You are not being asked to be anything other than human...

[Michie]

This column was meant to be a bit of a new year advisory, a heady warning about all the "troubling trends to look out for in 2025," and heaven knows there are enough alarming currents sweeping all around us.

One in particular has enough undertows to sink the whole society: the story of Luigi Mangione, his murder of United Health Care CEO Brian Thompson and the ensuing hero worship, of him -- demonstrated by the "holy" candles, card games, T-shirts and more being snatched up by admirers who probably think themselves opposed to capitalism but still need to display the season's assassination chic.

There are enough tentacles reaching out from this Kraken of a story to concern anyone capable of reason, but the most troubling is the recent poll out of Emerson University showing that 41% of voters aged 18-29 find Mangione's cold-blooded action an acceptable means to an end.

Continued below.

https://news.diocesetucson.org/news/being-human-the-challenging-task-of-2025

 

[Wolseley]

Yes, there are trends sweeping about us, and most of them are not good. Most of them are of our own making; some are not. I continue to be struck by the alarming uptick in seismic and volcanic activity, all over the world.....it's almost as if Planet Earth is gearing up to do something big and ugly; tectonic shifts, magnetic pole reversals, supervolcanoes, 10.0 earthquakes, oceanic currents shifting, tsunamis, Lord knows what else.

As for Luigi Mangione, I don't condone what he did, but I do understand it. Most people in this country are sick and tired of the medical/insurance complex and the way it operates. A simple office visit can end up costing most of a paycheck, what with consults, unnecessary tests, overpriced prescriptions, etc., etc., etc. And a major illness that insurance decides it isn't going to cover can bankrupt an ordinary family, putting them under crushing debt or even putting them out on the street.

This wouldn't be happening if we didn't have a system where health care is a means of massive profit for the providers of it, as well as the ones supposedly financing it. There is an entire industry based on taking advantage of the sufferings of ill people and exploiting them for profit. Again, I don't condone murdering insurance executives, but realistically, they really have only themselves to blame.

 

[fide]

Yes, there are trends sweeping about us, and most of them are not good. Most of them are of our own making; some are not. I continue to be struck by the alarming uptick in seismic and volcanic activity, all over the world.....it's almost as if Planet Earth is gearing up to do something big and ugly; tectonic shifts, magnetic pole reversals, supervolcanoes, 10.0 earthquakes, oceanic currents shifting, tsunamis, Lord knows what else.

As for Luigi Mangione, I don't condone what he did, but I do understand it. Most people in this country are sick and tired of the medical/insurance complex and the way it operates. A simple office visit can end up costing most of a paycheck, what with consults, unnecessary tests, overpriced prescriptions, etc., etc., etc. And a major illness that insurance decides it isn't going to cover can bankrupt an ordinary family, putting them under crushing debt or even putting them out on the street.

This wouldn't be happening if we didn't have a system where health care is a means of massive profit for the providers of it, as well as the ones supposedly financing it. There is an entire industry based on taking advantage of the sufferings of ill people and exploiting them for profit. Again, I don't condone murdering insurance executives, but realistically, they really have only themselves to blame.

Are you sure you don't want to edit, or better, delete, this last statement??????
"I don't condone murdering insurance executives, but realistically, they really have only themselves to blame."
The last paragraph is taking a step toward the wrong side, brother.
"This wouldn't be happening if ..... " Really? Are you sure?

 

[fide]

This column was meant to be a bit of a new year advisory, a heady warning about all the "troubling trends to look out for in 2025," and heaven knows there are enough alarming currents sweeping all around us.

One in particular has enough undertows to sink the whole society: the story of Luigi Mangione, his murder of United Health Care CEO Brian Thompson and the ensuing hero worship, of him -- demonstrated by the "holy" candles, card games, T-shirts and more being snatched up by admirers who probably think themselves opposed to capitalism but still need to display the season's assassination chic.

There are enough tentacles reaching out from this Kraken of a story to concern anyone capable of reason, but the most troubling is the recent poll out of Emerson University showing that 41% of voters aged 18-29 find Mangione's cold-blooded action an acceptable means to an end.

Continued below.

https://news.diocesetucson.org/news/being-human-the-challenging-task-of-2025

These are troubling times, that is certain. Her final paragraph does describe, but does not answer, the crucial question set before humanity from the beginning:

But amid all that is teeming and roiling, it is good, and solemnly vital, for us to remember this: We are not being asked to be anything other than human. The task before us, then, is to define and model to the world exactly what "being human" means.

Adam and Eve right away got it wrong. They failed the test question, as many today continue to also. Frank Sinatra sang a very popular song 'way back named "My Way". Many do continue to prefer to "do it my way", and satan laughs, and the world continues to groan in darkness, despair and suffering.

