Dear Editor,

Like the segregationist governor who stood in the schoolhouse door to block black students from an education, so would a surprising number of selfish, insured loudmouths block the paths of uninsured Americans desperately in need of health care reform.

Both stem from the same selfish, me-first mindset, and both depend on overcoming logic with fear-mongering rants. And both stem from deep-seated, ugly racism.

These so-called protestors in the town hall meetings are overwhelmingly white and middle-class. Feeding their frenzy is that they cannot endure the idea of being led by a black person, never mind that the goal to which they are being led is a laudable one.

Too many people in Alabama work multiple jobs to make ends meet, while praying they don’t get sick because they don’t have health insurance. Still more have lost full-time jobs, simultaneously losing their health insurance.

Too often, talented musicians, writers, actors, graphic artists, filmmakers and dancers take whatever jobs they can find that offer health insurance, setting their dreams and talents aside, often forever. And, make no mistake about it, artists are essential to a civilized society.

These are the issues we should be worrying about, not some cockamamie nonsense about death panels fostered by nut jobs like Sarah “Quitter” Palin and Rush “Oxycontin” Limbaugh.