Bloodbath & Beyond, or The Speech President Obama Won't Be Giving
My fellow Americans:
I want to talk to you tonight about the Affordable Care Act, several key provisions of which were recently upheld by the Supreme Court. There has been a great deal of confusion about this law, and a number of states have chosen not to participate in its provisions when it takes effect in 2014. Let me explain why it has taken on a new urgency by telling you about a young man named Caleb Medley.
Last week Caleb decided to go to a movie, where he was shot in the head. He has no health insurance, and his wife has just given birth to their first child. He remains in critical condition in an Aurora hospital, and his family has been told that his medical bills may total two million dollars. Sadly, the Affordable Care Act will take effect too late to help with that burden.
Our great nation is the only country in the world whose Constitution guarantees every person the right to get shot. This is implicit in the Second Amendment, as interpreted by generations of judges, who have ignored the phrase about "a well-ordered militia" and ruled that every American may have a private arsenal. There are three hundred million Americans, according to the 2010 Census, and there are three hundred million guns that we know of in private hands. I don't have a gun and neither does Michelle, so some people have more than one, like the man who shot Caleb Medley and seventy other people. Nobody can say how many billions of rounds of ammunition are also in private hands, so there is an excellent chance that you or someone you know will be shot in the course of your life. The dead and wounded who result from our national love affair with guns are a cross-section of America: politicians, celebrities, shopkeepers, law enforcement officers, doctors, children, old people, members of the military. The shooters are an equally democratic group -- you may be shot by a gang member, a self-appointed neighborhood vigilante, a student, a spouse, a carjacker, or the Vice President of the United States. You are safe nowhere: not at the mall, not in church, on campus, in a restaurant, in a museum, or at home in your own bed. When your turn comes, how will you pay the bill?
I urge you to think again about the Affordable Care Act, and the very real possibility that you will need it for emergency care. I urge you on behalf of five hundred thirty-five members of Congress, who are not going to life a finger to reduce your status as a target. I urge you on behalf of the gun manufacturers and their lobbyists, and the gun dealers, who don't care what you do with your purchase after you leave the store. You have said again and again that you will not give up your guns. So be it. As Lincoln said, we must bind up the nation's wounds -- on a daily basis.
God help you, and God help the United States of America.
I want to talk to you tonight about the Affordable Care Act, several key provisions of which were recently upheld by the Supreme Court. There has been a great deal of confusion about this law, and a number of states have chosen not to participate in its provisions when it takes effect in 2014. Let me explain why it has taken on a new urgency by telling you about a young man named Caleb Medley.
Last week Caleb decided to go to a movie, where he was shot in the head. He has no health insurance, and his wife has just given birth to their first child. He remains in critical condition in an Aurora hospital, and his family has been told that his medical bills may total two million dollars. Sadly, the Affordable Care Act will take effect too late to help with that burden.
Our great nation is the only country in the world whose Constitution guarantees every person the right to get shot. This is implicit in the Second Amendment, as interpreted by generations of judges, who have ignored the phrase about "a well-ordered militia" and ruled that every American may have a private arsenal. There are three hundred million Americans, according to the 2010 Census, and there are three hundred million guns that we know of in private hands. I don't have a gun and neither does Michelle, so some people have more than one, like the man who shot Caleb Medley and seventy other people. Nobody can say how many billions of rounds of ammunition are also in private hands, so there is an excellent chance that you or someone you know will be shot in the course of your life. The dead and wounded who result from our national love affair with guns are a cross-section of America: politicians, celebrities, shopkeepers, law enforcement officers, doctors, children, old people, members of the military. The shooters are an equally democratic group -- you may be shot by a gang member, a self-appointed neighborhood vigilante, a student, a spouse, a carjacker, or the Vice President of the United States. You are safe nowhere: not at the mall, not in church, on campus, in a restaurant, in a museum, or at home in your own bed. When your turn comes, how will you pay the bill?
I urge you to think again about the Affordable Care Act, and the very real possibility that you will need it for emergency care. I urge you on behalf of five hundred thirty-five members of Congress, who are not going to life a finger to reduce your status as a target. I urge you on behalf of the gun manufacturers and their lobbyists, and the gun dealers, who don't care what you do with your purchase after you leave the store. You have said again and again that you will not give up your guns. So be it. As Lincoln said, we must bind up the nation's wounds -- on a daily basis.
God help you, and God help the United States of America.
Labels: deja vu all over again
posted by Buttermilk Sky at 11:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home