And now, the end is near;
And so I face the final curtain.
My friend, I'll say it clear,
I'll state my case, of which I'm certain.

I've lived a life that's full.
I've traveled each and ev'ry highway;
But more, much more than this,
I did it my way.

 

[Wolseley]

Are you sure you don't want to edit, or better, delete, this last statement??????
"I don't condone murdering insurance executives, but realistically, they really have only themselves to blame."
The last paragraph is taking a step toward the wrong side, brother.
"This wouldn't be happening if ..... " Really? Are you sure?

I was trying to convey that actions will have consequences. Not trying to sound callous, and certainly not saying we should form vigilante posses; I'm just making the observation that if you oppress people long enough, sooner or later they will rebel, and the system of oppression you have built up will crumble and you will be in a bad way.

How many years have people been telling the medical/insurance complex that this system for profit is unfair, unjust, and oppressive? And the insurance complex has sneered and gone right on raising prices. It's been happening for fifty years, because they're not about to relinquish their cash cow---they make billions every year off the illnesses and medical conditions of people who are ill-equipped to suffer such astronomical prices. Sooner or later, it's going to blow up. People are going to refuse to pay $5.00 for an aspirin tablet any more.

What they do about it is anybody's guess---but it could go in a lot of different directions. I would hope such rapacious greed could be curbed by legislation; but as we all know, the legislators in this country are just as viciously greedy and corrupt as the medical/insurance complex is. And as John F. Kennedy once so cogently observed, "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, thereby make violent revolution inevitable."

And that could all be avoided, if the medical/insurance establishment would simply ease up and cut people some slack with health care costs...but they're not going to do that. So if it blows up in their faces, who's to blame for that? They are. (shrug) John Wayne had a line in a movie once: "I told the boy not to pet that dog, ma'am, 'cause that dog don't take to pettin'; but he didn't wanna listen. And if he ain't gonna learn by bein' told, then he's gonna hafta learn by gettin' bit."

These are troubling times, that is certain. Her final paragraph does describe, but does not answer, the crucial question set before humanity from the beginning:

Adam and Eve right away got it wrong. They failed the test question, as many today continue to also. Frank Sinatra sang a very popular song 'way back named "My Way". Many do continue to prefer to "do it my way", and satan laughs, and the world continues to groan in darkness, despair and suffering.

Hey, now, watch what you say about Frank. Yeah, he was an unfaithful husband, a party boy, had connections to the Mob, and was a horrible example as a human being----but I still love his voice.

 

[fide]

I was trying to convey that actions will have consequences. Not trying to sound callous, and certainly not saying we should form vigilante posses; I'm just making the observation that if you oppress people long enough, sooner or later they will rebel, and the system of oppression you have built up will crumble and you will be in a bad way.

How many years have people been telling the medical/insurance complex that this system for profit is unfair, unjust, and oppressive? And the insurance complex has sneered and gone right on raising prices. It's been happening for fifty years, because they're not about to relinquish their cash cow---they make billions every year off the illnesses and medical conditions of people who are ill-equipped to suffer such astronomical prices. Sooner or later, it's going to blow up. People are going to refuse to pay $5.00 for an aspirin tablet any more.

What they do about it is anybody's guess---but it could go in a lot of different directions. I would hope such rapacious greed could be curbed by legislation; but as we all know, the legislators in this country are just as viciously greedy and corrupt as the medical/insurance complex is. And as John F. Kennedy once so cogently observed, "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, thereby make violent revolution inevitable."

And that could all be avoided, if the medical/insurance establishment would simply ease up and cut people some slack with health care costs...but they're not going to do that. So if it blows up in their faces, who's to blame for that? They are. (shrug) John Wayne had a line in a movie once: "I told the boy not to pet that dog, ma'am, 'cause that dog don't take to pettin'; but he didn't wanna listen. And if he ain't gonna learn by bein' told, then he's gonna hafta learn by gettin' bit."

Hey, now, watch what you say about Frank. Yeah, he was an unfaithful husband, a party boy, had connections to the Mob, and was a horrible example as a human being----but I still love his voice.

We do agree that Sinatra had a great voice, and was able to communicate very strongly, delivering very strongly the thoughts and feelings of a song. In the case of "My Way", he did it well, but he chose to "sell" a bad idea. The answer to injustice is to do it, to live, "God's Way." We are taught to ask God to forgive us our sins as we forgive those who trespass against us. We live in a near-godless materialistic and self-centered culture. We are called to take up the cross and follow Jesus - to live righteously. We probably also agree, this is very, very, very hard to do.