I find this to be the perfect example of why I am completely and utterly opposed to the Tea Party and it's crazed agenda. This man risked his life to do his job, save other people's lives in arguably the most devastating tornado of our generation, and racked up 2.5 million dollars in medical bills. His insurance company won't pay a penny - in the spirit of the Tea Party - free enterprise rules supreme. So he's stuck with the bill. I guess he is a low life by tea party standards and should be let to die instead of having the gov't step in. Do we really want this kind of America????? I don't. http://news.yahoo.com/miracle-tornado-survivor-denied-workers-comp-170556418.html
Don't ask liberals to help. They just want to socialize everything instead of helping people directly. I find this to be the perfect example of why I am completely and utterly opposed liberalism and their evil agenda. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/za2Paxbn_1k" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Madonna’s brother tries to avoid frostbite For the Material Girl, charity, apparently, does not begin at home. Born and raised in Bay City, Michigan, Madonna gave $135,600 in campaign donations to Democrats last year. And two years ago she contributed $11 million of her own money toward Raising Malawi, an elite academy she founded for impoverished girls in Malawi. The academy was abandoned this year after $3.8 million was spent without a brick ever being laid. Despite bitter cold weather, homeless people are flocking to Traverse City — including even Anthony Ciccone, brother of Michigan native and pop star Madonna — because of the city’s exceptional network of services for people on the street. In an interview with Michigan Messenger, Ciccone explained why so many homeless people from throughout the region have flocked to the northern town of about 14,000. “This is a unique system with the churches here,” Ciccone, 55, said over a roast beef dinner served by volunteers at the Faith Reform Church on Front St. “You won’t find this in too many places.” The churches in town have collaborated to put on a meal each night that is free and open to anyone in the community. There is a church-run house that provides warmth, showers, laundry, food, computers, telephone and other services for four hours most days, and in the winter the churches take turns hosting people who need a place to sleep. They also provide breakfast. “This is one of the only places where there is a meal every night,” said Richard Tomey, a street outreach worker for Goodwill Industries. His mission is to help the homeless survive. In late September, he said, there were several dozen, if not a hundred, homeless people sleeping outdoors in Traverse City. “The word getting out about Traverse City attracts a lot of people … [from] Ypsilanti, Detroit, Grand Rapids, where they are getting hit real hard and there’s only two type of people on the street, the predators and the victims.” “They’re coming up here,” Tomey said, “and we are trying to do the best we can.” Ciccone said he’s been among the city’s homeless for a year and a half since losing a job at his father’s vineyard and winery in Suttons Bay. He said that it annoys him that some people are amused that a person from such a high profile family would end up sleeping, as he does, under the Union St. bridge. “My family turned their back on me, basically, when I was having a hard time,” he said. “You think I haven’t answered this kind of question a bazillion times — why my sister is a multibazillionarie, and I’m homeless on the street?” “Never say never,” he said. “This could happen to anybody.” “I don’t have any income, I’ve got to go collect bottles and cans, do odd jobs.” Despite the uncommon community effort to help the homeless here, there are gaps, and Ciccone was among several locals who got cold-related injuries last winter. “They can’t do everything all the time for everybody, they just don’t have the resources,” he said. “These people that run these things are all volunteers, they don’t get paid to do these things.” In the cold seasons the church shelters usher people out at 8 am and city rules against camping and camp fires make staying warm difficult. “Where do you go at 8 o’clock on a Sunday morning and you have no money in your pocket?” If you spend enough time on frozen concrete without proper insulation you will get frostbite, he said. “You have no idea how gruesome it is.” “You get nerve damage. That’s the milder stage, in the severe stage you have tissue damage, that is when you lose parts of your body.” “I got frostbite on my feet last winter, Ciccone said. “A friend of mine lost all ten toes. Several have died of hypothermia.” <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/luqXr99eYQQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Ah yes, the good ole days when neighbors would get together to build highways and power plants and dams... give people medical care, feed all the homeless, educate all the children. Those were great times in America.
