Ms. Rodriquez and Class Warfare; A Dime for a Dollar

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/8161

Ms. Rodriquez and Class Warfare; A Dime for a Dollar
by Timothy Gatto | Jun 17 2007


Edith Rodriquez, 42, died in a hospital, writhing in agony on the floor of the waiting room at Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital. For 45 minutes this woman lay dying as passers-by called 911 on their cell-phones, complaining that the hospital staff would do nothing for her as she vomited blood on the floor. The hospital maintenance team made sure that the bloodied vomit was cleaned from around her, but the woman was another matter. The staff just let her die for no other reason than that she couldn’t speak English and maybe that the people with her did not have enough clout to get her treatment.

This is not just another tragic story of crossed communications; it is another story of murder by class. Edith was Hispanic, overweight, and the people with her couldn’t speak the language that they were “supposed” to speak. If she would have been a white woman, accompanied by a man in a business suit that spoke the Queen’s English, I can just about guarantee that Edith would still be alive today. Even if she had died, she would not have died on the hospital floor, she would have died on an operating room table or a hospital bed recovering from surgery, but the floor? Not a chance. The waiting room floor is reserved for immigrants and poor people. 911 wouldn’t even act on the call because she was already at the hospital. (Oh those crazy Chicanos, they just can’t get it right).

snip//


Meanwhile the mainstream media glorifies the people that have got it all as if they were some kind of new royalty. Will Paris go to jail? Good. While they are at it, they can take every one of these spoiled snot-nosed kids and put them in with her. That won’t happen though because there is a two-tiered legal system in this country, one kind of justice for the rich, and one kind of justice for the poor. With the rich, they get a lawyer, go through a bail hearing, get out on bail, and fight the courts while they sleep at home every night. For the poor, its jail, maybe bail. They go to court and the judge tells them to accept what he gives them and avoid a trial where or he will hit them with the maximum. A legal aid worker that’s underpaid and barely staffed tells that person to take what the judge gives them because it won’t get any better if they go to trial. They then take “the deal” and they go on probation or go to jail. Don’t tell me that this isn’t what happens; I have seen it happen more than a few times. If you are poor in this country, you are guilty until proven innocent; “Law and Order” is a fictional show on TV. Paris just decided to push the limit and they made an example out of her. Just because she went to jail, the court system feels sanctified for another few years.

Can I prove this? I sure can. Look at Amnesty International. We have more people in jail for non-violent crimes than any other nation on this planet! It’s all a con game. Every state, because of this wonderful War on Crime, gets Federal dollars for every day a person is held in County jails. The more people in jail, the more money the Counties make. The same goes for State Penitentiaries. The top industry in Florida isn’t their tourist industry or their citrus crops; it’s their prison system, same for Texas and Michigan.

This country is thriving on the backs of the working class. Meanwhile we are dying on the waiting room floors in hospitals, dying in prisons, dying in the deserts of the Middle East, all so the rich can get richer. The system is broken, the top 10% of Americans control 90% of the wealth, and it’s getting worse. Cuba has a better health system than we do. Almost every industrialized nation in the world has national health care. Meanwhile, these things never seem to be resolved. The same promises are given by every presidential candidate since I was old enough to understand; national health care, better wages, more prosperity and a government that listens, but they never come through.

Edith Rodriquez will be remembered for a few short days until another story comes along. You can bet however, that the news media won’t be banging their heads against the wall trying to find out how many more Edith Rodriquez’s there are out there. Meanwhile, life will go on, everyone pushed to the limit so that we can buy the latest “People” magazine to see what kind of new digs Tom and Katie will move into. This is class warfare, and I’ll bet you didn’t even know you were a part of it.

A news report out here on the local news indicated that "she had been in several times"..complaining of a stomach-ache..(duh!!)

They wrote her off as a chronic complainer..a wasteful user of valuable services.. they thought if they ignored her, she would go back home..:grr:

I once sat for FIVE hours with my athlete-son who was having an episode of a racing heart-beat. He was pale, clammy and I could SEE his heart pounding..and they made us wait!

I actually went throught the "doors that are off limits to all but doctors" and practically yelled.. "If SOMEONE does not take a look at my son soon, I am calling my lawyer".. They did look at him, and immediately took him back.. he ended up in the hospital hooked up to a heart monitor and had to wear a recording device for a week../. (the cause was never determined, but it was a very scary incident for us all)..

While we were there, a little boy about 7 or 8 sat there almost as long as we did. His mom kept going to the bathroom to rinse out the bloody dishtowel that she held on the HEAD-WOUND he had. the janitor mopped up the blood that was running down his arm and dripping from his elbow.. The janitor cleaned up the blood puddle at his feet ..at least 4 times before someone finally sewed up that little boy's gashed forehead.. he had cried so long and hard, that there was no sound coming from him..just the dry heaving of sobs..

His Mom and I had insurance.. It's just a poorly run emergency system we have :(

If they won't take a little boy with a head wound and a young man with a racing heart (which are pretty high priority), who the hell IS in the back getting treated?

because the health system is f'ed up on so many levels (and because some people are just stupid and love the drama of going to the ER).

there must have been 50 people in the waiting room. I took my son in at 1 AM when he awoke from a sound sleep with his heart racing.

It was nearly 6 am when they finally saw him. I had to call in late for work..race home (to change clothes) after he was admitted..and go straight to work after spending the night there with him..

The whole next week was a flurry of pediatric heart specialists & tests ...

Employers really have us over a barrel, now, don't they?