IT DOES MAKE A DIFFERENCE

by Paul Gibbs

It seems to me that every time I or one of the other Utah Medicaid expansion/Healthy Utah activists ask people to contact legislators, there is a least one person responding that doing so won't make a difference. Utah legislators don't listen. Letter writing doesn't work. Protests don't work. There's no point in doing any of this.

I certainly understand people getting frustrated with the Utah legislature. Anybody who has been working on this issue does. We've been going to their meetings and dealing with them face to face, flabbergasted by their seeming inability to grasp the obvious and to draw the same conclusions from facts and testimony as everyone else in the room. At times it feels like we're trying to get through the thick skull of Homer Simpson. Then at other times it becomes clear that they're actually going to great effort to be this obtuse. They don't get it because they don't want to.

Yet I refuse to give in to the temptation to say there is no point in this. One reason is that I have seen a subtle but unmistakable change in recent months as polls show Utah's support for a form of expansion, and as the heartbreaking stories of people in the gap are presented to the public, the media and the legislators themselves.  Back in May, Senator Allen Christensen questioned if the people in the gap even exist. Nobody is questioning that now.

When I first decided to make Entitled to Life, it was because I was distraught by the fact that I and others who told our stories at a town meeting had only been able to tell our stories to a few dozen people and 6 sympathetic legislators. Instead of giving into discouragement I made the film, and because of if we've been able to tell those stories to thousands of people. I was invited to share a portion with a larger group of legislators who needed to see it. And then invited to tell the stories of people who need help in other states.  And that happened because I said "I don't know if this will accomplish anything, but 'd rather try than not try."

And I am far from the only one who has said that. From my friends in the gap to the activists to our supporters in the legislature, we've kept fighting despite having better reason that anyone to feel discouraged. And every time one person joins the fight by writing a letter or attending a rally, it just gets that much better. Every activist campaign in American history has had to deal with cynics who said this wouldn't work. And every major step forward for the American people has come because of those who cared too much to listen.

Nobody knows better than we do how hard it is to get Utah lawmakers to listen. But we also know that enough public outcry can make them feel they need to protect their jobs. Public outcry caused our conservative Governor to veto abstinence only sex education. And it's made our legislature finally allow us to be heard. And yes, I do believe eventually it will win this fight. If someone wants to say "Letter writing and protests don't work, I have a better idea" I'll be more than happy to listen and.most likely try their approach (in addition to letter writing and protests). But I have yet to hear a naysayer do that. All I've seen is people making an excuse to do nothing, suggesting those of us who fight are naive because it allows them to somehow feel their apathy makes them superior. But when we see people suffering, we know it isn't because we didn't try to help them. And when we see them getting healthcare, we'll know it's because we did.

Trying to make a difference can be slow, frustrating and discouraging. But if people don't try, nothing happens, guaranteed. I'm going to keep being one of the people who tries, now matter how many tears, sleepless nights, bad dreams, panic attacks or heartbreaks it causes me. How about you?