This is the story of a small town valedictorian who did everything America asks for in a son, and became the best of the best, Brian Thompson, the United Healthcare CEO brought down to the sidewalk by a bullet in his back and another in his leg. America prepares the best of the best, competition drives innovation and excellence, and all that; Brian rose to the top, and became so good at generating profit he could turn a system designed to pay for the care of you and me into a sure investment for a handful of the privileged few, shielded from behind their legal corporation from the pain, suffering, anxiety and desperation consequentially rising from their actions, and the very specie of their profit and comfort. Brian Thompson became exactly what America demands and worships, a man who generates profit! So good, he became a problem.
This is also the story of a prominent east-coast family’s valedictorian who did everything America asks for in a son, coming from the best of the best, Luigi Mangione, the lone shooter who was brought down by removing his mask to flirt on a security camera. America relies on the best of the best, one man with a gun, John Wayne and all that; Luigi, with cunning and determination, bypassed the shields of corporate protection afforded the gatekeepers of healthcare and hunted the human cause of so much suffering and anxiety, providing to him the very specie of American remedy: bullets, inscribed and in the back. Luigi Mangione became exactly what America demands and worships, a man who takes action! So good, he became a problem.
America, you created this drama with your strict adherence to capitalism and your inability to converse about complicated issues. America grow up. The evidence strongly suggests that the good we are capable of when working together is unbounded, and yet we let small-minded profit seekers take what is ours in the name of capitalism. The leaders of for-profit healthcare corporations and the fascist regime just elected and about to gain the leverage to further enable them must be stopped. And while shooting them all in cold blood is one solution, violence is not an enduring answer. Collective action is the answer. They may fear bullets, but they can protect themselves from bullets. They cannot protect themselves from the mass of America at once occupying all of their spaces, and simply not leaving room for them.
That’s why I propose all of us, form a line on one of the coasts, from north to south, and we all begin to walk toward the other coast, like the wall of a trash compacting room, and we all walk in one direction gathering corporate CEOs as we go and carrying them and the trash we collect, until we can finally deposit them in the ocean where they can fend for themselves in maritime law amongst sharks with only the hope they can somehow eventually reach the giant island of plastic garbage out there with which they might find some solidarity.
*Note—Specie refers to actual coinage represented by paper currency in an economy backed by gold/silver.
Chris Bevens | pedalpoet 