Could you please elaborate on this point? And I reckon given the publicity this story will (and has) attracted, the insurance company will cough up eventually. I do wonder how big the company is though, and how much 2.5 million will do to its bottom line.
The implications that I don't give money or do anything to help the community is so offensive and makes you a real jerk. I'm actually well known in my community for work and money I steward and actually work through my business to bring money in to both local merchants, community orgs and school. I also donate. So you are a real idiot. And liberals do just as much as anyone else.
See the women in the above video. She is upset that she inherited money and "had" to give to charity / help people directly instead of our corrupt and inefficient government taking it by force. Liberal insanity.
This sickens me to the core. Ron Paul’s Campaign Manager Died of Pneumonia, Penniless and Uninsured The freedom to die from pneumonia complications, and to leave a $400,000 bill? http://articles.cnn.com/2009-09-18/...melstein-debate-over-health-care?_s=PM:HEALTH 45,000 Americans a year die from being uninsured going beyond the equity issues, even in terms of efficiency, economically speaking, a universal single-payer plan has been proven empirically to work better. it really boggles my mind.
But you said this man would die. Surely you can spare some charity to help him, as you would compel all of us to.
Voluntary or coerced, it's still charity. If you mean why is he not entitled to the wealth and labor of others via force, by virtue of his existence, well, theft and slavery are wrong. Sweet Lou 4 2 made a compelling case for others to give this hero our scarce time and resources to help him. Better to depend on the kindness of strangers for help, rather than the barrel of a gun.
I am not compelling anyone to help him....only pointing out how ridiculous your party's Platform is by saying people without medical insurance should be allowed to die instead of having gov't intervene. My whole point is that this man SHOULDN'T HAVE TO DEPEND ON CHARITY. You are spewing absolute garbage and a very deeply personal attack by suggesting I do nothing to help others and implying you do. I'd like to see the way you act when you get away from lobbing insults from behind your computer terminal.
No, that is not the case I made. The case I made was how screwed up the Tea Party is for wishing to allow for this man to die instead of gov't helping him out. Please speak for yourself going forward.
Government intervention in this case means forcibly taking my money and giving it to him. If he needs the wealth of others, whether via government or voluntary sacrifice, that is the definition of charity. No insult meant, I think your intentions to call attention to this man and get him help are admirable. It's the means I take issue with.
Taxes aren't charity, they are the financial obligation of living in an organized society. Your whole all government action is force is so stupid. If you really want to live in the 1820's then take your ass to Afghanistan already. Plenty of libertarianism going on over there, get your taste buddy.
Nobody is forcibly taking anything from you. You live here and as such you're subject to the laws of the nation. If you don't agree with them you're free to challenge them through the legal process and you're also free to leave at any time. No, that's not the definition of charity. This man has undoutebly paid taxes in his life and he's done so with the understanding the government is there to promote his general welfare as the law provides. Social security is not a charity, welfare is not a charity, medicare is not a charity, FEMA is not a charity, none of these are charities. They are the services provided for people paid for collectively by the people.
What does this have to do with the tea party? This is the same corrupt insurance BS that has been going on forever.
It's probably a reference to the debate in which the tea partiers cheered the idea that someone without health insurance should be left to die.
Yeah, theft and slavery, alright. drawing on worker's comp after trying to save the people you are entrusted to take care of is theft? Take aside your crazy "government is theft" and "private charity" will take care of us all---which in successive generations has been proven wrong by the Industrial Revolution, the Great Depression etc. since it doesn't even apply here. Unless you want to argue that a man who just dived into a f**king hurricane for his work, doesn't deserve workman's comp because that would "enslave" you and be tantamount to "theft", I think you should reconsider being poster-boy #1 for a church/family-based residual system empirically proven not only to be the weakest across time frames, but also across countries.