. It wasn’t prohibited and didn’t break the rules and it stuck. And we are stuck with it now, even though it no longer gives anyone the best option.
AKM, thank you for posting this. I’d not heard of the website. I wasn’t going to listen, as I knew how hard it would be to hear those stories. But I did listen and I’m glad that I did. Personalizing the problem, putting real people’s names and stories in front of those who have the chance to change the health care system that is broken, is the best thing any of us can do. I, like so many others, applaud Rep. Alan Grayson for reading the stories, and you, for sharing this with all of us.
November 2nd, 2009 at 12:22 AM
Nope, it makes no sense that employees buy medical care at work, nor does it make sense that one’s workplace contributes to employees’ health care.
I do not understand any policy maker, politician, business owner, or employee – anywhere, anytime – that thinks universal care is bad.
November 2nd, 2009 at 1:05 AM
Changed my mind. I had volunteered to donate to Rep. Alan Grayson’s Money Bomb (seems it is now today). After seeing him in action I decided to DOUBLE my contribution. It is so wonderful to see a Congressman that considers us Americans as ‘human’ and has some simple respect for the people that have been hurt.
I will read that site later, still having some grieving issues family losses, to deal with before checking it out.
November 2nd, 2009 at 3:08 AM
A voice from the other side;
Noble desires expressed here. I appreciate that but I have some questions;
Do you all really believe our government will do this any better than the “evil” insurance companies? Have you ever personally dealt with Medicare, Medicade, the VA, or BIA health care systems? Oh, it’s going to be different this time? I don’t know why anyone would believe that.
Do you really believe that a federal bureaucracy will be any more compassionate than an “evil” health insurance company? Again, I don’t know why anyone would believe that.
Money. I know, even bringing this up as an issue brands me as a heartless capitalist but hear me out. I think we can all agree that there is no such thing as “free health care”. Even a free clinic has costs that are borne by someone. Hopefully there are none of you that actually believe government can provide “free”money. The bottom line that I’m trying to get to is that a government health care system will be paid for by you and me. Not the government, not the “rich”, not the “evil” insurance companies, or any combination thereof. It’s going to be you and me. Now you may be thinking you’re ok with that and that’s great but I have a few more questions for you;
Do you really have any idea what this is likely to cost you personally? Are you really ready to hand the government a blank check? Are you ready to take a pay cut to finance your company’s extra tax burden? Are you ready to lose your job for the same reason? In this fragile economy that’s going to happen to many of us if this goes through. Will your hero Grayson be reading those stories?
Perhaps a more telling question: If you really are willing to help foot the bill I have to wonder, why would you pay the government to do something you could do much more efficiently yourself? Charitable donations are much more efficiently spent than federal dollars. How much are you currently giving in time and or money to this cause? Some of you are probably pretty comfortable with that question and that’s great but I think a good many of you should be squirming just a bit. On average Americans donate about !% of their income to charity which is pretty pathetic. Charity starts at home.
I have health care. No, I’m not completely happy with it. Can government help the situation? Yes, I believe it can. It can look at what it’s doing to screw up the system and get out of the way.
November 2nd, 2009 at 8:37 AM
That was a beautiful post. Thank you.