It’s Really Quite Simple: Do We Value Each Life in America?

[Octafish]

A question that gets to the root of the matter:

It’s Really Quite Simple: Do We Value Each Life in America?

by Donna Smith
Published on Thursday, March 18, 2010 by CommonDreams.org

The question is straightforward and simple. Do we value each life? Yes or no.

No matter what Congress passes or doesn't pass, no matter what the President signs, no matter who buys insurance or has a subsidy to buy it, no matter which person is on Medicaid or Medicare or in the VA system or the Indian Health Service system, we need to answer that question for ourselves and future generations.

Do we value each life? If not, then what are the criteria by which we make our determinations? Clean and clear. How do we decide? Is there some sort of unspoken master race or master class we value more highly? By birth? By religious affiliation? By social strata?

De we value each life? If our answer is no, then we will keep reading reports like the one in the New York Times yesterday about Carol Y. Vliet in Flint, MI. We do not value her life. The brutality of what we are doing to one another is mind-numbing.

"FLINT, Mich. - Carol Y. Vliet's cancer returned with a fury last summer, the tumors metastasizing to her brain, liver, kidneys and throat. ..

Dr. Sahouri informed her a few months later that he could no longer see her because, like a growing number of doctors, he had stopped taking patients with Medicaid. .. ‘My office manager was telling me to do this for a long time, and I resisted,' Dr. Sahouri said. ‘But after a while you realize that we're really losing money on seeing those patients, not even breaking even. We were starting to lose more and more money, month after month.'

It has not taken long for communities like Flint to feel the downstream effects of a nationwide torrent of state cuts to Medicaid, the government insurance program for the poor and disabled. ..

Mrs. Vliet, 53, who lives just outside Flint, has yet to find a replacement for Dr. Sahouri."

I get it. The gist of the story is about the financial woes of the Medicaid program, as administered by the states, and how doctors and other health providers cannot afford to care for people like Carol. I get it.

CONTINUED...

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/03/18-0

IMFO: Were more people to answer, "every life matters, infinitely," we'd be a long way closer to solving our ALL our problems.

[kenny blankenship]

1. I think you already know the answer to that

[Octafish]

2. It's a conversation starter, rather than the more direct: US CHILDREN USED IN RADIATION EXPERIMENTS.

Which is something you know about, my Friend, but would be news to most Americans, if not to most DUers.

Know Your BFEE: American Children Used in Radiation Experiments

Like Ronald Reagan once read off the TelePrompTer: "Facts are stupid - stoobid - stubborn things."

[el_bryanto]

3. Maybe we should start calling ourselves "Pro-Life" . . . . oh, wait . . .

I do support a woman's right to choose.

Bryant

[Octafish]

4. If we valued each child fully, they would learn how to make better decisions.

One example would be in exploring their sexuality. Smart, educated and informed people would wear condoms and know how to avoid pregnancy. If they do get pregnant, smart, educated and informed women would have a support structure that would help them best proceed in whatever direction they chose to go. My point is, each person is valued -- not for what they do, but for who they are -- a human being.

PS: This "value people" thing doesn't go for corporations.

[HopeHoops]

5. Well, the far right values every life - until they are born. They they're "Welfare cheats".

And apparently soldiers don't count at all. The more that are killed the more they feel justified in continuing a useless war.