article 25.

A few still frames from Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí's
Un Chien Andalou
I sliced my eye open. Not as dramatically or as irreversibly as this unfortunate woman in Un Chien Andalou, but noticeably, as in two weeks worth of steady eye drops (every 10 to 20 minutes) intermittently spiked with steroids; and feeling suddenly small and weak and vulnerable.

That kind of noticeable.

And I was reminded, because it’s been some time since I’ve had cause to feel frightened about my health or about the health of anyone close to me, just how terrifying health problems can be. How they can so frequently materialize all of a sudden like that and change everything that once was expected and certain into something murky and unknown that unsettles all your habits and plans.

I write this as the Health Care Reform bill just made its last tortured passage across the House and passed. Which I take as good news, as beleaguered as the bill came to be, because it’s the first step towards admitting, as a country, that the infirm among us, those whose full capacity is compromised by illness and infirmity, need our care.

This is why we band together under a single flag in the first place -- to protect to our common interests and watch each other's backs.

It’s that easy.

Article 25, Universal Declaration of Human Rights

(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.