Independence Day Thoughts (or I Know I’m Privileged)

It’s Independence Day and I am off work today and spending it with friends. I think most people in the US are celebrating this holiday in some form and I hope that you all are too. But in this political environment, it feels weird to be celebrating freedom when it doesn’t feel like everyone has the same freedoms I do.

There are so many things that are not great about this country right now. Even before the current administration, racism was a problem. The Black Lives Matter movement was due to racism and the injustice in what should be an equal system. There are so many cases of black men being treated differently from white men. White rapists are considered guys who made a mistake and are given light sentences (if they go to jail at all) while the same consideration isn’t given to black men who have the same offense. White men who are mass shooters are misunderstood loners while any shooter who isn’t white is a terrorist. White men might be taken into custody without injury even if they are pointing a gun at police while black men are shot when they aren’t facing the police or have a weapon. This isn’t what happens every time, but it happens enough that we can see there is a problem.

And then of course there is the current immigration issue. While illegal immigration is an issue and I do not believe that people who come into this country illegally should automatically be able to live however they want here. But I also don’t believe that people should automatically be jailed and have their children taken from them. Some people are coming here because their lives are at risk in their home country. We have a system to seek asylum here and even people doing that were being jailed even though they followed all the rules. This issue has been an issue prior to the current administration and I’ll admit that I was not aware of the deaths that happened due to turning someone away then. But now that I am aware, I think there needs to be a change. And if I talk about all the children that were separated from their parents with no plan on how to reunite them, this post will probably never end. But I think everyone can agree that there was no need to require children to be separated (previously it was an option that was rarely used) and I’m glad that the requirement was ended. But I still hope that those families can be reunited.

Those issues don’t directly affect me, but they affect people I love and those that they love. But an issue that does affect me directly is the idea that the Supreme Court may try to overturn Roe v. Wade when a new Justice is appointed. I do realize that if it is overturned that it goes back to being regulated by the state and California will protect the freedom of choice for women, but this issue does go deeper than that. If the Supreme Court eliminates the freedom to choose, that can be more than abortion rights. If the government can force you to continue with a pregnancy that you do not want, will they start forcing people they don’t deem worthy to terminate a pregnancy or force those they don’t want to have kids to be sterilized? I know that it sounds like a huge jump, but when they take away the rights of women to choose what to do with their bodies that can mean a lot of things and can lead to things we can’t imagine right now.

There is also still the debate about healthcare. This may end up not being revealed until the insurance premiums for 2019 are shared, but I think all of us are expecting monthly costs to go up as the individual mandate has been removed. There is no incentive for healthy people to get insurance so the average cost per insured person goes up. And that makes the monthly premium go up. I’m hoping that this won’t happen, but that does look like to be what will occur and we all just have to hope for the best. I know some people aren’t affected by this since they are healthy and don’t go to the doctor, but I’m not that fortunate. But I am fortunate because my family helps me with my insurance costs because even with insurance they are expensive (I will write a post about this tomorrow, but I was just at the doctor and it was over $300 for the appointment, tests, and medications).

I know this is a bit of a downer post for what should be a celebratory day. But as I’ve become more politically involved and educated I do recognize my privilege and the idea that I should be celebrating and enjoying today is a privilege that not everyone gets to enjoy. I enjoy so many freedoms that others who have the same rights as me don’t get to enjoy. And if I can’t recognize that and at least try to fix it or educate others, then I’m a part of the problem. And that is not ok with me.

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