Philadelphia Weekly

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This week I've watched a man I've known for years struggle to manage his life despite the fact that he's jobless, homeless and without health insurance. He was spending time at a shelter, but they didn't let people sleep over, so he's been sleeping on the streets. He's a dynamic guy who, despite struggling with bipolar disorder, manages to be an advocate for the mentally ill and a working actor. He's got more energy than anyone I know, even when he's not manic.

Thing is, he needs his medication, and because he's not gainfully employed at a company that offers health insurance, he has to go without. And not having the meds makes him sick, which then prevents him from getting a job.

What a stupid vicious cycle.

Across the country in California, Dave Thompson is having problems quite similar to my friend's. In the North Bay Bohemian last week, reporter Joy Lanzendorfer wrote about Thompson's problems getting treatment for his clinical depression, which was diagnosed two years ago. Since he was released from the hospital, he hasn't been able to get help. He's tried every healthcare provider imaginable, but without insurance, he's out of luck. Now Thompson--like my friend--is homeless, also sleeping on the streets at night.

Yet as bad as things are for these guys, they're in great shape compared to parents of mentally ill children in Richmond, Va.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch printed an article last week about parents who actually had to surrender their children to foster care in order to get them mental healthcare. The system, it seems, guarantees treatment only to children in foster care or whose special-education plans demand it. "The reason," reads the article, "is money."

I can't even imagine giving up my dog or cat--for any reason--so it's hard to fathom what these parents are going through. But when your 9-year-old tries to commit suicide or you're afraid to leave one of your children alone with his brother because he might kill him, you can't go without help.

And finally in the Trouble follies, in Nevada last week a 38-year-old man robbed a gun store, took a hostage at a pharmacy and, after more than an hour of keeping the police at bay, killed himself. Richard Mackey had previously taken an overdose of his antidepressants and left a suicide note at his sister's house. For some reason, he was then picked up by the cops and given a mental health evaluation, which failed to get him the help he needed. Then, just four days before the dramatic fatal standoff, Mackey tried again to get treatment by admitting himself to a state psychiatric facility. He was turned away, though, because he wasn't "the sickest of the sick."

Pennsylvania. Virginia. California. Nevada. Across this country people are homeless, losing jobs, losing children and dying because the mental healthcare system--and the plague of managed care--has crippled people's ability to get help.

And in the midst of this unbearable crisis in the wealthiest country in the world, what does our fearless leader do to help us live better lives? He endorses a universal healthcare plan--for Iraq.

I don't want to jeopardize what could be quite a score for the Iraqi people--and I know George Bush often reads this column before making policy decisions--but I was shocked that he'd suggest developing a rational, affordable healthcare plan for people he doesn't even like. It's almost like a sick joke--the kind of twisted thing the Green Goblin would do in Spider-Man. Instead of making Spidey choose between saving Mary Jane and 20 small children, he'd say, "I've got you now, Spiderman! It's either healthcare for the Iraqis and none for us, or no healthcare at all!"

It's unfair to put the American people in the position of being miserly and unsympathetic. How can we begrudge those poor people whose lives are in complete turmoil something as fundamental as healthcare? Well, I don't know how I begrudge them, but I do. Bush is my president, and though I didn't vote for him--who did?--he's supposed to be working for me.

In a recent issue of Reader's Digest, Tucker Carlson whines in his silly column "That's Outrageous!" that Bush is being demonized by the press these days--to which I say, it's about time. We've been deferring to him ever since 9/11, lobbing softball questions and giggling at the aw-shucks country charm the president pulls out of his ass when times get tough.

And as with 9/11, the issues surrounding the rebuilding of Iraq are sensitive. Bush knows that many Americans won't want to speak out against his benevolent suggestions for a troubled people in the troubled Middle East.

But I will speak out--and I'll do it every time I hear another story like the ones I've cited above, in which the gross mismanagement of our nation has tragic and unnecessary consequences.

By proposing universal healthcare for Iraq, George Bush is essentially giving the American people the finger. And though my mother always counsels me against the use of profanity in my column, I just want to take this opportunity to say: Fuck you, too, George. Americans are barely surviving without a workable healthcare system. Maybe you should pay some attention.