Go Watch This: "Last Friday Night My Father Asked Me to Kill Him"

I lost my grandmother on Tuesday. On the way out of one meeting and already thinking ahead to the next, my cell phone rang. It was my aunt, calling from the grandmother's house to tell me she had died.

She'd just turned 83 earlier this month. Besides a little hypertension (controlled via medication), she had no serious health conditions. We're still waiting for final word on what happened -- it appears to be a stroke or heart attack -- but her death was sudden and unexpected.

Last evening I took to the sofa, exhausted from a long day of work and feeling I need a mulligan on 2010 (besides my grandmother, there have been other serious family illnesses, epic snow and cold, and frantic work schedules). I flipped channels rather aimlessly and eventually settled on MSNBC, where I could half-listen to the news.

And half-listen I did, until Keith Olbermann read his special comment and blew me away.

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Comments

[PunditMom/Joanne Bamberger]

I've mostly given up watching Keith's special comments because he's gotten so rant-y. But this one was fabulous and I was really moved by this story. This should be required viewing for everyone at the health care summit.

[Chris A.]

I, too, think everyone should watch this video. It brought me to tears.

[Ann H.]

I love Keith. He's just bloody honest. What you see is what you get and I respect that, whether I agree with him or not. He didn't have to talk about his father with respect to the healthcare depacle. He didn't have to bring home the point that everyone has a right to healthcare in this country. He could have made this simply about his dad's struggle with so many damned medical procedures that he eventually just couldn't take it anymore. That would have been enough of a story. But Keith was also thinking about those that struggle to keep insurance or don't have any at all. What would this scenario look like for them? How much less control would they have with their loved one's care?
He could have been talking about my family. We carry private medical insurance through Anthem BC/BS because my husband is a contracter. They are raising our rates by 37%. 37%! Not only can we simply not afford this but our 11 year old daughter now has a "pre-existing" condition which will make it more difficult to change insurance companies. This, after posting profits in the billions and having CEOs that make millions in salaries and bonuses. We've filed a complaint with our state's insurance division but I have little faith that anything will be done to these greedy, out-of-touch, immoral carpetbaggers because our current government is just simply ineffective.