If we as a society are willing to strap a defenseless human being in a chair and kill him, what aren't we willing to do to people? If we as society are willing to abide a system of ritualized killing, what systematic deadlliness are we not willing to abide?
The American death penalty, that "modern" form of human sacrifice, exposes the country's dark heart. It's horrific both because of what it is and what it means.
To be clear, the rest of us are not Troy Davis. No one is Troy Davis but Troy Davis. And the death penalty is singular; there is by definition nothing like it. But it is also representative. It's very much part and product of American society, the murderous sharp edge of a cold-bloodedness that subjugates and injures and brutalizes and, yes, kills millions.
Don't tell me there's no connection between the existence of the death penalty and the War on Drugs. And economic inequality. And war. And imperialism. If we devalue life to the point where we officially dispose of it, if we all support through our taxes the maintenance of a human garbage disposal, is it any surprise that we accept less direct forms of killing like poverty, institutional racism, a lack of a regulation in the workplace, pollution, crumbling infrastructure, and gutted public services? And of course there's that meticulous murderer, climate change, slowly plotting an ultimate act of violence while we sit back and watch.
When Jesse Jackson spoke of economic violence, he wasn't using a metaphor. The class war is all too literal. Poverty need not be a death sentence -- it doesn't strap you in chair and stick a needle in your arm -- but sometimes it is. Consider infant mortality. Consider violent crime. Consider all the crap that piles up on poor people. Racism doesn't always draw actual blood, but you better believe it sometimes does. Think police brutality. Think heart disease.
The lethality of right-wing policies is hitting home, as opposed to poor nations, with a new force. As the class war rages on, it will continue to claim lives. We all know about the tens of thousands of people who die each year because of a lack of health insurance. And we know that a good number of the Americans killed and maimed in our wars entered the military for economic reasons. But consider these two less obvious ways in which the class war kills.
Unemployment:
Just last April, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) released a study that showed that suicide rates rise and fall in tandem with the business cycle. The study covered the years 1928-2007. According to the CDC press release:
The overall suicide rate rises and falls in connection with the economy, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study released online today by the American Journal of Public Health. The study, “Impact of Business Cycles on the U.S. Suicide Rates, 1928–2007″ is the first to examine the relationships between age-specific suicide rates and business cycles. The study found the strongest association between business cycles and suicide among people in prime working ages, 25-64 years old.
“Knowing suicides increased during economic recessions and fell during expansions underscores the need for additional suicide prevention measures when the economy weakens,” said James Mercy, Ph.D., acting director of CDC’s Injury Center’s Division of Violence Prevention. “It is an important finding for policy makers and those working to prevent suicide.”
As a practicing psychologist, seeing clients for almost 20 years, I can say that the current economic depression has had a terrible effect on the people I see. I have also heard about more suicides in a short period of time than I have in years — actually, ever. While this could be a statistical fluke, and I myself would never draw stark conclusions from the sample of one clinician, the spike in reported suicides is certainly something that fits the known epidemiological risks that accompany high unemployment.
Austerity:
On Friday, four people died in flash flooding in Pittsburgh. Those deaths were preventable as the road that they were on is a known flood basin and the road most likely had blocked storm drains...
The municipal authorities and governments responsible for the chunk of road in question are severely cash constrained. The city of Pittsburgh is effectively broke, and the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority has been deferring maitenance since before I was born. Their choice was minimal street cleaning and lots of hoping.
Austerity and the failure to provide decent public services (street cleaning and drain maintenance) helped kill those four people on Friday.
Keep fighting, people. The life you save could be your own.