So by now, most of you have heard the sad, sad tale of Luis Lang, an unbelievably stupid fool who didn't bother to control his diabetes, didn't bother to stop smoking, didn't bother to buy insurance when he was rollin' in the dough, didn't bother to sign up for the ACA and is now facing blindness as a result of his own stupidity and pigheadedness.
So now, he's discovered the joyful world of what happens when you get sick in the "let him die" hellhole that is today's republican party. Finding himself with no one to help him, he set up a GoFundMe page (sorry, I'm not linking to it -- you'll see why in a minute) and has raised over $10 grand and counting, almost every bit of it from people he despises.
So I decided to find out what, if anything, he might have learned out of all this. Sadly, not a damn thing.
The Charlotte Observer has an update on his situation that's really quite breathtaking in what's NOT in the article. If you or I found ourselves in a similar situation, desperately needing help and then finding it in spades from perfect strangers, what would your response be?
Mine (and likely yours) would be one of profound, complete gratitude. So, what's not in the article? Not a single word of thanks. Not to the reporter who broke the story, not to any of the other outlets that picked up the story, and certainly not to any of the incredible people who ponied up cold, hard cash to help him out. I don't know how many THANK YOU's I would have shot out in a follow-up article, but they would be profuse and the article would have been full of how much I appreciated that people saw my situation and miraculously decided to help.
And is there a "thank you" anywhere on his GoFundMe page? Why, no, there isn't. Two days after his account went from $685 to over $10,000, not a single, solitary, heartfelt, "I can't believe you guys are helping me out of a serious jam". Oh, he knows the money's there - he's already set up a consultation with a surgeon, so apparently he's got a phone and can somehow get a message out to the free world. But a thank you to all those unknown strangers? Nope, nada, not a chance.
He prominently mentioned how his wife had gotten a threatening phone call (presumably because a likely RW troll decided to publish his home address and phone number online). But any comment about exactly who is helping him save his eyesight?
“It turned into a political thing,” Lang said. “That wasn’t my intention when I reached out. This is ridiculous.”
So, he's had time to call his surgeon, time to talk to a reporter, time to hear about a "threatening" phone call (somehow I suspect that the only thing "threatening" about it was a polite suggestion that he consider signing up for the ACA next year -- you know how them 'libruls are, threat'ning our rights and all").
But, thanks to ANYbody, ANYwhere, who had ANYthing to do with his now possibly being able to save his sight? No, he thinks that “The Charlotte Observer should give me a free subscription now,” he quipped.
UPDATE: A couple of commenters have noted that the article does state that he has learned something:
So has he learned anything from this experience?
“I did,” he said.
Figuring out exactly what that was took some follow-up.
...
Does he hold himself responsible? There was a short pause.
“I do hold myself partly responsible because of the view that I had. I should have taken better care of my sugar,” he said. “Yeah, I should have had insurance.” emphasis mine
However, I took his comment about the fact that it's liberals, and not Bible-thumping conservatives, who are helping him as disingenous:
“I look at a person as a person,” he said. “People are acting from the heart, just like I have done in the past.”
If somebody thinks that others are "acting from the heart", then they should respond accordingly -- like maybe
TO those others who are acting from the heart. There's not even a whiff of a thank you
anywhere on his GoFundMe page. Not a new Youtube video, not a word of thanks or gratitude to anyone.
Anybody else who would have received the HUGE outpouring of compassion he's been shown would have made it abundantly clear how grateful they are. I would expect there to have been many, many thanks to people on his GoFundMe, possibly even a new video expressing how profoundly he'd been moved. If it were me, I would be hard put to even mention the single "threatening" phone call versus the literally thousands and thousands of dollars that people are donating. The complete absence of any thanks at all to me is deafening. As is the silence from the RW media on his plight.
I think his last comment says it all -- he still thinks other people owe him. But I have changed the title accordingly.
UPDATE 2: This is the closest he gets to an actual thank you. This was just posted an hour ago on his GoFundMe page:
sorry one last thing I have to hand it to the liberal side you sure do know how to get the word out when you dislike something. I say shame on the conservative bloggers for resting on there laurels
Translation - thanks, suckers, for getting the word out! Darn, I thought my guys were gonna do it!
Not a single word of actual thanks.
UPDATE 3: I stand corrected. He has now posted thanks:
First of all I would like to thank ALL of the wonderful people that have donated to help me in my time of need. And I do mean everybody. When I started this I never meant it to became a political war. I am a honest person and I have to give a big thumbs up to the liberal side. Even though you have crucified me in your comments but you spoke with your heart with the donations. I respect everybody opinion whether I agree with you or not. That is why we live in the U.S.A. home of the free and free speech. As far as the conservative side I wish they would step up to the plate and do there part. Again thank you all and i will be posting updates with my condition.