People, real people by the thousands every year, are dying for lack of medical treatment in the world's richest nation, and after a week of politicians posturing over piles of paper, policy wonks are stunning us with this truth.
A new study shows 68 Americans under age 65 die every day because they don’t have health care, a number that will rise to 84 by 2019--a total of 275,000 needless deaths in a decade.
The numbers from an advocacy group, Families USA, comport with earlier estimates by the Urban Institute and the Institute of Medicine, dry statistics that conceal mass murder by indifference without concentration camps or gas chambers.
Sophisticates who consider such statements overwrought should explain how their cost-benefit analyses make such an outcome inevitable as they advocate, in Sen. Tom Coburn's response to the President's weekly address today, that we "scrap the current bills, which will lead to a government takeover of health care, and we should start over."
Along with this prescription for indifference, a leading GOP presidential hopeful for 2012, Tim Pawlenty, wants to change federal law to allow emergency rooms to turn away patients--"do a little triage," even for those who come in with what Fox's Greta Van Susteren described as "horrible chest pains." (Pace Sarah Palin and her Democratic death panels!)
At the Health Care Summit Thursday, several Democrats tried to focus the discussion on what their constituents are suffering under the current system, but the Republican response was typified by smug Eric Cantor tapping his pile of papers and insisting that "we Republicans care just as much about health care as the Democrats do," while questioning the legality of forcing all Americans to buy health insurance.
At the end of the day, Cantor and his cohorts made it clear that they "simply don’t want to pass comprehensive health-care reform," while the President said of the uninsured, “We can debate whether we can afford to help them. We can’t say they don’t need help.”
As GOP numbers crunchers press their argument with dollar figures, their constituents should take a look at the costs in human lives which, in a time when catastrophic illness can overwhelm middle-class families as readily as the poor, is a threat across the economic and political spectrum.
Making health care reform an us-against-them issue is insane.
Showing posts with label Holocaust. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Holocaust. Show all posts
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Murderous Math in the Museum
Old age is an education in asymmetry as the ratio of effort to result keeps worsening, as it takes many times the previous exertion to get a fraction of the results for the simplest act.
In that light, what happened yesterday at the Holocaust Museum is a reminder that the rules of nature are not so simple: An 88-year-old with the strength to press a trigger kills a young man opening a door for him, terrifies thousands in the building and brings grief to millions, including the president of the United States.
"I am shocked and saddened by today's shooting," says Barack Obama, only days after visiting Buchenwald where the world learned about the imbalance between physical power and ending lives, where a few thugs in uniform could cause mass death with no more effort than turning a few switches.
What must have been the last thought of 39-year-old Stephen T. Johns as he held the door for a man more than twice his age to enter a place where the modern mathematics of life and death are displayed in all their horror? How could he have known that the hatred in that building would be concentrated in a decrepit man and explode to end his own life?
Yesterday's shock led to the closing of the museum, canceling the performance of a play to commemorate the brutal murders of Anne Frank and Emmitt Till, but whether or not the museum shooter lives long enough to be brought to justice, his name will as surely rot with him in the grave as theirs will be remembered forever in human hearts and minds.
In that light, what happened yesterday at the Holocaust Museum is a reminder that the rules of nature are not so simple: An 88-year-old with the strength to press a trigger kills a young man opening a door for him, terrifies thousands in the building and brings grief to millions, including the president of the United States.
"I am shocked and saddened by today's shooting," says Barack Obama, only days after visiting Buchenwald where the world learned about the imbalance between physical power and ending lives, where a few thugs in uniform could cause mass death with no more effort than turning a few switches.
What must have been the last thought of 39-year-old Stephen T. Johns as he held the door for a man more than twice his age to enter a place where the modern mathematics of life and death are displayed in all their horror? How could he have known that the hatred in that building would be concentrated in a decrepit man and explode to end his own life?
Yesterday's shock led to the closing of the museum, canceling the performance of a play to commemorate the brutal murders of Anne Frank and Emmitt Till, but whether or not the museum shooter lives long enough to be brought to justice, his name will as surely rot with him in the grave as theirs will be remembered forever in human hearts and minds.
Friday, June 05, 2009
Obama, Reagan, Jews and Nazis
As the Great Communicator is canonized with a new statue in Washington, his 21st century counterpart is in Germany dealing with the same thorny issue his predecessor faced there a quarter of a century ago.
On his way to Buchenwald, President Obama speaks feelingly about his great-uncle's trauma in World War II over what the Nazis had done to six million Jews, as skeptics see the trip as a sop to those unnerved by his emphasis on a two-state solution for Palestinians during his Cairo speech and his pressure on Israel to stop expanding settlements.
In 1985, Ronald Reagan took flak for visiting a military cemetery in Bitburg, paying homage to the new Germany at the graves of SS members who headed Hitler's execution squads.
In his authorized biography, Edmund Morris describes Reagan's trip to a death camp soon afterward to placate incensed Jewish groups and his claim that he had witnessed the liberation of such places during the war. Given the Great Communicator's tendency to dramatize, it turned out that all he had actually seen was movie footage at the Army training film unit where he served.
