The original title to my series is “Sermons I Would Have Preached Had I Been Brave Enough”. A retired pastor I often felt like I was holding back. However, I have not taken the time to do the full study and writing that I used to do. I have been writing to state and U.S. Representatives and Senators. The following is the last one I wrote to my U.S. Representative.
I am writing out of extreme disappointment and concern for the lives of those in my family and community because of the approval of the “Big ‘Beautiful’ Bill”. More than once, you promised to preserve Medicaid coverage for Iowans and yet you voted to slash Medicaid. No matter how you choose to spin it, this bill will result in loss of coverage to millions of Americans, resulting in unnecessary illness and death.
Those affected are real people with names, not just statistical probabilities. Many are those nursing home residents who are members of churches of which I was a pastor. I could have you go with me to visit them and explain to them and their adult children why their nursing home can no longer afford to stay open. In addition, those children whose only meal is school lunch and who will lose their eligibility for free lunch are not just numbers, they are children whose ability to learn and grow will be further hampered. I have a few names of these children in mind, and I would gladly introduce them to you and to their parents who are employed but sometimes have to skip meals so that their children can eat. I would ask that you tell them in person why you voted to have nutrition taken away from them. I also am a real person, not a “bot” who sends these emails. I would also ask that you come and tell my son and I that we no longer qualify for the ACA, and why I will likely have to dip into my son’s grandparents’ inheritance, which is now invested in the stock market, to afford health insurance to cover his life-preserving anti-depressants and psychotherapy.
I am frustrated and tired of trying to convince my Representative and Senators to take the moral high ground, and to act with empathy and compassion, but I am not going away. I will continue to try to stop the oligarchy that is taking over the U.S. government and to interrupt the fascist path that President Trump and his Cabinet are taking us down and Congress aiding him to do so.