Anonymity (by Mark Morrison)

I keep thinking about anonymity. That’s what President Obama gave us. For 6 years, since my son’s birth in 2010, I was able to post pictures of my children to just my friends; to celebrate, to enjoy, and to brag about how wonderful they are, just like a lot of other parents do on social media.

We didn’t have to publicize my son’s story on national media outlets.

The ACA gave us the ability to focus on our children, not on saving healthcare for all Americans.

Why is it different now? Why do we have to tell the world who we are and what we are fighting for? Because it’s difficult and sometimes nearly impossible for people to care about an issue if there isn’t a face on it or they don’t know someone who is affected by it.

That’s why we’ve seen such overwhelming support from 275 parents from 48 states submitting their stories to not only us, but to many other story-collecting, awareness-raising entities, not because they are bragging about their kids or celebrating who they are (though that’s a big part of it), but because they want people to see that their children are real people, worthy of life, and endlessly valued. There’s been parents who have accidentally submitted their stories to us more than once; they’ve submitted their child’s story to so many places, they’ve lost track of who they’ve contacted and who they haven’t. That’s not pride in your child. That’s desperation. That’s very real fear. And that’s why we fight.

100% of parents who have submitted their child’s story to us have told us to share their stories with their Members of Congress. 95% of these parents have said they are willing to share their child’s story with media outlets. It’s such a high percentage because these parents understand the value of public pressure on their Member of Congress through the media. They have come to terms with releasing their child’s information, their diagnoses, their interests, their struggles. They’ve been open about how vital insurance and Medicaid are to the health and well-being, the survival of their child and their families (these are families who have every type of socio-economic status imaginable). They have shared their child’s story openly with the public in an effort to humanize their child and to show our nation’s lawmakers that a vote for humanity should not be partisan.

It should be a given.