First things first. I can’t accept the making, possession, or use of guns by any human ape. The whole point of a gun is that a body gets shot. I am committed to the peaceful resolution of disputes, grievances, and grief. Not threats, not retribution, not stalking, not killing.

That clear, I also believe people who maximize value for shareholders at major insurance companies are implicated in deaths and financial calamities that embitter and shorten people’s lives. Some people avoid lucrative jobs like the job Brian Thompson had, a job that relies on cold, algorithmically achieved profits as measures of success while cancer patients are denied coverage in response to those algorithms.

What are the heads of insurance corporations paid to do? To put their soulless software to work, so they don’t have to pull away critical care with their own bare hands. Then, to brandish their earnings on Wall Street.

While we’re on the subject, do you know that the US Climate Vegan Exchange-Traded Fund (VEGN ETF) keeps UnitedHealth Group among its top 10 investment holdings? Those holdings help keep an insurance corporation’s capital high. How does that help anyone promote vegan values?

Our government needs to admit there’s a problem with the privatization of something so vital as medicine. The answer is a single-payer medical system. We don’t need to live with the unsympathetic ghosts of Reagan and Thatcher policies.

As we all know, the Democratic Party has repeatedly pushed Medicare for All off the platform. To be frank, that’s not working out for them, and it’s not working out for our lives, and it’s certainly not working out for the grieving Thompson and Mangione families.

So much torment. All avoidable. Taxpayers’ saving accounts are raided mercilessly for military spending. War—a vicious, disgraceful, anti-health pursuit—evidently takes precedence over everything else.

Luigi Mangione—assuming law enforcement has the right person—gave up a safe and privileged life to take part in a microcosmic war, using warlike language about what “had to be done.” And this brought certain realities to the surface, rippling through social media and everyday conversations among friends. Needless to say, I don’t think Luigi (notably caught at McDonald’s) had the whole picture.

The Mangione family owns multiple right-wing talk radio stations, including WCBM (a channel with an “official gun range” that promotes hunting; foments anti-trans sentiment; and connects listeners with a bevy of Fox News and Newsmax personalities). Not exactly a font of tranquility and healing.

This brings to mind the animal-rights activists who will endorse threats on the lives of CEOs—but won’t engage their family members about their use and consumption of animals.

Meanwhile we have Trump walking free and indeed retaking the most privileged position in the country. We don’t have universal healthcare. The dominant political parties are funded by profit-focused insurers, including UnitedHealth. And our government is consuming the fruits of our work without taking our needs seriously.

We do have each other, and that matters. Every example of community and mutual aid matters. Let’s stay strong. Let’s stay engaged in the struggle for real change.

Love and liberation,

Lee. 

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Banner photo: Steve Rhodes / Flickr (CC-BY-NC-SA 2.0).