Letters to the editor
July, 2005
Compassion for the Homeless?
The health industry: Cures or poisons?
Compassion for the Homeless?
“A Postcard From Jail,” seen prominently displayed in an Anchorage store window, satirically suggests homeless people should be housed in jail. Apparently this reflects some degree of public sentiment. Since it is illegal to beg (panhandle) or to sleep in public, not only would the lame beggar Lazarus be ignored, he would be thrown in jail. Eternal consequences aside, is threatening jail an effective deterrence of homelessness? Gulag methods did not end poverty, rather they stole people’s freedom (a leading American value according to President Bush).
How much homelessness is exacerbated, if not caused, by denial of medical treatment due to cost? Of all industrialized countries, the U.S. is the only one with no pharmaceutical price cap, ranking 20th in infant mortality, 21st in child mortality, and 17th in life expectancy. According to Dr. Kenneth Liegner’s testimony before the New York State Assembly Committee on Health (11/27/01), a 7 year-old Lyme disease patient was kept alive on expensive antibiotics until, due to insurance company policy, “She died within one month of cessation of intravenous antibiotic treatment”.
Tragically, “Right to Life” proponents legislate against universal health care, thereby practicing socio-economic Darwinism. Public satires against the homeless appear as symptoms of this disease.
Chris Deile
The health industry: Cures or poisons?
In your previous edition (May, 2005), you stated that Alaska is among the highest-rated states in mental illness and violence. This is not surprising. Here in America there are numerous pharmacies, medical centers, clinics, hospitals, etc. Almost every major store has a ‘pharmaceutical’ aisle, filled with items such as ‘Benadryl’ and ‘Tylenol’--row after row of ‘over-the-counter’ drugs.
Asia (which contains more than one third of the global population), doesn’t have as many drugs as America, and yet the people are far healthier. Why? Because in many of those traditional cultures natural herbs, plants, and organic minerals are used to actually cure--not just control--such diseases as diabetes and Attention Deficit Disorder.
Why do you think there are so many fewer obese Asians than Americans? Due to the overpopulation and poverty the people are forced into a natural life that includes the use of natural remedies.
If the Food and Drug Administration were to permit the use of these natural herbs and minerals millions of jobs would be at risk. Pharmacies, medical centers, and hospitals nationwide would close.
I am currently on the ‘Candle of Light’ society, for the Epilepsy Foundation of America, and it was through them that I was able to learn of this information.
Daniel Martin.