With love in our hearts!

Not perfect - far from it, but closer than we've ever been to universal health care in the United States of America. Thank you everyone who worked so hard to make this happen.

Celebrate! Relish this moment. Remember this day - because tomorrow is another day and another battle. Change, as we've learned, is not easy. It will not come quickly, and it won't be pretty, but it will come. The times are changing - finally - and we should all give ourselves a big hug right now. We deserve it.

Most of us haven't worked all these months or years for health care reform for ourselves. Most of us have good jobs with good benefits. We've been doing it for the rest of America - to those who aren't as fortunate as we are... For the poor, the abused, the sick, the neglected, the overworked, the underpaid, and everyone who just wants the world to be a little bit more fair in a country where we can afford to take care of our own. And we've been doing it for the ignorant right wing tea party Americans who just can't see the forest for the trees.

Don't hate them. Don't respond to their anger in kind. Love them. They can't help it. They've been duped by the machine into fighting for the very interests intent upon using them up and spitting them out. They can't understand that what we want is what they need and that in most cases we're doing it for them more than for ourselves.

They're like a mad dog with a nail in their paw. They're terrified. They're in pain. They think we're out to get them. They don't know we're trying to help and if they'll just let us, we can help get that paw fixed, that operation covered, that preexisting arthritic condition will no longer be an issue... but they don't know, and they can't think straight.

Eventually, they'll come around. They'll begin to get it, and we can be friends again.

Fight and keep fighting, but do it with love in your heart.

Peace,
Kristin