I don’t remember my dad, but he was my hero. Dad was a med-evac pilot in Vietnam. He was shot down trying to rescue eleven wounded soldiers in the heat of battle. My first memory is attending a ceremony honoring him as the most decorated Marine in the Vietnam War. I grew up seeing his medals hanging on the wall of our little house in Memphis. They were a constant reminder that true patriotism isn’t showy. It’s sacrificial.
My father taught me that the privilege of being an American comes with the duty not to leave your fellow Americans behind.
All across Tennessee, people are struggling. Many working people don’t have insurance, or even if they do, they can’t afford their copays or their medicine. Some Tennesseans can barely afford to feed their kids. Yet again and again, our Republican state government has chosen to leave them behind.
- Instead of accepting federal funds to expand Medicaid—a deal with no economic downside—our state government has turned away billions of dollars and left hundreds of thousands of Tennesseans uninsured.
- As Tennesseans lost their jobs and their homes in a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, our state government refused to help them out with money from the $1.45 billion in tax dollars known as our “rainy day fund.”
- After being shamed for leaving nearly $1 billion in TANF funding (federal money intended for the working poor) on the table—far more than any other state—Tennessee’s government donated part of our TANF money to Tim Tebow’s private charity in Florida.
I’m running for TN House because I think our state government should be using our tax dollars to help as many Tennesseans as possible. After all, we rise or fall together.
Allison
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