Thirty years ago, hospitals sometimes threw dead AIDS patients into dumpsters because funeral homes didn’t want to touch them. We had a president who refused to acknowledge there was a problem. The Supreme Court refused to strike down anti-sodomy laws. Most didn’t dare to hope for same-sex marriage within their lifetime. That was the country we lived in 30 years ago. We still have work to do, but we now have marriage equality, and soon the overwhelming majority of the country will be just fine with it.
I don’t think single payer universal healthcare is a pipedream. I don’t think the current system is good enough….although it is better than it was before the Affordable Care Act. Other countries have universal healthcare, and we can, too, if we keep pushing for it. We can live in a country that acknowledges healthcare is a right. We can live in a country where the healthcare needs of the seriously mentally ill are met, and those who suffer from mental illness aren’t dumped onto the streets to fend for themselves.
No comments:
Post a Comment