New Job for the disabled: suicide bomber?

I recently read a story that prompted me to think about the health of American society.  It seems that 80% of suicide bombers in Afghanistan are disabled.  Now why would the life of someone who is disabled be so tragically deficient as to feel that suicide is an improvement?  Could it be that that since they are disabled that (1) the disabled have no social status, (2) they can’t get jobs, (3) that they are perceived as pariah, and (4) they earn money for their families which they can’t earn any other way since no one hires the disabled (worth more dead syndrome)?

“Suicide is painless, it brings on sudden changes,” this is a line from that famous introduction to Mash.  I never really understood the theme music for the show.  I suppose it could be that war is hell and for the mash unit, it was a hell to endure.   I recently met a vet from the Korean War, and he had suffered a spinal cord injury from his stint in Korea.  Certain bitterness was etched on his brow, but he wasn’t strapping bombs on himself.  Yet, if we were at war within our own borders, would he too strap on a bomb to take out his societies enemies?

Mankind marks itself with how it handles its disabled.  Horrendous mistreatments of persons who have a disfigurement or physical or psychological disability readily identify societies that mistreat others including their own citizens.  Look at Hitler’s Third Reich.  His regime systematically eliminated the enemies of state (political refuse), enemies of culture (non-Christian), and enemies of state prosperity (the disabled).  People who are not productive should be vaporized if they can’t help your nation compete in the global economy?

In the United States I have seen several very nazi signs that cloud the great reputation of the country.  The mentally ill were turned out of state-run institutions and left on the street, this was a harbinger of trouble.  Now politically minded folks will blame Reagan’s political decision, but since that time no other president or congress has done much to change the historical villainy.  Especially intriguing to me is how we sent thousands of soldiers off to Vietnam, and many returned with psychological disabilities.  Were these treated?  Well, the point is that we all know that many of our street people are these very souls, wandering around in a world that abandoned them spiritually, emotionally and left them to rot undercard board sleeping bags.

Now the state of affairs for our mentally ill community is amazing forgotten.  The well, the rich and the middle class, have built for themselves a wall of detachment from the issue.  Self absorbed in their own lives and the day’s entertainment, they have carefully erected near perfect barriers from watching the mentally ill, walking the streets like zombies.  The figures are amazing.  In 1960, the state ran about 175 psychiatric beds per 100,000 persons.  Since the Reagan era, the count dropped to 15.

What was and what  is the cost to society?  The estimate cost savings from not treating the mentally ill is huge.  Staffing mental institutions and the overhead, the inventory, the plant and facilities is in the billions.  But, what is the cost to society of having people not treated?  How can you measure those costs?

Could we like the Nazis be planning on creating a new industry of euthanasia.  We could staff those institutions with the unemployed.  The baby boom could provide a whole new industry – one of death and destruction.   Instead of watching them raise the cost of insurance and for taking care of their increasing medical expenses, we could provide ss style injections—like putting down the dog.  Heck you get disabled when you get older.  Maybe once we get good at it, we could eliminate the youth with disabilities, and those with incurable cancer, too.

Hey, maybe the president could create a new military force exempt from the prohibitions for the disabled.  Then they could have something to die for.  Strap on a bomb and wait for deployment into the heart of the state’s enemies.  Then the disabled would have status.  Then they could be held on high as heroes to the populace?  Boom, baby, boom, and maybe, perchance, you then live in heaven with 21 virgins!

From News Sites:

Suicide Bomber In A Wheelchair

British disability activists say change in UK assisted suicide law “abandons hope”

Mash Theme Song Lyrics

Euthanasia: The Dutch Experience

The Wise Sloth: my prediction on the legalization of euthanasia

Solid Article covering History of Suicide Bombing or terrorism

Don’t Trust Anyone older Than 30 – about, for and by baby boomers