THE DESPAIR OF HEALTHCARE

Just imagine the despair of watching your loved ones, whether its husbands, wives, parents, or worst of all…children, suffer without hope of obtaining the aid of a doctor, nurse, or hospital. Imagine being employed in a low wage job…enough to escape poverty but, just above the line without a job that provides healthcare. Imagine having three small children. Imagine watching a young son suffer and not knowing why, all the time not having access to a doctor. Imagine as the degree of suffering slowly growing to the point of intolerance. Then, finally when the condition becomes dire you finally have to use the emergency room facility. Imagine as the doctor advises you that your son has bone cancer. But, by this time the condition is beyond treatment of any kind. Then, imagine as you find your daughter begins to mysteriously suffer. You see her suffer the same way your son suffered. You finally seek emergency room assistance and discover she has lung cancer, a cancer that demands radical, aggressive, chemotherapy and you still lack medical insurance to help with the treatment. Same as before, you’ve had to wait too late in the game to effectively have hope of saving this child. Imagine as you find out that the third child suffers from asthma. Again, you have no insurance to cover the prescriptions to alleviate the suffering. This child finally succumbs as the oxygen is literally choked out of him.
I suspect the potential for all this to occur might have been why Senator Ted Kennedy worked so relentlessly for national health care for all who call the United States home. This is exactly what happened to Ted Kennedy’s family…only Ted had the resources to provide health care for his family. So, the son lost a leg but, his life was saved. His daughter suffers the treatment of chemotherapy but, recovers. The youngest son lives with asthma…because he has access to the prescriptions that allow him to breathe freely.

Oh, the vitriol I’ve read on the internet from acquaintances I have that claim to be “good” God fearing Christians”…but, for the life of me I can’t put my finger on a single characteristic that would lead me to believe they followed Christian ethics. They certainly don’t have compassion. They would lead you to believe that Ted Kennedy was defined totally and completely with the incident identified simply as Chappaquiddick. Because of what clearly was a mistake by the Senator…they believe he has no path to redemption.

Well…the Christian instruction to “do to the least of these” because that is doing unto God is what all of us can do, regardless of our history. Redemption is for learning to do better. Maybe these fine Christians can look at the admonition of the New Testament once again. I wish they would…they’re becoming an embarrassment to those of us who think the “Kingdom” Jesus proclaimed was built on compassion, and treating the “least of these” with the kindness demonstrated in the New Testament.

“It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven” (from Matthew in the 10th Chapter). This passage from the New Testament doesn’t exactly lead you to believe taking care of the haves is purpose of Christianity.