Weekend reads I: Kay Hanley on health care

From left: some dude, A. Post, K. Hanley

We knew Kay Hanley had been part of Arianna Huffington's entourage on Norman Lear's jet -- because she wrote about it for us -- but now she's showing up on the Huffington Post as well. Huffpost today reprints a post that originally appeared on Hanley's blog, in which she knits together her experience as a rock singer and as the mother of ailing children to illuminate the debate -- or, more precisely, the lack thereof -- on healthcare as it has played out in congressional town halls recently.

One amusement that'll ring funnier for locals who know him -- Hanley invoking her manager Michael Creamer thusly:

As a grown up, it is always best to err on the side of caution when it comes to acting out on impulsive feelings of rage when you don't have both sides of the story and thus, don't know what the hell you're talking about. Just ask my manager, Creamer. He could write a book on the subject, having had to deal with me for the last 20 years. (That would be quite entertaining, come to think of it. He should do that!). But he's my manager. I'm supposed to treat him like a lesser form of humanity or a lightening rod for everything bad that's ever happened to me and deserves my wrath when my hotel room is on the 7th floor when I SPECIFICALLY said I wanted the 9th and he needs to know how bad he fucked up RIGHT NOW at 3am via this phone call and by the way who's the jerk who scheduled the in-store at 11 in the fucking morning??!! rental car.

Brief aside: the Globe has an interesting story this week on Creamer's connection to an unearthed trove of transformative early Woodie Guthrie recordings coming out soon on Rounder. 

And here's Hanley on the implications for the current health-care structure, which are more specific and painful than anything you'll hear coming out of the mouths of the teabaggers ranting in Arlen Spector's face:

I wrote about my own shitty health insurance experience here, but since writing that essay, my daughter was diagnosed with petit mal seizures, a condition which is not dangerous but one for which she will take medication for a few years. Under our current for-profit health insurance system she will not be able to obtain private insurance because of this pre-existing condition. My son, who nearly died in infancy of a respiratory virus, is in the same boat. Sorry, Mr. Hannity, Mr. Levin and that other guy with the doughy face who's always hysterical and weeping, personal responsibility does not apply here.

Kay Hanley, by the way, is back in town for a show at T.T. the Bear's Place on September 3. 

DOWNLOAD: Kay Hanley, "In Clouds" [mp3]