by Robert Thompson
I am still fighting against the cancer which has already destroyed part of me, and which will not, I hope and pray, be allowed to cause me any further terrible losses. The word "cancer" alone strikes fear into one's heart and mind, but, while waiting (as impatiently as ever, as I have to admit) for an examination under a scanner this morning, I thought of those who do not, for whatever reason whatsoever, have access to such tools of modern medicine.
As I have previously written, I have never had occasion to visit any part of your enormous country, but I hear the saddest tales of the lack in the U.S.A. of what we in our country consider to be the most elementary right for every sick person to be cared for in any state which claims to be civilised.
When I go every fortnight for my chemotherapy sessions, I find myself, almost always, in a two-bed ward, with wonderful care from dedicated Specialist Doctors, Nurses and their Assistants. This experience has obliged (and permitted) me personally to face, happily with all due humility, two interesting aspects of our way of life in this country.
Firstly, the sheer kindness, often shown in little acts, of the staff in the Hospitals and Clinics in which I have been treated, has given me a view of the best in humanity. It makes me grateful to be alive and to see just how good human beings can be.
Secondly, the men who have on these various times occupied the other bed in the different wards have been of all social classes and conditions, and this has made me fully understand the virtues of universal health care.
However, I now read that your present administration is continuing its policy of cutting back on care of all sorts for the least favored members of your society, including on health care. Being myself a Christian, I cannot understand how an administration whose nominal head claims Christian inspiration can do such a thing. If I transposed this to the situation around me, most of my fellow patients would probably never get any proper care, which would in my simple view be most unfair. It would also be a travesty of democracy if anyone could quite simply be left with a freedom to suffer, and ultimately die, just because he or she had not made enough money in his or her life to be able to pay for the necessary treatment.
The same comments can be made regarding education, but I have to admit that I have now reached the age where my concerns in that field, which remain fully alive, relate to my grandchildren, and no longer to myself or to my own children.
