Are we worthy of military’s sacrifices?

Any country that can’t see to it that all of its citizens have adequate health care without constant whining is neither good, nor great.

In America when we perceive a foreign threat, real, or imagined, we will bear any cost, put jets in the air, ships at sea, and boots on the ground to meet the challenge. But when the lives of ordinary citizens are at risk because of an accident or illness, the Republican Party defers to budget priorities.

Religious leaders and secular philosophers have throughout the ages pointed out that at the very core of human values is the moral requirement to treat human beings not as a means to an end, but as ends in themselves. In a nutshell, all lives are sacred, or none are.

The map is not the territory. Our arbitrarily rigged system of commerce is not more important than the people it is supposed to serve. When too many citizens forget this, the goodwill necessary for the common good gives way to contempt, and inequality escalates with partisan support by some ideologues because they deem poverty to be a just comeuppance for outsiders.

It is deeply ironic that the party that harps constantly about values has been instrumental in creating an economic ethos in which our soldiers can go to war on foreign soil and die in combat, while being fully aware that they may have family members back home who may perish, not for want of an army, but because of an indifferent public.

Moreover, members of our military are also aware that when people at home are asked about what’s on their mind, for the majority, it’s more likely to be low taxes and personal responsibility than the sacrifices of those who wage war on their behalf.

Think about the irony in the prospect that members of our armed forces could have a parent or sibling die because of a lack of health insurance when the cost of their medical treatment would have been far less that a missile or bomb they launched that missed its target.

Is a society this apathetic worth fighting for? Is this freedom? Does killing enemies overseas warrant any cost, while saving the lives of family at home has to be on the cheap, or not at all?

Covering our uninsured citizens who are in dire straits medically requires no ships at sea or troops on the ground. Instead, what’s needed is pennies on the dollar in a culture in which the tax burden has been legislatively shifted from corporations paying a third of the tab a half century ago, to paying barely 10 percent today. And that’s not counting the fact that taxpayers pick up the tab for food stamps (that some in our armed forces also rely on) so some of our most profitable companies can pay poverty level wages.

The GOP bears the brunt of personal responsibility for this rigged inequity, for fighting tooth and nail at every opportunity against raising the minimum wage.

Politicians are elected to establish priorities, solve problems and govern. A necessary benchmark of human decency for any country worthy of calling itself good, let alone great, requires that public safety and public health are fundamental priorities. Because genuine values decree that human lives are sacred and our budgets are simply profane.

Now those of you who oppose Medicaid expansion for what you refer to as “ideological reasons” can quote GOP talking points about fiscal responsibility and personal accountability until Fox News offers you a job. But this won’t hide the fact that if you can’t support a public policy that treats everyone as if their lives really matter, then your ideology is morally bankrupt.

Decades of Ayn Randian rhetoric steeped in arrogance and contempt have effectively brainwashed a significant number of our citizens to reify economics to such a degree that money trumps all other values and concerns, even religion. If you are fortunate to live long enough you may unravel this indoctrination and come to realize that there are things in life much more valuable than money, and that politicians who don’t understand this moral principle need to be voted out of office.

Let me be crystal clear: A country that can’t create enough bipartisan goodwill to see that all of its citizens have equal access to affordable health care is unworthy of the sacrifices made by our men and women in uniform.

Charles D. Hayes, a Wasilla resident for more than 40 years, is a self-taught philosopher and a prominent advocate of lifelong learning. He is author of 14 books, including September University: Summoning Passion for an Unfinished Life, numerous essays, and an array of shorter works. Contact him at autpress@alaska.net. Twitter: @CDHWasilla.