was preventable
but in some ways was also
inevitable
The story I read, Down to Earth: The Arizona teen whose death in extreme heat is a warning of tragic things to come, by Nina Lakhani in the Guardian, is an article about the heat in Phoenix and the death in 2022 of a young man named Caleb Blair.
Caleb Blair, Ms. Lakhani writes, was a sweet talented kid with mental health struggles ended up naked and handcuffed, high and overheated, on the forecourt of a Circle K gas station.
It is an article filled with awfulness on many many levels.
Ms. Lakhani writes: His tragic death was preventable, but in some ways it was also inevitable given the US’s social, health and economic inequalities. And it signals that the climate crisis is a risk multiplier – it exposes, intersects with and amplifies existing problems such as housing shortages, inadequate mental health and addiction services, racist policing, and the lack of shade in cities, to name just a few.
His tragic death was preventable, but in some ways it was also inevitable given the US’s social, health and economic inequalities.
A terrible statement to read or say out loud.
A statement made more terrible maybe as that it mentions the US’s social, health and economic inequalities.
Social, health and economic inequalities in the United States.
The greatest country on the face of the earth.
One month after Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt gave a speech that explained why America was in World War 2.
America was fighting for Democracy which, according to FDR, included economic opportunity, employment, social security, and the promise of “adequate health care”.
America, FDR said, was fighting for the four freedoms.
And just the four freedoms for the America but for the whole world.
The Four Freedoms?
Freedom of speech.
Freedom of worship.
Freedom from want.
Freedom from fear.
Joe Stalin saw the flaw here right away.
When Stalin met FDR and the Four Freedoms came up, Stalin asked if Want meant Desire.
FDR was quit to point out that he meant, WANTS or NEEDS not desires.
As an aside though, FDR was once asked what book he would have people in the Soviet Union read to help understand the differences between the USSR and the USA. The Sears Roebuck Catalog, said FDR.
Freedom from want.
Social, health and economic inequalities in the United States.
Preventable, but in some ways it was also inevitable.
Maybe as George Bailey said, “… is it too much to have them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath?
Preventable, but in some ways it was also inevitable.
Maybe I need to include the first part of that line of George Bailey’s from It’s a Wonderful Life.
The line starts, they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this town.
The living and dying in this town.
Social, health and economic inequalities in the United States.
Preventable, but in some ways it was also inevitable.
Boy Howdy, but if that isn’t the caption on the feelings of just about everything today.
Preventable, but in some ways it was also inevitable.
What happened to the promise?
No Haiku For You 