Now Obama is explaining his Buchenwald stop by saying "this one has a personal connection to me," telling reporters that his grandmother's brother came home in shock over what he saw there as a young soldier.
With German Chancellor Angela Merkel and survivor Elie Wiesel at his side, the President today said, "These sights have not lost their horror with the passage of time. More than half a century later, our grief and our outrage over what happened have not diminished. I will not forget what I have seen here today.”
In a world of widespread Holocaust deniers, bearing witness has meaning, whatever the motives.
On his way to Buchenwald, President Obama speaks feelingly about his great-uncle's trauma in World War II over what the Nazis had done to six million Jews, as skeptics see the trip as a sop to those unnerved by his emphasis on a two-state solution for Palestinians during his Cairo speech and his pressure on Israel to stop expanding settlements.
In 1985, Ronald Reagan took flak for visiting a military cemetery in Bitburg, paying homage to the new Germany at the graves of SS members who headed Hitler's execution squads.
In his authorized biography, Edmund Morris describes Reagan's trip to a death camp soon afterward to placate incensed Jewish groups and his claim that he had witnessed the liberation of such places during the war. Given the Great Communicator's tendency to dramatize, it turned out that all he had actually seen was movie footage at the Army training film unit where he served.
Now Obama is explaining his Buchenwald stop by saying "this one has a personal connection to me," telling reporters that his grandmother's brother came home in shock over what he saw there as a young soldier.
With German Chancellor Angela Merkel and survivor Elie Wiesel at his side, the President today said, "These sights have not lost their horror with the passage of time. More than half a century later, our grief and our outrage over what happened have not diminished. I will not forget what I have seen here today.”
In a world of widespread Holocaust deniers, bearing witness has meaning, whatever the motives.
Sunday, April 05, 2009
The Germans Are Too Generous
For a Jewish World War II veteran, it's comforting to learn from a New York Times OpEd that "There Are No Hurt Feelings in Germany."
Our new president, a German novelist reveals, is still much admired, even though "current warnings that Mr. Obama must inevitably disappoint the hopes we’ve placed on him will probably turn out to have been somewhat justified."
He goes on to explain: "People like my 75-year-old grandparents, who live in the countryside and have always thought and voted conservatively, are of the opinion that this presidency is off to a good start, as are nearly all of my friends here in Berlin.
"The announcements made and the measures undertaken in Washington in the past 10 weeks...have given rise to the impression that the new president means to turn his campaign promises into action."
This pompous generosity toward an African-American president does not sit well with someone who recalls how the author's forebears in 1936 were cheering another black man, Jesse Owens, in the Berlin Olympics for breaking records while their Fuhrer, disappointed in the failure of Aryan superiority, left the stadium to continue planning his slaughter of millions of Jews.
A decade later, as an infantry foot soldier seeing the skeletal survivors of that Holocaust and afterward working with and living among local townspeople to publish a regimental newspaper, I failed to meet a single German who would acknowledge let alone discuss what had been done.
Now, as that nation's leaders drag their feet in easing the global economic freefall, the same kind of selective memory dwells on the recent failures of America's financial system rather than the Marshall Plan generosity that restored German industry after World War II.
"Most of the people I’m in contact with, many of them intellectuals inclined to the humanities or the arts," the German Oped writer observes, "can comprehend only gradually and hesitantly the extent to which the economies of the world have become one inextricable tangle, and we never cease to be amazed at the level of irrationality present in the reactions of the institutions and individuals that play a part in the economic process. In us, it elicits a shrug expressive of something between cluelessness and resignation."
He may want to take a hard look back at his own country's long history of cluelessness and resignation before patronizing an American president for his personal qualities while worrying that he will "disappoint" German hopes.
Our new president, a German novelist reveals, is still much admired, even though "current warnings that Mr. Obama must inevitably disappoint the hopes we’ve placed on him will probably turn out to have been somewhat justified."
He goes on to explain: "People like my 75-year-old grandparents, who live in the countryside and have always thought and voted conservatively, are of the opinion that this presidency is off to a good start, as are nearly all of my friends here in Berlin.
"The announcements made and the measures undertaken in Washington in the past 10 weeks...have given rise to the impression that the new president means to turn his campaign promises into action."
This pompous generosity toward an African-American president does not sit well with someone who recalls how the author's forebears in 1936 were cheering another black man, Jesse Owens, in the Berlin Olympics for breaking records while their Fuhrer, disappointed in the failure of Aryan superiority, left the stadium to continue planning his slaughter of millions of Jews.
A decade later, as an infantry foot soldier seeing the skeletal survivors of that Holocaust and afterward working with and living among local townspeople to publish a regimental newspaper, I failed to meet a single German who would acknowledge let alone discuss what had been done.
Now, as that nation's leaders drag their feet in easing the global economic freefall, the same kind of selective memory dwells on the recent failures of America's financial system rather than the Marshall Plan generosity that restored German industry after World War II.
