A Story for Our Times

On Saturday, September 30. 2006, Luis "Quike" Morales was bartending the closing shift at DC's The Argonaut. After closing up and cleaning up, he walked to his girlfriend's house about two blocks from the bar. At 5:30 am, he and his girlfriend were sitting on the front porch and, in a robbery attempt gone all the way bad, Quike was shot in the head.

Amazingly, he survived. After about two weeks in a coma, Quike woke up and found out that about half of his skull had shattered and would need to be reconstructed. Unfortunately for Quike, he works in the service industry, like about 23 million other Americans. And, in common with most of those people, he lacks health insurance, as our benighted country is pretty much the only advanced industrial democracy in the ENTIRE WORLD that refuses to provide universal health coverage.

Now Quike might be able to finance his expensive medical bills with credit - it's easy to get credit these days. But how long do you think it will take someone who gets most of his income from tips to pay off medical bills that are well into 6 figures? And thanks to the Republican 108th Congress and the credit card companies, declaring bankruptcy won't help. ("Consumer Protection Act" my sweet round booty.)

So what can you do to help?

1. Support gun control. Until recently, handguns were illegal in Washington, DC. Unfortunately, they're not in Virginia, and it's REALLY easy to get them there. And Virginia's only a bridge away.
2. Listen to Quike's story in his own words.
3. Support Universal Health Care. Support politicians who support universal health care.
4. Make a donation (securely, online, through Amazon.com) to help Quike pay his medical bills.