Listening to a nurse in Framingham

I am always nervous when I approach someone to ask  if they will answer a question for my blog.  So far, no one has yelled at me or told me that I am trespassing.

This past Tuesday was no different.  I approached a woman outside a shoe store in Framingham, MA, and asked her if she could give me a minute to answer whether or not she thought America was headed in the right direction.

She was happy to talk to me (her teenage daughter was not, and asked  for the keys and went to the car - I get it!)

One minute turned into twenty, and I heard a lot.  This woman (I should start asking people for their first names) wasn't sure whether we were headed in the right direction or not.  She doesn't like Trump, (I sense that people who voted for him are tiring of his methods)  and didn't like Obama too much in his last term - she felt that he had let things slide.  She also felt that the politicians in Washington are completely ineffective - they cannot, or will not, get anything done.

She did feel that Obama had the right idea with trying to get healthcare for everyone, but that the  plan  needs work.  She felt that people should pay something for their healthcare.  "Everyone should have healthcare, just not the same for everybody", meaning, I think, that people should pay what their income allows.  Being in the health field, she felt that socialized medicine does not work.  "People come here to have their knees replaced because they can have it done right away."  I wanted to ask "what about France?", but I didn't.  I was here to listen.

She also felt that many do not take care of their health - there is no personal responsibility.  There should be a way to make people accountable for the lifestyle decisions they make that impacts their health.

This woman felt that the middle class was being squeezed unfairly by policies devised in
Washington, DC.  Her family's income taxes have gone up dramatically in the last eight years.  She blamed it on Obama - it is impossible for me to tell if her family's income increased and they were bumped into a higher bracket.   I don't know if you can blame a dramatic increase in income taxes over eight years to Obama.

"Obama fatigue" is a term I have heard before, and I think this woman has it.  She is from Pittsburgh, and said that lots of people there had high hopes when Obama was elected, but that he had let them down.

She felt that he had not done anything for anyone - I did not bring up the auto bailout or Obamacare - but I did ask her about Republicans' unwillingness to work with him.  She felt that Obama was not willing to be a real politician and interact more enthusiastically with the legislative branch.  Obama needed to be more like Ted Kennedy.

At the end of our conversation, I thanked the woman for her time.  She said to me "maybe you should run for president!"  I chuckled and shook my head.  "I'm an illustrator" -  one who knows that people are desperate to be heard.