A Canadian writes...

I came across a website that a woman created to promote a contest she is running. She's having a raffle for people who donate money to her best friend's sister, who has liver cancer, to cover the cost of her astronomical cancer-related medical bills. These bills are just for drugs and copays, which boggles my mind. Emily—the cancer patient—is a lesbian who lives in Kansas. Because she is a lesbian who lives in Kansas, she cannot be listed as a spousal dependant on her partner's insurance, so she must pay for these meds herself.

I live in Canada, and this is probably why I cannot understand how this. Please, explain to this confounded canuck two things. Firstly, why the hell is your country so hung up on the purported evils of socialized medicine? No one else is growing broke paying for medical care in other industrialized countries. Other countries—including my own—have healthy workforces. It's all funded from our taxes. What's the big deal?

Secondly, and no offence, but, what the fuck is wrong with your country? Why do people insist on making other people's lives a living hell (it's fucking cancer!) and deny basic rights like health care because they want to fuck people of the same sex? What does sexuality have to do with health care, or why does your country think it does? I don't get it. Really. Enlighten this incredibly lucky Canadian.

Colour Me a Confused Canadian

I find myself wondering about the sanity of my fellow Americans whenever I head up Canada to go snowboarding, a trip that takes us through northern Idaho. I can't count the number of times I've seen posters promoting fundraisers for sick people—sick children all too often—who don't have health coverage and whose families are being bankrupted by medical bills.

The redder the state, the more desperate the need for socialized medicine; the more desperate the need, the more rabid the support for politicians who oppose socialized medicine. But, hey, at least those politicians are makin' sure the queers can't get married. That's worth a few dead kids, ain't it?