State of the Nation
Jan. 25th, 2008 08:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
randy_byersSo yesterday evening I took my undercapitalized co-editor to the Harborview ER. He had an infected tooth and was hoping to get some antibiotics. The day before, the Harborview Dental Clinic had turned him away because he wasn't delirious or swollen from the infection. Yesterday, his face was certainly swollen, and he was in a lot of pain. Pain, he said, was not a symptom the clinic had been interested in.
I spent a number of hours in the waiting room, reading the last pages of She and the first pages of Diva and watching life's cavalcade around me. There was a shattered-looking woman whose husband had apparently been in an accident and was in critical condition. A minister who was there separately for treatment of his own problem advised her that if God thought it was time for her husband to go, then praise God. Quite a bit later, another woman came in, sobbing, with her young son. Apparently another of her children had just been brought in by ambulance. The woman's sobbing jolted the shattered-looking woman out of her chair. She wandered in aimless circles around the waiting room, then sat down again. A fresh burst of sobbing from the other woman jolted her out of her chair again to drift around the room, eyes darting here and there, as though seeking the elusive source of the pain.
Behind me a homeless guy who was there for some warmth on a freezing night sat with a guy waiting for treatment and watching CNN. First was an inane celebrity "news" show that was all Heath Ledger speculation, all the time, except for the occasional "outraged" bits about Britney Spears and a custody battle between Denise Richards and Charlie Sheen. Later it was an "analysis" show where an outraged pundit inveighed against the (admittedly useless) Congressional economic stimulus plan. "It's a handout! It's more spending! It will only increase the deficit! Which is what caused the problem in the first place!" (No, you dumbfuck, it was greedy conniving Wall Street dumbfucks chasing El Dorado into a wasteland of financial mirages that caused the problem. And they'll probably get bailed out because public watchdogs like you will look the other way and blame Congress, you useless fuckwit.)
A woman on the show said, more quietly, "Other countries are watching this closely. Their economies are tied closely to ours."
The homeless guy behind me said, "I see what they're saying. People from other countries are coming over here to buy houses. They're asking for loans, and they're getting them with no questions asked!"
"Yeah," said the other guy. "People from other countries."
It was almost a relief that they weren't actually grasping the idiocy spewing from the television, even if their own theory seemed like a complete non sequitur to me.
After four hours of this (although it didn't seem that long, perhaps because it was such a scene around there), I was taken back through a maze of corridors to where the undercapitalized co-editor was being treated. It wasn't just going to be antibiotics after all. They had called for an oral surgeon. We discussed the next issue of our fanzine and the general topic of our editorial process. The oral surgeon showed up and rather obtusely (I thought) lectured the undercapitalized co-editor on his failure to see a dentist before this became a problem. (In the background I heard a nurse asking another patient, "How long have you been homeless and uninsured?") After more waiting, they made an incision in the gums to drain the infected area. The oral surgeon at least had the good grace to make note of the fact that his clinic had turned the undercapitalized co-editor away for no good reason the day before.
Six and a half hours after entering ER, we exited with bleeding gums and a bag full of antibiotics and painkillers. He came back to my place and spent the night, just in case there were any further complications. Today the dental clinic will see him to deal with the underlying problem.
Doot doo doo doo-doo doot doot, living in the USA. Do you think that it'll be easy? Do you think that it'll be pleasin'?
I spent a number of hours in the waiting room, reading the last pages of She and the first pages of Diva and watching life's cavalcade around me. There was a shattered-looking woman whose husband had apparently been in an accident and was in critical condition. A minister who was there separately for treatment of his own problem advised her that if God thought it was time for her husband to go, then praise God. Quite a bit later, another woman came in, sobbing, with her young son. Apparently another of her children had just been brought in by ambulance. The woman's sobbing jolted the shattered-looking woman out of her chair. She wandered in aimless circles around the waiting room, then sat down again. A fresh burst of sobbing from the other woman jolted her out of her chair again to drift around the room, eyes darting here and there, as though seeking the elusive source of the pain.
Behind me a homeless guy who was there for some warmth on a freezing night sat with a guy waiting for treatment and watching CNN. First was an inane celebrity "news" show that was all Heath Ledger speculation, all the time, except for the occasional "outraged" bits about Britney Spears and a custody battle between Denise Richards and Charlie Sheen. Later it was an "analysis" show where an outraged pundit inveighed against the (admittedly useless) Congressional economic stimulus plan. "It's a handout! It's more spending! It will only increase the deficit! Which is what caused the problem in the first place!" (No, you dumbfuck, it was greedy conniving Wall Street dumbfucks chasing El Dorado into a wasteland of financial mirages that caused the problem. And they'll probably get bailed out because public watchdogs like you will look the other way and blame Congress, you useless fuckwit.)
A woman on the show said, more quietly, "Other countries are watching this closely. Their economies are tied closely to ours."
The homeless guy behind me said, "I see what they're saying. People from other countries are coming over here to buy houses. They're asking for loans, and they're getting them with no questions asked!"
"Yeah," said the other guy. "People from other countries."
It was almost a relief that they weren't actually grasping the idiocy spewing from the television, even if their own theory seemed like a complete non sequitur to me.
After four hours of this (although it didn't seem that long, perhaps because it was such a scene around there), I was taken back through a maze of corridors to where the undercapitalized co-editor was being treated. It wasn't just going to be antibiotics after all. They had called for an oral surgeon. We discussed the next issue of our fanzine and the general topic of our editorial process. The oral surgeon showed up and rather obtusely (I thought) lectured the undercapitalized co-editor on his failure to see a dentist before this became a problem. (In the background I heard a nurse asking another patient, "How long have you been homeless and uninsured?") After more waiting, they made an incision in the gums to drain the infected area. The oral surgeon at least had the good grace to make note of the fact that his clinic had turned the undercapitalized co-editor away for no good reason the day before.
Six and a half hours after entering ER, we exited with bleeding gums and a bag full of antibiotics and painkillers. He came back to my place and spent the night, just in case there were any further complications. Today the dental clinic will see him to deal with the underlying problem.
Doot doo doo doo-doo doot doot, living in the USA. Do you think that it'll be easy? Do you think that it'll be pleasin'?
