Finally! We have one brave soul who has the courage and fortitude to go against the party line for the betterment of the country. I am speaking of Olympia Snowe, the senator from Maine, who has the boldness to break from the conventional party-first mentality that pervades the Senate of the United States and vote for much needed health care reform.
A brief history of the life of this remarkable woman reads like a Horatio Alger story. She was born Olympia Jean Bouchles into a Greek American family whose father immigrated to the United States from Sparta Greece. She lost her mother to breast cancer at the age of 8, and her father died of heart disease barely a year later.
Orphaned, she was raised by her aunt and uncle, a textile worker and a barber, respectively, along with five other children. Within a few years, illness would also claim her uncle's life. She was sent to St. Basil's Academy in Garrison, N.Y., where she studied from the third to eighth grades before returning to Maine, where she attended high school. She graduated from the University of Maine in 1969, earning a degree in political science. Shortly after graduation, she married her fiancé, Republican state Sen. Peter Snowe. She has also received honorary degrees from Bates College and the University of Delaware.
It might also be noted that she is familiar with the school of "hard knocks," where she learned compassion and sympathy for the common or ordinary people, whom she has sworn to
It takes an enormous amount of money to be elected to Congress, and without the financial backing of the parties they represent, no one would ever be elected to a high government office. It is a sad but undeniable truth that most of our lawmakers who sit in their cozy offices in Washington were born to wealth and privilege and enter politics for personal gain and recognition.
Many, if not most of them, have never suffered financially and have little in common with the ordinary people who make up the vast majority of this nation. Thus, it is refreshing to know that at last one person in the hallowed halls of Congress has seen the bitter side of life, and through sheer courage and determination has succeeded despite adversity and overwhelming odds. She has not forgotten where she came from, and with her affection and compassion for the common people of this country, she continues to legislate laws that will in some way make existence a bit better for those who struggle to achieve a better life.
The health plan proposed by President Obama is solely for the purpose of controlling health care costs. It's designed to protect families from bankruptcy or debt due to overwhelming coverage, even when you lose your job. Pre-existing medical conditions are not subject to cancellation, and the plan is meant to assure affordable, quality health care for all Americans.
Despite rumors to the contrary, there is no such proposed "Death Panel" that would end the lives of sickly and elderly persons. Sarah Palin started that vicious rumor, and sadly, many elderly people accepted it as the truth.
I firmly believe that a reasonable and sensible health care bill will be passed in the near future without any increase in taxes for anyone making less than $280,000 a year. We deserve a comprehensive health care package that equals the coverage granted those congressional leaders who enact our laws.
Joe Bushika, of Stamford, Vt., writes his column every week for the Transcript.
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