I cannot imagine being so detached from my fellows’ suffering that I’d argue for denying someone life-saving medicine because ‘it would cost the state money’. If the state is not here to spend money on its citizens to help them, then what good is it?
I worked as a medical interpreter for years, and I personally witnessed the suffering of people who couldn’t afford their prescriptions, sometimes to fatal conclusions. I’m also the daughter of Chilean political dissidents, born into a dictatorship.
Reactionary pieces accusing socialism of the greatest evils unleashed upon mankind remind me of Pinochet’s propaganda (which of course were manufactured by the CIA). It’s unfortunate that a significant number of Americans, like Mr. Wilson, have no idea what socialism actually is, and are basing their opinions upon decades of indoctrination from the McCarthy era and the Red Scare.
Perhaps next time Mr. Wilson tries to argue against healthcare reform, he could phrase himself in ways that do not make him sound like a villain in a role-playing game (“Its servants are like ghouls who feed not on the flesh of dead men […]”) and, instead, could argue without appealing to emotion while claiming his opposition does nothing but appeal to emotion.
As a quote-socialist-unquote, I’d be more than glad to share my experiences growing up in a quote-socialist-unquote ‘third-world’ country that, despite being ravaged by a dictatorship, still found itself capable of providing all its citizens with basic healthcare.
That, I think, is actual virtue.
Javiera Castro
Paralegal (PAR.S.AAS) Student
Pre-Law