Being Poor and sick in Georgia

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Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Russell Edwards

I thought Rick was less than a man. I would see him perched like a gargoyle outside Walker’s Coffee every day and think, “Doesn’t that guy have a job?”

A mutual friend introduced us in 2009 and encouraged me to get to know Rick. I cautiously sat near him and grew amazed by the sheer quantity of folks he greeted by first name. Most people stopped for a moment and talked with us. The glint in their eyes showed they loved Rick. I write about Rick in response to Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus’s recent commentary in the Athens Banner-Herald that, in effect, encouraged abolishing Medicaid and other social programs as the right way forward for our country.

Rick’s steady gaze and encyclopedic knowledge of Athens music and history drew my curiosity as a newcomer to the area. Back in the ‘70s, Rick had a recording studio in Oconee County and actually put down some of the B-52s best recordings. Rick always introduced me to his friends and encouraged me to collaborate with them on projects. He played a productive role in our community that he took seriously. He connected people. I felt ashamed that I once thought Rick did not deserve my respect.

Rick suffered a crippling stroke a couple of years before I met him. His speech is slurred. He saunters the best he can despite limited mobility on his right side. The Athens Housing Authority evicted him from his spartan apartment last year because he could not clean it to their standards. Since eviction, Rick has lived on the street.

He suffered two more debilitating strokes around Thanksgiving, and the onset of diabetes sent him to the emergency room several times during Christmas and New Year’s for lack of nutrition. Rick tries to find a place to rest during the day and does his best to check in to the Bigger Vision shelter every evening.

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In Republican Gov. Nathan Deal’s Georgia, people like Rick are falling through the cracks to an uncertain life apart, forcibly separated from the community. Our governor derides Medicaid expansion as socialistic — even though the federal government will pay 100 percent of the cost the first three years and 90 percent thereafter — so people like Rick needlessly suffer. Medicaid helps ensure people like Rick get the care they need. Funny how it’s decidedly not socialistic that Deal’s buddy Chip Rogers quit the state Senate in disgrace to take a job at Georgia Public Broadcasting that pays a $150,000 salary funded by the state. These Republican priorities are Georgia’s stain.

Our prosperity is intertwined like the connections Rick has woven through our community. Our community, state, and nation only succeed when everyone can live a life of dignity. Without a vibrant middle class able to purchase goods, our economy suffers. Without a lower class able to purchase a few necessities, our economy suffers. This fact has been proven innumerable times throughout our country’s history.

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Deal and Priebus employ freedom, liberty, and individual opportunity to butcher Medicaid and other programs that help Americans like Rick. Deal’s rejection of federal Medicaid dollars does in fact provide Rick just a little more freedom than he currently enjoys — the freedom to starve to death.