PHOTO/BILL HACKWELL
Editor’s Note: This is part two of a three-part series
DETROIT, MI—Patriots and lovers of the American people, this message is for you! The rise and powerful control that technology has over the lives of us all is a harbinger of things to come. The technology that used to enhance labor, today replaces labor which means millions of working hands are no longer needed.Therefore, corporate entities in charge of our lives have taken yet another step toward the destruction of millions.
Few are talking about the “sequester” that is causing pain and havoc coast to coast. Seniors who depend on federal funds to help pay for their chemo-treatments, are now passed over. Section 8 certificate holders are evicted across the country. Children are tossed out of Head Start. No healthcare for seniors, no housing for families, no early education for youngsters. Do you see a pattern? In a nutshell, we are sicker, uninsured, unemployed, undernourished, poorer, and under attack.
The Detroit Medical Center (DMC) was once known as the hospital of last resort. Treatment was available for all—insured or not—before it was sold to Vanguard Health Center. Promises were made to maintain access to healthcare by indigent persons — these were offered to get the “buy-in” needed by both community and current DMC employees. Vanguard later announced that it sold DMC to a new corporate pirate, Tenet Healthcare, that has NO ties to those former commitments and no intentions of maintaining the agreements. Now the limited access to healthcare left is in jeopardy.
It should be obvious that profit/cost containment/concern for the ‘bottom line’ has no place in the delivery of health care. NOT SO.
In Chicago’s Southside, there are “deserts”—medical centers that have closed their trauma centers to certain emergency categories to save money, not lives.
Detroit is no different. Here is a current example—a call was placed to 911 requesting emergency help. After waiting an hour, the family is instructed on how to perform CPR on the patient. After waiting another hour, the patient is transported to a DMC facility. The patient is suffering chest pains requiring the placement of a stent to open up the coronary artery. The patient declines service due to a concern about quality of care, and requests a transfer to another hospital. Request was denied. The patient is sent home without oxygen by taxi.
The siege in Michigan continues, so learn from our lessons. Life, limb, civility and the common good is at stake. Unless we take control of the direction the country is headed, we are doomed. Our standard of living is dwindling, the cost of living going up, and the chances of living are going down. The only way out is to organize. The industrial cities will fall first, because we are the closest to the fires of societal destruction, but we will hold out—waiting for the rest of the nation to take heed and come to our rescue. Time is of the essence.
