So There Was Some Kind Of Health Care Thing That Happened Last Night

It’s strange to watch history being made. Prior to yesterday’s passage of the health care reform bill I think the most significant legislation in my lifetime may have been the Americans with Disabilities Act, and I don’t recall scrambling to the TV set to watch the roll call on C-Span. But there we were last night, after nearly a year and a half of invective, fear-mongering, hostility and the rest of it, encapsulated into a weekend where a prominent gay legislator was the recipient of anti-homosexual taunts and a genuine hero of the American civil rights movement was shouted at with a word that most publications refuse to print because it is so offensive and historically loaded. And then one congressman called another congressman-a congressman so intent on making sure that American women not have full access or control over their bodies that he demanded and received executive order as part of the price for his support of the bill-a “babykiller.” It really makes you proud to be American.

But maybe that is part of watching history up close. Fifty years from now, if we are not a fully-owned subsidiary of the Chinese (we won’t be) I suspect the story will be something much more bland: “Americans, in a time of economic turmoil, recognized the need for every citizen to have access to adequate health care, and despite several deep currents of anxiety, rallied to pass the first iteration of the current system.” Etc. The jeers, the rancor, the lies about “death panels” will all be part of the small details that only the specialists pay attention to. Watching the process last night, watching each aye vote, you had the sense that, yes, these people knew they were making history. I’m not naive. I know the bill is flawed. I know there’s a lot more to be done, and I know that the vicissitudes of the public mood may mean that it takes longer to get the important things fixed than it should. But last night was historic, and everybody knew it. So, actually, yes, it made me proud to be an American. We’re slow to act, we’re easily confused, we often fall prey to fears to which we should know better than be susceptible, but mostly we will do the right thing. Eventually. Piece by piece. And sometimes that’s good enough.

And now, more process.