My 17 year old son and I just got back from hearing Senator Kerry and Congressman Lloyd Doggett speak here in Austin, primarily on children’s access to health care. It was great. Kerry did state an agenda on children’s health care and he tied it to stopping further tax cuts for the ultra-rich – on valuing families instead of letting someone dictate a family’s values.
He managed to work the word DELAY into the Republican agenda over and over again, and the importance of insisting on ethical values in congress. Both he and Doggett addressed DeLay’s redistricting of Texas, which Doggett survived.
Kerry also slammed Frist for presuming to tell people what God thinks, although I cannot recall Kerry’s exact words on this. It sure felt good to hear him do it and to hear everyone roar in unison when he did. Kerry spoke about the values he grew up with in his family and his Church requiring him to value children and their health over tax cuts for the wealthy.
It felt great to hear two of our people in Congress talking about how important 2006 is and how we need to be angry and active and energized now on the grass roots level in order to be ready for 2006. He spoke about Democratic gains on the state levels in Colorado, Montana and New Hampshire, and how these can be replicated all over America, even in Texas – especially in Dallas and Austin.
And he did it while focusing very clearly on the importance of valuing children, and giving every child medical coverage. A local Emergency Room doctor from the Children’s Medical Center in Austin also spoke about the day to day crises she sees because of children having no health care funding.
Kerry fielded questions from the audience for over an hour – and Doggett also responded to one about the bankruptcy bill. Kerry and Doggett both emphasized that the meeting was open and all views were welcome – in stark contrast to the Bush Social Security tour.
I hope there are more meetings like this all over the country with more of our leaders. Kerry kept the focus on 2006 whenever politics came up – not on 2004 or 2008, which was great – and on the need to get ready for 2006 now.
I feel so much better than I did before I went. It was great to see my son get so energized. He ran into several college friends and they got a group picture with Kerry. What a family outing for a Saturday morning here in Austin.
