I'm going to take a moment to air one of my pet peeves, this morning. I hope you will forgive me indulging myself.
As some of you know, among other things, I battle with bi-polar disorder..pretty much on my own. My several requests to the health center for treatment, have gone pretty much ignored...plus, even if I could get it, I more often than not, cannot afford it...just the cab fare alone can run anywhere from 8 to 12 dollars, round trip--on top of a 20 dollar or more, co-pay...and I am very much on a low-income...I do partially fall into poverty guidelines for a single person--they wouldn't give me food stamps if I didn't, trust me. Six or ten dollars to me, would be basically like 60 or a 100 dollars to most of you, no exaggeratin.
Someone rather pointlessly wrote me the other day, that I "need to get therapy and medications." DOH. No shit Sherlock. But this is the same person who cannot gasp that I CANNOT AFFORD therapy and medications! This is the same person who is against people like me getting the medical help they need, because ONE person might not be able to get a needed bone marrow transplant--bullshit. THOUSANDS of Americans, every single day of the year, in every state, right here, and right now--many with cancer--cannot get the treatment they need, because they CAN'T AFFORD it...because we DON'T have free health care, like Canada, England, and other CIVILIZED nations. Over 46 million Americans go without a doctor, every single day in this country--and the TRUE reason they can't get help...is selfish greed on the part of their fellow Americans.
These so-called "enlightened" people hide their guilt behind STUPID excuses that free health care will be inadequate, or whatever. But, these are all, each and every one, people who HAVE health care. They've never in their pampered lives, ever had to literally suffer pain or illness, with no recourse--none, zero, nada--no help, for no other reason than there was no money to pay for tests, hospital care, etc. So, Americans like me get sick, we stay depressed, we die...all because of some selfish, ignorant and greedy people, who don't think my life, and the lives of nearly 50 million others, is worth them losing their cushy private insurance plans. THAT'S what it's about, not some mewling whinge about people not getting bone marrow transplants--it's about the whingers losing their own well-provided for health care...the old, "I've got mine, to hell with everyone else."
Sorry, it really makes me hate my country, sometimes, the selfish, ignorant bubble that many so-called "enlightened" Americans needlessly clothe themselves in...a bubble so flimsy and transparent, that cannot see it from the inside--it's only us genuinely suffering "outsiders," who are on the receiving end of their continuted reistance, that can.
