Race ‘N’ Politics

By David Wolfford

The intense vitriol in the public sphere over the past month against President Obama’s healthcare plan—the raucous town halls, insulting signs, the Birthers’ crusade, and Congressman Joe Wilson’s outburst—begs to what degree these sentiments are fueled by racism as much as ideological differences concerning the president’s healthcare proposal. 

Let’s consider some of the acts and symbols. Protestors have packed guns outside one of Obama’s town halls. Someone anonymously whitened the president’s face and morphed his image with Batman’s Joker character only to make it a common poster at protests.  

By Rita Florez 

Laura Almonte doesn’t know what she’s going to do if her wheelchair breaks.

The 26-year-old Miami resident doesn’t have health insurance. So paying for any needed repairs or replacing the chair would be a great burden. The cost of maintaining or replacing her wheelchair would be covered only if she had a health insurance provider willing to give her coverage, despite her pre-existing condition.

Almonte is not alone in her fight to obtain affordable medical care. One fourth of Hispanics in the United States lack a healthcare provider, and of the 14 million Hispanic women in America, one in three is without health insurance, making them the largest group of women in America without coverage, according to a recent Pew Hispanic Center study.

By David Wolfford

Immediately after Ted Kennedy’s unfortunate death, pundits and hopeful Democrats began positing that his death could actually serve as an emotional springboard for the final version of a healthcare bill that can pass. These remained whispers in the days immediately following the senator’s death. But now his colleague, and only living senator senior to Kennedy, Robert C. Byrd (WV) has offered to rename the bill in Kennedy’s honor.

The political result, pro-health care Americans hope, would be to further lionize the Lion of the Senate and his signature cause over his career—health care—and thus create a legislative momentum among lawmakers who knew and respected Kennedy.

By David Wolfford

Florida Senator Mel Martinez has left the US Senate amid intra-party conflict over immigration. As he leaves politics, his fellow Cuban Americans leave the GOP.

“Forty-two years ago, I arrived in this great country,” Martinez said during an impassioned 2004 campaign speech. “I was fifteen…I arrived alone, but with faith in God and the hope to be able to live in freedom.” Now, Martinez has resigned before fulfilling his six-year term perhaps ironically due to his lack of freedom within his party.