sit on it's hands and do nothing?
No way.
Would it be easy to rescue them?
Probably not. In fact, it might be very difficult and cost a lot of money and very sadly, wonderful American military lives. But I know, as sure as the sun rises, America would fight it's heart out to save every last one of those fellow Americans.
America lost around 3,100 Americans to terrorism on it's soil between 2001 and 2015.
Currently, about 30 million Americans don't have healthcare coverage. Roughly 0.1% of them or 30,000 are going to die in 2016 because they don't have healthcare coverage. That's a fact:
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2009/09/new-study-finds-45000-deaths-annually-linked-to-lack-of-health-coverage/
Here's a good estimation of how many folks died each year since 9/11 because they didn't have healthcare coverage:
2001 41,200
2002 43,600
2003 45,000
2004 45,800
2005 46,600
2006 47,000
2007 45,700
2008 46,300
2009 49,000
2010 49,900
2011 48,600
2012 48,000
2013 42,000
2014 33,000
2015 33,000
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Roughly 664,700 Americans have died since 9/11 because they didn't have healthcare coverage.
That works out to 44,313 Americans dying per year on average.
That's a lot more Americans dying than the 3,100 Americans lost on it's soil to terrorism since 2001.
Americans spent trillions to avenge 3,100 lost to terrorism but there's a lot Americans and politicians who wouldn't chip in a dime to save the lives of 664,700 Americans lost to a lack of healthcare coverage. That fact astounds me.
On a side note, nobody talks about jobs related to this. Single payer substantially reduces healthcare costs. That means that after implementing it, Americans will not be as expensive to employ. Americans will take home more pay but the overall cost to do an hour of work will trend towards less over time - attracting employment because Americans improved their cost effectiveness. The only real loser is the health insurance industry.
Obamacare only solved part of the problem saving about 15,000 to 18,000 or so lives per year. It didn't solve the problem for the 30,000 others who will die in 2016 and each year after because they didn't have healthcare coverage.
Getting single payer (or even universal) is really hard - probably as hard as fighting ISIS. Politically, it's even harder than fighting ISIS because politically, America loves going to war to kill it's enemies.
ISIS sympathizers killed 14 in California not long ago. Media coverage was non stop and the country was outraged and collectively wounded by the tragedy as they should. That was minor compared to the media coverage on 9/11 when we lost 3063. But for 15 years, by comparison, we've been collectively pretty silent on the 664,700 lost since 9/11 and the 30,000 that won't be with us by the end of this year because they didn't have healthcare coverage.
To have this going on for so long, it seems over the top for me to say it but it strikes me like political genocide. Because we don't get to see these 664,700 people without healthcare die on the evening news, we kind of overlooked the 664,700 Americans who died on our watch since 9/11. I guess they don't seem to matter as much or something. Somehow jumping out of the burning World Trade center is more meaningful than quietly dying in an alley somewhere. I don't understand why. This haunts me. Both deaths are equally tragic. It really bothers me to the extent, I'm for the first time repeating a post, trying to refine a message that will get through.
Maybe some of it is our fear of terrorists. We don't want that stuff happening to us so yeah, let the US military might take care of them. Those who have healthcare coverage do not have to fear dying because they don't have healthcare coverage. I guess selfishly, those folks don't have to worry about the others who will die without healthcare coverage. I have healthcare coverage. But I simply cannot be one of those who can look the other way - like Hillary.
A lot of us are very, very thankful to the members of the military who did their duty by fighting terrorists to keep Americans safe and in doing so, won our everlasting respect and eternal gratitude for their courage and in some cases their ultimate sacrifice. As citizens, like the members of our military, I think we also have a civic duty to look after each other. I do not see why that duty does not extend to fighting to see the end of Americans dying without healthcare. Heavy odds are, you knew some of the 664,700 who died without healthcare. And maybe you'll know some of the 30,000 who are going to die this year or in future years.
Even though it's very tough, Bernie is willing to fight for all 30,000 who are going to die this year because they do not have healthcare coverage. And Hillary isn't - she's going for the easier 'save a few thousand while the rest die because it's too hard for me and the country to save all of them'. Under the life and death circumstances, which Hillary has to be acquainted with, I think that's astounding bullshit - a dereliction of duty. We owe it to our fellow citizens to try to save their lives.
Why do we get so upset about the 14 in California lost to terrorism and not the 664,700 lost to a lack of healthcare? Why is that so hard for Americans to figure out? WHY!!! Because it's not on the news? Maybe civic duty is protesting to get it on the news. Or getting behind Bernie. Or rallying others to get out and vote. The one thing I'm sure of is that we have not done enough collectively and I think that is a national disgrace.
I'm sorry for sounding like a broken record on this as I've chatted some about the above in prior posts. It upsets me. It just doesn't make any sense. I'll never ever understand it or accept it. Please look into your hearts, help however you can and elect people who will solve this.
Thanks for reading.