A Nursing Student's Political Observation

In the Journal of Nursing Education (Vol. 50, No. 5, 2011, p. 239) there is a poem by Joel Weinman, a nursing student who will graduate in August, that really moved me. I'd be interested in what others think. Joel wrote about a patient who died, presumably from H1N1, during the heated health care reform debates that took place in 2009. She was young and healthy, but had no insurance and therefore was reluctant to seek treatment.

My child died today...

My child died today...

She was beautiful and vibrant - her energy was infectious
She was smart; she graduated with a double major
She was kind and responsible - she was growing up

She was sick...and she died.
My child was 22...and she died today.

Kimi had two jobs...
She was poor...
She had no insurance.

She was sick and she didn't go get help - she was scared
She wasn't scared that she was sick, for she only had the flu

Kimi was poor and she had no insurance, and THAT is why she was scared.
She was sick and she had no insurance and she was scared...
and so...
she died.

Kimi had no insurance
She was sick...she got worse...
and so...
she went to the hospital - she had the flu

She had no insurance...
they sent her home....
with medicine...
for pain? Kimi had the flu.

Kimi was at home, sick, scared, poor...
and dying...she had no insurance
Kimi got worse. She went back to the hospital...
it was too late

My child died today...

She died because she had no insurance;
she had two degrees and two jobs
She died because she was scared;
It would cost too much to get better
She died because she had the flu?

But hey,

At least the government didn't get between Kimi and her doctor
She didn't have a doctor...she was poor
She had no insurance...and so...

She died

Every year, in the richest country in the world

40,000 people die
Because they are poor
Because they have no insurance
They were scared too.

Every month, in this richest country in the world, a 9/11 occurs

The towers of the disadvantaged, the poor, and the un-insured - they fall
They stood strong and tall like my Kimi, but...

The powerful planes plow through them with the full force of opposition...
opposition to a fair and just world,
opposition to compassion as Christ championed
opposition to equality...and care...for everyone.

Those planes tear down and destroy:
3500 souls every month,
111 lives every day,
5 human beings every hour...In the richest country in the world

Those wings of death and destruction are piloted by politicians fighting to keep healthcare
a commodity
not a right nor a gift nor an expectation

No,

In the richest country in the world, money is to be made off the sick...
In the richest country in the world, providing care for the ill is an avenue for profit...
In the richest country in the world, politicians bought with blood money fight to keep
the status quo...

In the richest country in the world, one man can make 100 million dollars a year.
All he has to do is deny promises to those who have paid for them.
All he has to do is deny care
to those that have paid for it
And, of course, he must make sure that the laws in the richest country in the world...
allow him to continue to do so...again, and again, and again...

These men and his pilots; they are cowards.
They are not nearly as brave as a suicidal terrorist. They kill from afar. They kill by
remote control.
But they kill nonetheless,
40,000 human souls, every single year...
In the richest country in the world

My Kimi was but one of those 40,000
But she was mine...she was my child
She was sick
She was poor
She had no insurance.

She was sick and she was poor and she had no insurance and she was scared

She had the flu...and she died

Kimi was a victim of the terrorism of ignorance and greed.

Kimi died today...from the flu...

Kimi was 22,
Kimi was my child,
Kimi had the flu...

And she died.