Letter to the Editor: Disregard for life

It's called a callous disregard for human life, and it's a cultural disease that a lot of people are suffering from these days. I saw it on full display in Washington, D.C., when a group of legislators passed a bill that would have caused millions of people, including sick and disabled people, to lose their health insurance, their health care, and potentially their lives. Those people didn't just stand by and watch; they wrote the legislation to make it happen.

Those people, Donald Trump, Paul Ryan, Greg Walden, to name a few, congratulated each other. They smiled and laughed. They slapped each other on the back for a job well done.

If you ask me, there is no difference. Maybe those guys by the pond thought, if that guy wanted to not drown he should have learned to swim. Maybe they thought disabled people don't contribute much to our economy. Maybe they just think it's not their problem. Those are the exact things I hear people saying when they argue against a universal health care system like Medicare for All. I am outraged at what those men by the pond did. I am outraged at what Greg Walden did. I am outraged that so many people will exhibit the same callous disregard for human life and justify themselves and excuse themselves.

It doesn't make you a better person than those kids just because you can come up with some ideological argument that justifies you standing by and watching people die when you could have done something to help.

Serena Smith

The Dalles