I wanted to figure out a way to boil this blog post from ScienceBlogs.com down to it’s essence in quote form, but I couldn’t do it elegantly, so let me try it in my own words:
Only in America can we protect the rights of someone who wants to shoot up a gym of women ’cause he can’t seem to work out how to relate to females, but not protect the right of a young woman injured in that tragedy to have her health looked after.
She’s a victim, and despite minding her own business, and trying to take good care of herself, she’s reliant on the goodwill of others to donate at a friggin’ car wash to pay her medical expenses from being shot.
What a messed up world.
I’ve been quite clear that I support the rights of Americans to own firearms (I own several), but the bottom line is that there are thousands of people without health insurance for one reason or another (can’t afford it, “don’t need it”, have a pre-existing condition and can’t get coverage – the reason doesn’t really matter) and are left in the lurch when they have to deal with a medical emergency that in all likelihood isn’t even their fault. Isn’t it reasonable for these victims (be it of crime or of circumstance or of bad luck) to not have to worry about their lives being ruined? Isn’t the decent thing to do to help them out? Don’t we all have a responsibility to each other? Wouldn’t we each want help if we were in her shoes? Shouldn’t we do unto others as we would have them do unto us? Wouldn’t it be a lot more decent if we codified and structured this health care issue, rather than requiring those in dire straits to swallow their dignity and pride and ask for handouts?
It’s in situations like these that you can gauge the decency of a society; how it treats it’s weakest members. We are coming up short. And right-wingers are only interested in spreading ridiculous lies about “death panels” and the like, rather than trying to offer their own solutions.
Budget Watch
