These two pictures move me in very different ways. On the left, we see Obama hugging Tammy Duckworth, Assistant Secretary of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs for the VA who lost both legs in combat. Click on the photo and you can read the message from the Amputee Coalition of America and the American Orthotic and Prosthetic Association urging us to tell our Congressmen and women to support House Resolutions 2479 and 2575. It boils down to this: Amputees want a guarantee that they will have fair access to arms and legs.
I am firmly behind these bills. We are a technologically advanced nation, yet these advancements in prosthetics are not available to the very people who need them. Everyone "ooo's" and "ahhs" over the coverage on 60 minutes because stories like this give the impression that these technological advances are, and will be, there for me and others now and in the future. Unless these bills pass, amputees will not have access to prosthetics that give us the dignity, comfort and mobility that we need.
Now to the kiss - Here Obama is kissing the woman who is responsible for denying me and other KS state employees complete prosthetic coverage. So...what's it gonna be? The kiss or the hug?
