INALIENABLE RIGHT BY JACK SCHIMMELMAN

JACK_SCHIMMELMAN@YAHOO.COM

Two years ago I learned that my Goddaughter, Dasha, was diagnosed with bone cancer. After dealing with the shock of the possibility that she could die, I was terrified by the quality of the medical care that she could receive. Dasha is brilliant and a musical prodigy, but none of that would matter regarding the level of medical care she would receive. She is a recent immigrant, now a citizen, and she lives in public housing. The healthcare industry would only recognize her poverty. Her mother struggles to put food on the table. She works 12 hours a day for $10 an hour taking care of someone elses child and cleaning someone elses house while she makes her way in the world with a spinal deformity. Nevertheless, I have always considered my Goddaughter blessed with advantages that only this country could provide to immigrants living in poverty; people who tirelessly work for their lives. Despite her diagnosis, Dasha continued to be fortunate. Her mother took her to one hospital and when she realized that she was not receiving the quality of medical care she needed, she promptly exited and took her to Sloan Kettering, which treats children with cancer equally no matter their ability to pay. Sloan Kettering, a remarkable institution specializing in cancer research and care, fought with the state Medicaid insurance system for Dasha to receive the operation she needed and any other additional treatment and post-operative rehabilitation she would require. Dasha worked very hard to recover and when she was able to sit down at a piano and play while still in her wheelchair just two weeks after her operation, which left her with an artificial hip, she knew she would be alright. Today, she flourishes at her school, one of the most academically rigorous in the country, while her musicianship has developed at a dazzling speed. She is my inspiration, for I never heard one syllable of self-pity coming from this girl, although she was terrified and she knew the possibilities that could envelop her. She is the most courageous human being I have ever known and I have known a few. Her mother has shepherded her through the worst of times with a will of steel. I am more than grateful to a hospital that basically had a blind admissions policy and gave Dasha the best of care. I am grateful. And now we are in the process of witnessing the eternally awaited reform of our healthcare system. I know there are thousands, if not

millions, of Dashas in our country today. I am sure of it. Perhaps they are not so lucky. They are anonymous sufferers of frightful diseases, which they courageously encounter with all the strength their souls can muster. These are our children, our parents, our friends, neighbors, ourselves. They do not have adequate healthcare. The noise of denial is building, creating a cacophony in order to mask the corruption that profits from our suffering. All of the arguments are on the table. Many are woven nightmares in order to pour ice into our veins, which in turn, permeates us with fear. People are literally fighting each other in the streets. It is not enough to realize that we are the only industrialized nation that does not have healthcare as a human right. It is not enough to understand that we spend at least 40% more per capita on health care than any other country that has a universal system. I can cite statistics ad infinitum, as others have done, to paint the dismal picture of the state of healthcare in our country. Nothing is enough to persuade those who would descend deep in the quicksand of denial of the need for universal healthcare. Only one acknowledgement will do. When you hear of yet another person stricken with cancer, heart disease or diabetes or any other myriad of conditions that can shrink the quality of our lives; rob us of our very breath look at the person next to you, wherever you are, and imagine how they must have looked when they were born. Imagine the infant that comes onto this plane, into this world, who absolutely depends on us to live. And although we journey from total dependence towards what we hope to be independence the ability to care for ourselves our very natures, biological, spiritual, demand that we be interdependent. That person, whether intimate or stranger to our lives, depends on others. Our Declaration of Independence affirms: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all [people] are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. In this moment of time, in this moment of space we now must move closer to that ideal articulated in our original Declaration to humanity. Universal healthcare is our inalienable Right to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.