“Is Everybody All Right?”

"Is everybody all right?" These were Bobby Kennedy's last words after being shot by Sirhan Sirhan. Now these words are beginning to resonate with the American people as his brother, ailing from a brain tumor, hopes to finally see his own efforts at championing national health care for everyone come to fruition.

Is everybody all right? Everybody? OK, you, the guy working the union job at the Ford plant in Atlanta. We all know you're fine with it. You got all the bells and whistles. When you step up to the pharmacy counter you don't expect to see any $50 copays. So you're happy. Right? Well maybe you shouldn't be. Maybe you should have a little more concern for those of us who are unemployed. Or working in a small business that doesn't offer health insurance. Or even those of us who have that $50 copay when you get to pay next to squat.

Maybe, just maybe, this isn't about you. Maybe it's about somebody else. Maybe it's about everybody else. Everybody, just like Bobby Kennedy said.

At his funeral, Senator Ted Kennedy quoted a famous statement by George Bernard Shaw, saying, "As [Bobby] said many times, in many parts of this nation, to those he touched and who sought to touch him, some men see things as they are and say 'Why?' I dream things that never were and say, 'Why not?'"

So dream a little. Dream about that mother down the block with the two kids and the out of work hubby. Dream about a country that cares so much more about them and people like them than about corporate profits and dividends and rationing and authorizations and paperwork and deductibles and copays and lab fees.

Dream on.

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