Sometimes it’s difficult to block out the screeching noise of political rhetoric. The bombastic blather is so harsh that it can, despite our best efforts, spill over into those periods you sought to devote to peaceful, good thoughts.
This week I had a boatload of emotions stirred by government doings emanating from the tall building in downtown Baton Rouge, and the others at a local drugstore.
There’s little doubt you’ve heard that Republican Gov. Jeff Landry enthusiastically signed into law a bill that gives people 18 years old and older the right to carry a concealed gun, without a license, even if they don’t know anything about using it.
Makes sense, right? Wrong. This ought to make you nervous and afraid.
So next year that high school senior, who knows nothing about guns, could be strapped with a .45 caliber handgun at the prom or graduation.
Nice.
Also, there is proposed legislation that would seek to tell poor people who receive state aid what kind of food they should buy.
Essentially, conservative lawmakers want them to eat broccoli instead of candy. Sounds good, but isn’t it the GOP who complain that the federal government spends too much time in their personal lives? Now they want to barge into people’s dinner tables.
I hope no overweight legislators, nor legislators with overweight children, get to vote on this measure.
Remember, this is the same state that recently turned down millions in federal dollars to help children of low-income households get funds for a special summer meal program.
Combining these things, it seems the governor and his folk are in favor of less food for many and more bullets for all.
More on these things at a later day. For now, here is a truth I ran into at a drugstore.
I was standing in line at a local pharmacy waiting to get a prescription filled. My mind was focused on the next stops on my agenda.
Just then, I could hear the clerk at the drive-up window speaking to someone in a car about the costs of their prescriptions. I recall the clerk saying the total was in the $60 to $70 range. About 10 seconds later, the clerk responded politely, “That’s the cost, ma’am.”
The person must have asked for individual costs of the items. “What? You’re out of all three? So, you just want the (medicine) instead of all three?” The clerk put one item in the bag.
Just a minute later, another customer apparently questioned the cost of their prescription. The clerk said “I know, ma’am, but that’s what it costs. Your insurance doesn’t cover all of it.”
The clerk turned to a co-worker and said in a sad tone: “She just drove off.”
I felt bad, even angry with myself for not asking the clerk what it cost so that I could buy it.
I wonder what medications these customers didn’t get. Are they being forced to play a dangerous game with their health because insurance and other assistance are nowhere for them? Maybe they left because they hoped they could get their medications cheaper somewhere else.
You’re left to wonder if people have to determine which medicine, some of it probably life-extending, they can purchase and then hope for the best outcome. Or if they decide not to buy any and pray. I wonder how many times this trade-off happens at that drugstore and others every day.
While there are medical cost reduction programs available for seniors, I have no way of knowing the ages of the people forced to leave some important medications for themselves, and maybe for their children, at the drugstore.
It has not been a good week of things to think about.
But I can be hopeful. There is always next week — and I will stand in the drugstore line and buy someone their medications.
Email Edward Pratt, a former newspaperman, at epratt1972@yahoo.com.