Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Thursday, September 25, 2014

A 91-Year-Old Man Gives Incredibly Moving Speech on the Importance of Universal Health Care

Speaking at the Labour Party’s conference in Manchester, England, on Wednesday in what seems like poetic verse, the nearly century-old Harry Smith recalls his youth in the tenements of Britain, the “desperation of poverty” and the horrors of life before the National Health Service was implemented, all of which inspired him to vote for the first time. Though Smith starts off with a joke about the BBC show “Downton Abbey,” the rest of his speech is gut-wrenching as he recounts the preventable death of his 10-year-old sister due to lack of funds and the cries of a neighboring woman dying of cancer without being able to afford morphine. In the middle of his talk, the 91-year-old British citizen received a standing ovation from an emotional crowd.

Smith also highlighted the importance of keeping the NHS free for all, and warned that if it wasn’t, “Your future will be my past.” And when he eventually concluded by urging everyone to shout at any chance, “Mr. Cameron, keep your mitts off my NHS!” he was cheered on by an auditorium filled with, one can hope, people who will do just that in their struggle to keep the promise of universal health care alive.




Source: truthdig.com/
Author: Natasha Hakimi Zapata

No comments:

Post a Comment