I was headed to the emergency room with a young man who was clearly dying. He was unconscious and foaming from the mouth. He was ice cold but he had a slight pulse. I had picked him up from the garbage dump and headed to the closes hospital. I also had two other workers from the garbage dump who were with me and dressed like they just got out of the dump. On arriving I dropped them off in the front and left to park the bus. When I ran back to the emergency room, I saw them arguing with some nurses, doctors, and security guards. They did not want to let us in because they looked poor. They were asking – “Who is going to pay?” I couldn’t believe that they were just going to let this young man die outside because they didn’t want to serve this poor guy. I joined the argument and eventually asked to speak to their bosses and then their boss’s bosses. I threatened them with legal action (bluff), United States embassy action (bluff), and United Nations actions (bluff) but eventually they agreed to take him in and serve him. Thank God that an American citizen was part of that group because we would have had to bury another young casualty.
A couple days later, I took a family to the hospital because their daughter had been hit by a car near the garbage dump. Again we experienced the same discrimination and prejudice as before. Nurses and Doctors would skip this family because they all worked in the garbage dump and looked extremely poor. Forget about the little first grader screaming in pain – ‘who was going to pay?’ is all the hospital cared about. I can’t believe the injustice of it all. In both cases I reached a level of anger I had rarely ever reached. I was angry that the people I love and serve, who work in terrible conditions for the love of their family, who make a dollar a day, and who are beginning a walk with God, have to continually suffer because of the socioeconomic class.
I know poverty is an epidemic. I have worked among the poor for many years now. But only now am I seeing the residual effects of poverty. The poor don’t have the same opportunities we do. They don’t receive the same service we do. They are not treated like we are. We need justice. We need God’s kingdom to come. We need it now. Please forgive us and help us Father.
