Vote Wise-ly 

I live in a bubble. It’s a lovely little bubble in Northern Virginia. Sure, I have problems–my kids’ college is expensive, my Metro commute takes too long and is unreliable, I haven’t saved enough to retire when I might want.

But at the end of the day, I know that I’m okay. My life is fine, my kids’ lives are fine. To be truthful, I’m not sure whether my life would be any different no matter who wins in November. I won’t be needing an abortion, I’ll still have health insurance (maybe it’ll cost a little more one way or the other), I’ll still have a job, no one in my family will be harassed or deported, and in fact, my taxes might be a little lower if Republicans are in office.
In my little bubble, people camp out overnight for this:

Camping out for free food at Burke Chik-Fil-A opening

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Virginia, people camped out this weekend for this:

Camped out for free medical and dental care at Wise-RAM clinic

This is a three-day clinic in Wise County, where people who don’t have insurance and can’t afford health care come for free treatment. These people put their injuries and illnesses on hold for months and live in pain for months, waiting for this free clinic. This is not some Third World country, this is America, this is the Commonwealth. The Common Wealth. The very name implies all for one and one for all.

Please, I beg of you, take my taxes and add them to the common wealth, and use them to heal and cure my fellow Virginians.

Because when Ed Gillespie and the Republican legislators tell me that Medicaid expansion would cost the taxpayers too much, I say NOT expanding it has cost these people too much! When the GOPs in Congress push health care bills that would strip even more Virginians of their insurance, and force even more people to suffer in pain for months, waiting to get treatment from volunteer doctors and nurses and dentists, I cannot simply vote based on my paltry needs inside my little bubble.

Sometimes we have to step outside our comfortable bubble, to see the way others live, even to see their suffering, to care about our neighbor as much as we care about ourselves. To be willing to sacrifice for the Common Wealth. Perhaps the Virginia GOP should have stepped out of their bubbles this weekend and gone to Wise County, to observe or to volunteer at the RAM clinic. They did not–Ed Gillespie did not, Jill Vogel did not, John Adams did not. Do you know who did? Terry McAuliffe did. Tim Kaine did. Ralph Northam did. Jennifer Boysko did. Sam Rasoul did.  Jennifer Weston did. Jeremy McPike did.

Because even though the Virginia GOP failed these people, our Democratic leaders are still working to fix this tragedy, by whatever means they can. When their legislative efforts fail, they roll up their sleeves and volunteer themselves. Come November, I’ll be voting Wisely.