I have a friend in the hospital right now. She has cancer, and the doctors are like "Hmmm, let's try this chemo... Naaah, that didn't work, let's try this other one.... oh, it cost $3000 a dose? And her insurance won't cover it? Gee.... "
Cancer has been a big business in the whole world, and especially in the United States, for a long time.
Unfortunately, some of the most promising therapies are 10 years behind, and I find myself, despite being a "love and peace" kind of guy, literally hating the people that are responsible for slowing down the medical progress that could save my friend.
Remember the previous administration? I sort of hate to beat a dead horse, and I really hate to beat a dead piece of shit, but it's not really dead for me. You see, one of my best friends is in the hospital fighting for her life. Her doctors don't seem to know what to do, and can only recommend one of the three therapies that are allowed by the medical establishment:
A. poisoning. That's what chemotherapy is, a poison that is supposed to kill cancer cells while leaving other cells healthy; in reality it's just a poison, and an expensive one at that. One of the physicians attending my friend was fined because she didn't sell enough chemotherapy, by the way, and this is because she doesn't completely believe in it, even though she's a member of the medical establishment.
B. burning. That's what radiation does, and of course like chemotherapy it's supposed to only kill cancer cells, and of course it doesn't.
C. cutting. They go in and cut out the tumor, and if they're lucky they "get it all". If they're not lucky nothing happens to them, and something happens to the patient. I don't want to talk about what happens to the patient.
So this is the state of "curing cancer" in this country, and that's if you happen to be lucky enough to have insurance that will pay. As we have found out, a lot of the time insurance won't pay. Now I know that there's a lot of good doctors, in fact all of them went into that business because of idealism, because they want to do something good for people. So I don't really have anything against them, in fact I respect them greatly. They have to study many years, they have to work long hours, they have to put themselves out a lot, and what with malpractice insurance and a lot of other fees that they have to pay it's not an incredibly well paying job, unlike certain bankers and pundits we hear about.
And where does the hate come in?
Remember Gene therapy? Remember how stem cells were being researched as a cure for so many things? and do you remember how stem cell research was shot down by the administration previous to this one?
We could have been 10 years ahead, but a bunch of people in the last administration, starting at the very top, were so concerned with the "religious" vote, that they sold out to a bunch of people that I consider Neanderthals for their outlook on life.
Now maybe I'm giving Neanderthals a bad rap; maybe these people that the previous administration sold out to for the unutterably cynical reason that they wanted these people's votes are not primitive, but just ignorant. And I don't think they're just ignorant; I think they are actually bad people. And the people who lead them are the most cynical bastards I can think of. Yeah, I know; I'm saying bad words. And I know exactly what I'm saying. I think the kind of so-called "evangelists" who stir up people and tell them that scientific progress is bad are not stupid; I think they're just really bad people who found a way to make a profit off of superstition.
Harsh words? Think of my friend in the hospital. Think of some many other people who could be cured if stem cell research had not been banned by the previous administration. (I don't even want to mention their names; they leave a bad taste in my mouth, and I prefer for their names to be forgotten). And so, I find myself hating some of these people, even though, as a hippie, I know I should be all "peace and love", as I've said before. And so I'm conflicted.
Please help me out; I just don't know what to do with the active dislike I feel for people who have sold us out for a vote.