Many Americans have spent this election season wondering whether we woke up on an alien planet. Here in the Lone Star State, we bring Texas-sized passion to our politics. With emotions particularly high this year, Texans from both ends of the political spectrum are spending a lot of time demonizing each other. But are we really so different than our neighbors?
I live in Austin, grew up in Dallas and spend most of my time in big Texas cities. But this summer I spent a lot of time in Bonham, a small town northeast of Dallas. Small towns tend to vote differently than big cities these days. I was grateful to find that, regardless of their politics, the people in Bonham were devoted to caring for others in need.
I was in Bonham to visit my dad, who had advanced Alzheimer’s and was living in the memory care wing of the Texas State Veterans’ Home there. Dad served in the Navy during the Korean War and then went to Washburn College on the GI bill, where he met my mom. His health seriously declined earlier this year, and he passed away last month. Toward the end of his life, he was in and out of nearby TMC Bonham Hospital.
Like many small towns in Texas and beyond, one in three Bonham residents lives below the poverty line. The people of Bonham are mostly white, with 15% African-American and a similar but growing Hispanic population. One of the better restaurants in town is Los Amigos; Yelp reviews refer to most of the others as “redneck hang outs.” There aren’t many political signs on the drive into Bonham, but those I saw were for Trump. In 2012, 75% of residents in Fannin County, where Bonham sits, voted for Mitt Romney over Barack Obama.
Yet Bonham was the home of Sam Rayburn, the famed Democratic Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives for 17 years, the longest tenure in U.S. history. Rayburn served with eight different presidents in an era when Democrats and Republicans got things done together for the good of the country.
One Saturday, my mom and I stopped by the Sam Rayburn Library in Bonham after visiting my dad. It was one of several stops on the annual Bonham Quilt Hop. We saw quilts that were beautifully hand-stitched by women in late-1800s Texas and learned about Rayburn’s legacy. At another stop, we admired the work of a local black artist who had quilted the faces of African-American icons, from Michael Jackson to Barack Obama.
Though Bonham is just the kind of town where one might expect to hear a lot of anti-Washington rhetoric, I feel certain the majority of residents believe we should care for veterans who have served our country. The federal Department of Veteran’s Affairs and the Texas Veterans Commission do just that, and the veterans’ facilities in Bonham also provide a sizable chunk of local jobs. The residents at the State Veteran’s Home are mostly elderly white men like my father. The nurses and caregivers are nearly all women, and many are Hispanic. I am grateful for the compassionate care they provided to my dad. He loved music and sang with joy in barbershop quartets for years. Near the end of his life, when the nurses gently told us he was no longer eating, they mentioned he was still singing “Oh My Darling, Clementine.”
Most folks in Bonham would likely agree that our public policies should ensure that our elderly loved ones receive excellent care, and also that caregivers should have decent jobs and benefits so working families can thrive.
The Bonham Hospital is one of many rural hospitals harmed by Texas’ refusal to accept $6 billion a year to expand health care for the poor – federal Medicaid dollars that Texas taxpayers have already paid. Estimates show that, if Texas expanded Medicaid, Fannin County alone would receive between $6.6 million and $9.9 million in new federal dollars each year for health care.
The Bonham Hospital was lucky to receive funds from another federal Medicaid program, the 1115 Waiver Program, which enabled the facility to build a new emergency department, purchase new equipment, expand services and hire more staff. I am very grateful those dollars helped my dad get good care. Yet that could easily change at the end of 2017, when federal 1115 Waiver funds will be drastically reduced if Texas still refuses to accept Medicaid dollars that could have paid for the same services. Just this month, a new study showed that Texas hospitals would receive over $2 billion in new Medicaid income if the state expanded health care coverage.
One late afternoon, after a long day with my dad in the Bonham Hospital, a large woman with curly gray hair ambled into the room. She was a visiting chaplain, doing the rounds. She was funny and kind. In the middle of a prayer, the nurses came in to change the IV, and the chaplain put God on hold and begged his pardon for the interruption. I remembered Clarence, the bumbling angel in It’s A Wonderful Life, and felt I’d met his female counterpart.
It was an emotional summer, and I didn’t have the stamina to bring up public policy with the Texans I met in Bonham — the freckled hospital aides, the sweet memory care nurses, the curly-haired hospital chaplain. Yet everywhere I looked, people were caring for others. Yes, it’s been a crazy election year. But I will keep hoping we can align our public policies with how we live our lives and care for our loved ones.
This piece originally appeared in TribTalk, a digital forum for dialogue and debate about the day’s news. TribTalk is a product of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organizationthat informs Texans — and engages with them – about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
Top image: Image by Nicolas Raymond for TribTalk/the Texas Tribune.
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If you voted for Republican TX candidates in the past elections, please read this sentence from the above article a few (thousand) times: ” Estimates show that, if Texas expanded Medicaid, Fannin County alone would receive between $6.6 million and $9.9 million in new federal dollars each year for health care.” Rick Perry’s bravado and Obama-hatred fueled his refusing those Medicaid dollars. Abbott and his henchman Dan Patrick are doing NOTHING to secure those dollars that Texans already provided to the federal govt.
The above “feel-good” article does honor the hearts and souls of the people of Bonham who helped the author’s dad. But, come on folks, let’s not sugar-coat that many, many Texans cast their ballots based on what their IRS-scamming ministers say from the pulpit, their own racism (Obama bad), their own sexism (Hillary bad), and their own twisted morality that folks on welfare CHOOSE to be on welfare rather than work. Oh, and don’t get me started on what Texas Republicans think about public education….
“There aren’t many political signs on the drive into Bonham, but those I saw were for Trump. In 2012, 75% of residents in Fannin County, where Bonham sits, voted for Mitt Romney over Barack Obama.”
“The Bonham Hospital is one of many rural hospitals harmed by Texas’ refusal to accept $6 billion a year to expand health care for the poor”
These two things are directly related. Want to change the latter? Change the former.
I think the answer is not only no, but heck no. I think that to the degree Texas values (or any values) are wedded to OTHER WORLDLY RELIGIOUS BELIEFS, it won’t be possible to have honest and fruitful political discussions about this project we call “the United States of America”, let alone the larger global project. Said differently, the longer it takes for us to shed OTHER WORLDLY RELIGIOUS BELIEFS, the longer it will take for good people to come together with a SHARED EARTH-CENTRIC VISION. Unfortunately, when this doesnt’ happen the result is often harm to human, animal and plant life.
Note: I realize there are other “evils” that prevent substantial progress such as nepotism, general fear of the other, money/power, bad people, etc. The reason for focusing on OTHER WORLDLY RELIGIOUS BELIEFS is that these beliefs have a wicked outcome: they pit good people against each other. Religions can make good people do horrible things, yet we need good people to unite against evil here on this planet.
I grew up less than 10 miles from the Fannin County line. Yes, people in that area can be kind and caring–as long as you do not openly profess to not being a Christian, to being gay, to believing in a woman’s right to have an abortion, believing that maybe Blacks are not treated the same by the police as whites, etc. In other words, if you are “different” from the perceived notion of everyone being good church-going Christians who should get married (heterosexually), raise a family going to church every Sunday, and keep quiet about how you differ from the beliefs of the majority, you will be fine (but probably not happy) living there. Do you really want Texas to be a place where people care for each other only as long as those who are different keep quiet and/or pretend to be what the majority want them to be?!!!!