"Most of the people I’m in contact with, many of them intellectuals inclined to the humanities or the arts," the German Oped writer observes, "can comprehend only gradually and hesitantly the extent to which the economies of the world have become one inextricable tangle, and we never cease to be amazed at the level of irrationality present in the reactions of the institutions and individuals that play a part in the economic process. In us, it elicits a shrug expressive of something between cluelessness and resignation."
He may want to take a hard look back at his own country's long history of cluelessness and resignation before patronizing an American president for his personal qualities while worrying that he will "disappoint" German hopes.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Bush's Ultimate Indecency
Anyone looking for a new definition of "obscenity" should consult George W. Bush's remarks today at the 60th anniversary celebration of the birth of Israel.
The man who set off needless bloodshed in the Middle East five years ago chose to lecture survivors of the Holocaust about appeasement.
"Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along," Bush told the Israeli Knesset.
"We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is--the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."
This President may not know much about appeasement, but he is the model of those who have been and will be discredited by history.
Barack Obama, who now seems America's only hope to begin to undo the Bush damage to America's moral standing in the world, had an answer:
"It is sad that President Bush would use a speech to the Knesset on the 60th anniversary of Israel's independence to launch a false political attack. It is time to turn the page on eight years of policies that have strengthened Iran and failed to secure America or our ally Israel.
"George Bush knows that I have never supported engagement with terrorists, and the president's extraordinary politicization of foreign policy and the politics of fear do nothing to secure the American people or our stalwart ally Israel."
It's sad that we have to wait until next January to rid ourselves of Bush's ignorant indecency.
The man who set off needless bloodshed in the Middle East five years ago chose to lecture survivors of the Holocaust about appeasement.
"Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along," Bush told the Israeli Knesset.
"We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is--the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."
This President may not know much about appeasement, but he is the model of those who have been and will be discredited by history.
Barack Obama, who now seems America's only hope to begin to undo the Bush damage to America's moral standing in the world, had an answer:
"It is sad that President Bush would use a speech to the Knesset on the 60th anniversary of Israel's independence to launch a false political attack. It is time to turn the page on eight years of policies that have strengthened Iran and failed to secure America or our ally Israel.
"George Bush knows that I have never supported engagement with terrorists, and the president's extraordinary politicization of foreign policy and the politics of fear do nothing to secure the American people or our stalwart ally Israel."
It's sad that we have to wait until next January to rid ourselves of Bush's ignorant indecency.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
No Crying Shame
This is starting out as a year for tears.
Days after Hillary Clinton rescued her campaign by welling up in a New Hampshire coffee shop, George W. Bush wept yesterday at a Holocaust memorial in Israel, expressing sorrow over US failure in World War II to bomb Auschwitz and save some of the victims.
Sen. Clinton was clearly crying in response to her own stress, but the President's tears seem more complicated. Faced with visible evidence of more than a million murders, he turned from aerial views of the concentration camp and told Condoleeza Rice, "We should have bombed it." Before leaving, he wrote in the visitor's book, "God Bless Israel, George Bush."
For a man who believes in a world divided into Good and Evil, that is an understandable reaction, but is there something more in him than self-righteous certainty?
Last year, at a ceremony awarding a posthumous Medal of Honor to a Marine who threw himself over a grenade and saved the lives of two men in his unit, Bush wept as he said, “He was the guy who signed on for an extra two months in Iraq so he could stay with his squad...to make sure that everyone makes it home alive."
As we reach for change in American leadership, Bush's tears evoke sadness that his capacity to grieve for that Marine and his family as well as Holocaust victims never led him to join the majority of those he serves who want to put an end to killing as the means of choice to make the world safer.
Now we know that Hillary Clinton can cry over herself, but will she or whoever else succeeds George Bush be truly committed to sparing American families tears in the years ahead?
Days after Hillary Clinton rescued her campaign by welling up in a New Hampshire coffee shop, George W. Bush wept yesterday at a Holocaust memorial in Israel, expressing sorrow over US failure in World War II to bomb Auschwitz and save some of the victims.
Sen. Clinton was clearly crying in response to her own stress, but the President's tears seem more complicated. Faced with visible evidence of more than a million murders, he turned from aerial views of the concentration camp and told Condoleeza Rice, "We should have bombed it." Before leaving, he wrote in the visitor's book, "God Bless Israel, George Bush."
For a man who believes in a world divided into Good and Evil, that is an understandable reaction, but is there something more in him than self-righteous certainty?
Last year, at a ceremony awarding a posthumous Medal of Honor to a Marine who threw himself over a grenade and saved the lives of two men in his unit, Bush wept as he said, “He was the guy who signed on for an extra two months in Iraq so he could stay with his squad...to make sure that everyone makes it home alive."
As we reach for change in American leadership, Bush's tears evoke sadness that his capacity to grieve for that Marine and his family as well as Holocaust victims never led him to join the majority of those he serves who want to put an end to killing as the means of choice to make the world safer.
Now we know that Hillary Clinton can cry over herself, but will she or whoever else succeeds George Bush be truly committed to sparing American families tears in the years ahead?
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