The inhumanity of our system
It has been a grueling nineteen days since I last got on here. A lot has happened since then, so here's an update.
My busted teeth got infected and I was told I needed surgery. This happened on the same day I was laid off from my decent WFH job. A week later I was laid off from my second job. I was given antibiotics to kill the infection, which seems to have worked, but surgery is out of reach.
I was in so much pain, and more than a little depressed, so I fell out of touch with people for a while. Even from my brother and best friend. I was very close to drinking again, just to escape the pain, both physical and otherwise, but I refrained for reasons that are unknown even to myself. Unfortunately, I haven't been writing, either. I have 'Killing Time Part II' started, but haven't been able to focus well enough to finish it.
Then I got a text from my bestie in North Carolina saying "hey just want to make sure that isn't you on the news shooting healthcare CEOs."
Okay okay I get it. I'll text back.
Turns out Patrick was only half joking. He knows what's going on with my teeth, and he's very familiar with my preexisting (ha!) thoughts on the American healthcare system, so part of him was actually worried that I took it upon myself to go play whack-a-mole with rich guys in midtown Manhattan. Well, it obviously wasn't me, but I can see how easily it could've been. If you're a working class American, or apparently an affluent one like the alleged shooter, and you've had the displeasure of dealing with the American healthcare system, there's a part of the UHC shooter in you, whether you acknowledge it or not. I think that's why his actions resonated with so many people across the socioeconomic and political spectrum.
I don't advocate violence, despite having had my previous account banned for that very thing, but I can't bring myself to view the actions of the shooter as morally wrong. The healthcare system we have allowed to be foisted upon us is inherently inhumane and cruel. It's entire profit model is reliant upon the suffering of those it claims to work for, and UnitedHealth is the worst offender, by far.
Denying people the life-saving care they need, the care they paid for, that results in tens of thousands of needless deaths every year, is itself an act of violence. Any act of violence in opposition of that is self defense.
I wish I could just be free to write. It's all I ever wanted to do, and it seems like the more I try to do it, the more difficult the circumstances of life make it.
Something has to change.
