Healthcare Reform and the Goddess

I have been thinking in these last two increasingly wild and wooley weeks of protests, demonstrations and banter back and forth about the healthcare reform currently before Congress here in these United States. What, in my way of thinking, should be a no-brainer – the availability of standard quality healthcare for every citizen – has become the debate of the year. But why? The neo-con right wingers in power behind the scenes have made puppets and mouthpieces of the usual suspects who are radio show and televisions show hosts to brainwash the susceptible public with fear tactics and double speak, as well as plain, old-fashioned lies. And what a surprise! It works. Now we have good, decent people truly terrified that they or their grandmother may be brought up before a panel of unfeeling government employees who will assess them as no longer a productive member of society and they won’t get the medical care they need so they can hurry up and die and rid the country of their expenses, a la Ebenezer Scrooge. People have taken leave of their senses! In a representative democracy such as ours, any member of Congress who would vote for such macabre absurdity could kiss their career good bye. But somehow common sense and reasoning have jumped ship here.

Additionally, there are those who want us to believe that having government run healthcare will take us down a slippery slope to – *shudder* – Socialism. Well, I don’t want to point out the obvious, but we already have that in Medicare and Medicaid. And don’t even try to tell someone over 65 that they are not any longer going to have Medicare available to them – you’ll have a gray panther riot on your hands. Yet somehow, many people don’t get the connection. It’s the same thing, only expanded to include everybody. And nobody’s going to force it on anybody, every individual will still have the choice to have whatever kind of insurance they want. The idea behind the public option is just that – it would be an OPTION. If people truly understood this, would it be so frightening to them? No. And if people understood that this greatly affects women’s health and the health of future generations because this lack has a greater affect on women – would they be so against it? I certainly hope not.

So how are we, as women of the Goddess, connected to this debate? I have written on several Goddesses who come to mind. Grandmother Spider says we are all related, we are connected – what happens to one of us happens to all of us. If there are millions of people who are ill and possibly die without medical care except at the most critical moments, that affects all the millions of the rest of us. In order for us all to be well, we have to provide for those of us who have no other recourse available to them. That is the sacred wisdom of Grandmother Spider.

And Ma’at – what relationship does She have here? Ma’at is the Goddess of Truth and Justice. The truth about this bill before the House and Senate is being obscured by those who, frustrated and angry about their loss of power in the 2008 elections, only want to take power back for themselves. They seek to misinform and inflame the people who would be their base in the next election and confuse more in hopes to sway them against the President and cause them to vote for the other party in the next election. This is the game of politics, fueled by the powerful medical and pharmaceutical industry lobbies, but it is directed at such an important issue before us now, one that cannot afford to be killed. Ma’at holds power to bring forth Truth and make sure that Justice is carried out.

The Great Kwan Yin, who weeps for Her children who are lost, ill or dying – She would, like the loving Mother Guadalupe-Tonanzin, want all to have the healthcare they need all the time from their cradle to their grave. She wants to see the end of suffering. She wants to protect us. We are the wealthiest nation on the globe – and we should provide care for each of our citizens no matter their ability to pay.

At the feet of the Goddess Pax we should lay wreaths of flowers to invoke Her to keep our nation from wars and tend to the needs of those who live within this country.
And we need to pray to Hekate, Bringer of Light to Darkness, that the Truth will be illuminated so that the Will of the Goddess will come to pass.

For once, a great Feminine principle is on the brink of manifesting: healthCARE for all. Let us do whatever we can, each of us, as women of the Goddess to bring this to fruition. Write, call or email your Congress person, the White House. Speak about it among your friends. Write your local newspaper. This issue is too important to let die, because if it does, it could be decades before it comes up again. We have to fight ignorance, falsity and darkness back like the Amazons we are!

Tags: goddess, Healthcare, Kwan Yin, Ma'at, Reform