America, You Should Be Ashamed of Yourself!

In America, poor people are being turned away by doctors and medical centers because they have no health insurance of any kind!
by Charlie Leck

I’m sure Michele Bachmann won’t blink an eye. Neither will Dick Armey. Certainly the former Vice President, Dick Cheney, won’t give a damn either. Yet, this morning I watched a video on the NY Times news video collection about the inability of doctors to treat poor patients in Flint, Michigan. I mean, it’s about cancer patients being turned away. There are no funds left in any state or federal programs that allow these patients to be treated. (Unfortunately, I can’t give you a direct link to these videos, but if you go there today – 16 March 2010 – you should find it among these videos. It is called: “Medicaid Patients Left in the Lurch.”) Start at NY Times Videos.

I found myself bouncing off the walls. Is this America? In Japan these people would be fully treated – and so would they in Canada, France, Germany, England, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Norway – and in a couple dozen other nations! But, they can’t receive treatment here in America.

This is the same nation that sent (how much?) billions of dollars to banks in trouble. The same nation, too, that helped car dealerships stay afloat. The same nation where big shots within corporations received individual bonuses that are in the dozens of millions of dollars or more.

Is this the same America? America, you should be ashamed! Michele Bachmann, you should be ashamed! And so should you, John McCain! And you, Scott Brown. And so should Mitch McConnell and all those Republicans who just can’t figure out a way to make sure our brothers and sisters in America are cared for.

Perhaps that’s exactly the problem; that is, that we can’t identify with these poor folks as our brothers and sisters anymore.

What the hell is wrong with America? Are we so individually self-centered that we cannot feel the suffering of other people anymore? What the hell is wrong?

I want us to be as good to our people as France is to hers. As England is. As Canada. As Norway.

Is that too much to ask in America?