So if you've been following this blogging challenge you will have noted I've missed a couple of days. World events have meant my attention has been elsewhere and I couldn't quite find the enthusiasm to write about the prompts. Like so many across the globe I've been attached to news cycles, analysis and comment on the American election. In the main most of us will look at this through a personal lens; what does it mean for us, for my family, for my country. And it's not a reassuring lens to look through. I'm worried for our future not just here is Scotland but across the world. But what made me decide to write today was reading about the worries in relation to Donald Trump repealing the Affordable Care Act or Obama care.
Now much of my work is aimed at improving healthcare in Scotland. I use my own expereince as well to advance person centred approaches. But at no time have I ever had to worry about having to pay for my care. This year alone I've had reconstructive surgery for breast cancer which is so good that a cardiologist I was referred to said she would not have known if had a mastectomy. I've had that care and treatment absolutely free at the point of need simply based on that being the treatment i chose to have when I was diagnosed again with breast cancer.
But for my peers in the US, they will only get this care if they are adequately insured. I cannot imagine the distress people are facing not knowing if their care will be funded in the future. It's literally the difference for some between living or dying. Like this 32 year old Mum with advanced breast cancer I read about "My greatest concern is that [health insurance] will go back to what it was before Obamacare, and that Trump will unravel all the progress," the Bucks County resident said on Wednesday. "If my supplement is dropped, I can't afford treatment and I die. I'm afraid this will give me even less time than I already have."
I write this in sisterhood and drawing awareness of the very real and human impact of electing a president who has said the previously unsayable and shown an astounding lack of the milk of human kindness. These women are just one example of the many people: the minority ethnic groups, the vulnerable, the disabled, the gay community and indeed all women he has dishonoured through his actions and words, who need all of us to stand beside them in whatever way possible and help them stand up for their rights.
This blog is for them, I hope that compassion will prevail but I fear that has been the first casualty of this extraordinary time. But all of us can do what we can and as Gandhi said we "must be the change you want to see in the world".
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