First, I want to comment about the latest glaring example of
how in America, the greed of the few outweighs the needs of the many. I am appalled at what has happened the past
few days in Standing Rock, with the expulsion of the water protectors and the arrest
of those who stayed. But it’s not like
we didn’t see it coming. The writing was
on the wall the instant then-President Obama broke the momentum of the struggle
by giving those fighting the Dakota Access Pipeline and their supporters the
fleeting, ephemeral victory of a temporary halt by an easily reversible
executive order.
Doing so with less than two months left in office gave cover
to faint-hearted politicians both native and non-native, undercut the eagerness
and zeal of all but the most hardcore of resisters, and allowed time for the
crowds to dissipate to a more manageable number for his successor’s
storm-troopers to clear.
All to make way for the black snake to carry fuel for
out-dated technology that is destroying the planet, both by aggravating climate
change and by poisoning the land with leaks and spills which are inevitable given
the utter lack of interest in preserving infrastructure clearly evident in
nearly every part of America. Water is
life, and native lives matter.
And now to the NHS.
The following is from a leaflet introducing a new government
program to citizens and residents of the UK in 1948: “Your new National Health Service begins on
the 5th of July: What is it? How do you get it?
It will provide you with all medical, dental, or nursing care. Everyone, rich or poor, man or woman, or
child can use it or any part of it.
There are no charges, except for a few special items. There are no insurance qualifications. But it is not a charity. You are paying for it, mainly as taxpayers,
and it will relieve your money worries in times of illness.”
Michael Moore’s 2007 film SiCKO was my introduction to the UK’s National Health Service, and
the quote I just read is from Labour Party stalwart Tony Benn reading from that
leaflet. He also made several insightful
comments during his segment that I’ll be covering at another time, as they
point to larger issues than the one here.
Among them, however, he quoted Margaret Thatcher saying that NHS was a
given; that no politician in the UK would ever think of touching NHS, or the
social welfare support system in general.
He added that if that ever happened, there would be a revolution.
My East End-born and Oxford-trained anatomy and physiology
professor at Dalton State College echoed Thatcher’s comments in a discussion we
had during the 2008 U.S. election campaign, and she said that while she had
been a Tory in England, if she were an American, she would probably be a
Democrat. I refrained from pointing out
that it was a Democrat, Bill Clinton, who had led the charge to “end welfare as
we know it”, all but destroying the New Deal and handing over Medicaid to the
states so that now poor people such as myself have no access to healthcare.
What I saw of NHS in the film, which also featured the
systems in Canada, France, and Cuba, filled me with envy. To stay in a hospital, go to an emergency
room, visit a doctor, and then just leave, with no bill to pay, no huge debt to
sink into, no insurance forms to fill out, and all without having to get
permission from corporate bureaucrats more concerned with profits than patients
and their well-being…it was amazing. And
then medicine. A prescription at the
time was only £6.65, which was just $10
US. Of course, now it’s £8.40, but
because of the fall in the pound due to Brexit, that still works out to about
$10 US. For an American, it was like a
fairy-tale.
Please, people of the UK, I’m begging you, rise up. Stand and defend the NHS before it’s gone,
bankrupted into nonexistence by politicians redistributing pounds that should
be spent on the welfare of your people rather than tax cuts for the wealthy and
corporate welfare. Because once it’s
gone, there may be no getting it back.
Your health, your safety, and your freedom depend on saving it.
Go out into the streets and make yourselves heard. Deluge your MPs with phone calls, letters,
emails. Campaign street to street, door
to door. March, chant, scream. Hold up the American system as the example of
what your life will become without NHS and declare that you deserve
better. Because you do. In fact, we all do, every person on the
planet. Saving the NHS can be a first
step to taking back power from the market-place and putting it back into the
hands of the people. Into your hands.
Fight for yourselves.
Fight for your friends, family, neighbors, compatriots, and guests in
your country. Fight in the name of the
water protectors driven from their camps by storm-troopers serving the minions
of the wealthy and powerful few. Fight
for all of us. Fight for me. I won’t benefit directly, of course, but
knowing your health is safe and secure will give me hope, hope that one day in
American the needs of the many will finally outweigh the greed of the few.
Thig ar latha, our day will come. Keep the faith. Peace out.
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