Mr. Ryan’s Empathy Epiphany

Jeff Jeans, left, who is a cancer survivor, questions House Speaker Paul Ryan about the Affordable Care Act at a town hall event at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. (Photo: CNN) See video clip below.

Perhaps our ability to empathize with another human is stunted from birth and remains dormant until shocked into being due to some personal life tragedy. Or, maybe, it’s simply the fact that we are all distracted… living our lives, working, going like crazy people from one place to another.

Truth is, for many of us, something must happen to us or those we love before we can see, feel or empathize with others who are hurting.

Consider cancer survivor Jeff Jeans' self-acknowledged "empathy" epiphany.

"At a CNN town hall Thursday night, Jeff Jeans (49) of Sedona, Ariz., told Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) that he was a lifelong Republican and a small-business owner who had previously worked for President Ronald Reagan and President George Bush. Jeans said he was initially adamantly against Obamacare."

"'When it was passed, I told my wife we would close our business before I complied with this law,' he said at the George Washington University event."

"Jeans recalled how he was diagnosed with a 'very curable type of cancer' at 49, and told he only had six weeks to live. He was denied treatment, he continued, because he didn’t have an insurance card — even though he offered to pay three times the cost."

"'Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, I’m standing here today, alive,' he said.
As a small-business owner and a person with preexisting conditions, Jeans said, he relies on the Affordable Care Act to purchase his own health insurance. Then he asked Ryan a pointed question."

"'Why would you repeal the Affordable Care Act without a replacement?' he asked."*

Ryan answered that, of course, he was not going to take away healthcare for millions of Americans without a “better” plan in place.

But, sadly, that’s exactly what he’s doing.

We can only hope that like Mr. Jeans, Mr. Ryan will also have his moment of empathy before it is too late for the 18 million Americans who are soon to become “Obamacareless”.

The fact is that we set our priorities, for ourselves, our families and our nation. We either accept what others have set for us or we make a decision to do what we know is best and most important. So, what matters most for you? Is it profit first? Or, does your loved one's wellbeing come first?

Today, our culture rewards those who make corporate profit and growth most important. For many of our elected elite and heads of our corporations, material things like more wealth, multimillion dollar homes, cars, boats, private airplanes... you name it... more of everything and more "power" over others matters most for them.

Is it not obvious that we have missed something critically important... our own wellbeing? We have allowed our leaders to set the wrong priorities for us. It's time to change direction toward what matters most for us: our wellbeing. It is time to focus our intelligence, our resources, our collective wealth and work for a better world based upon wellbeing for our grandkids and ourselves. 

Jeff Jeans (cancer survivor) Full Explosive Interview with Don Lemon CNN (1/13/17)
In this video Jeff Jeans explains why he opposed the Affordable Care Act prior to becoming ill. Also, toward the end of the video, he gives his advice to Pres. Trump:
“Be the President for every American… for every American… even if they have had cancer… if they are a breast cancer survivor… if they have leukemia… if it’s a child born with a deformed heart… treat everybody the same… give everybody the same opportunity… don’t discriminate because people don’t have money or are sick.”

*Cancer survivor to Paul Ryan: I once opposed Obamacare, but it saved my life,
Michael Walsh, Yahoo News, 13 Jan 2017.