THINK WE CAN .com

It’s late at night and he is covered with three blankets.  Cold and alone on the floor of the shipping crate, he allows the stray dog and cat to lie close for warmth.  His thoughts wander into the darkness of his soul…what was, but now is lost.  There is not a single person on earth that cares for him.  Not a mother, father, sister, brother or woman.  If he dies, no one will mourn, no one will care.  Who would bury him?  He is young and wonders how he came to this.

He thinks he must be a very bad person, otherwise he would not be here and everyone would not have gone away.  What has he done?  He worked hard.  He tried to please.  He knew he wasn’t perfect but he cared for them.  Oh, but wait, that’s wrong, he must have been very bad. Or he would not be so alone—all of them would not be gone.  But he can’t think of anything he did so wrong.

He thinks of getting up.  But his arms and legs feel solid.  He is so afraid of the future, because he has no future.  His arms and legs feel like metal.  They have turned solid so he can’t move them.  So what, why even try to move.  He doesn’t want to move, what’s the difference.  Nothing matters.

But wait, one thing matters.  The skinny dog and cat need him.  They need food.  He lets his arms and legs turn back to flesh and then he slowly rises and covers the two animals with a blanket.  At least they can be warm, somebody cares for them.  He cares for them.  He pours the last of their food in a dirty bowl and decides to continue his life.

Another man stands statue-still on a corner of Dixie Highway in South Miami.  The temperature is well above 90.  The humidity feels like 110.  Every few minutes hundreds of cars pass the hunched-over figure that stares off to nowhere.  The passengers of the rushing steel monsters give scarcely a passing glace to the man just a few feet away as they roar by.  That would not be strange in Miami, except the man is zipped up in a heavy winter parka and wearing a football helmet in the tropical heat.  He remains motionless as America flows by.

But one car makes a u-turn and winds its way back through traffic until the driver turns on the side road and pulls over next to the man.  The driver offers a 20 dollar bill from his window but to his surprise the man recoils when he sees the money and his eyes widen and dart from side to side and then he turns and walks rapidly into the nearby woods and disappears.  Inquiring at the next door gas station, the driver is told the helmeted man is a combat veteran and is homeless.

The woman is stopping people on the beautiful street of shops in Venice Beach, California.  She explains to each that she needs but a small amount of money, that she is sure her children and she will be fine soon enough.  They just need money now for food to take back to the hostel.  She looks tired and her clothes are disheveled.  She fell on hard times when her husband became ill.  She explains he is feeling better but they lost everything to medical bankruptcy.

Clutching her dress, two small children stand behind her with downcast eyes.  The mother continues by saying they will pull through.  Her husband is feeling better but it will take time to put their lives back together.  They made it before and they can make it again.  They are both hard workers.  She just needs a little to tide her over.  Some people give her money.

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Those true stories symbolize three million more like them that play out weekly in America.  And the same fate may await 100 million of our uninsured or underinsured citizens.  Every minute of every day, deep down inside, they know they too may fall prey to the horrific results of a serious illness.

Add to that situation the tens of thousands of returning combat veterans who will not receive proper care.  Those young boys and girls are going to suffer beyond anything most of us can even imagine—all because our Congress has refused to do anything meaningful for the past 35 years about this problem.

Couple those tragedies to the fact that without a real reform this problem will soon cost the U.S. some two trillion extra dollars every year—more than the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, energy crunch, bank and housing problems combined.

Congress is well aware of the massive, ongoing problems caused by our health care system:  They have been told that this industry allows one trillion dollars of health care money to be stolen or wasted yearly; they know that recovering that trillion dollars could solve our problem; they know we have the worst health care of all industrialized nations on Earth; they have been told that this cancer of an industry will soon consume one fourth of the entire U.S. economy and as a result the nation may face bankruptcy.

And yet Congress continues to flow by this problem, with scarcely a glance, as they have for the past 35 years.  In the face of the incalculable human misery being caused by Corporate Health Care America, Congress continues with piecemeal fixes.  It appears they are afraid to admit that a comprehensive overhaul of our health care industry is required because they know it will take years to implement.

Yes, we have all heard about the reforms being suggested by our presidential candidates.  Read those plans closely.  Look for one critical issue.  If Corporate Health Care America is left in control, we are kidding ourselves once again.  Health Care Corporations will out-clever our Congress, as usual.

We must find a way to convince our leaders that they must wake up to this horrendous problem.   We cannot allow this to continue.  The nation simply cannot afford more of the same results from the disaster we call a health care system.