Dear Editor:

These words are found in the Declaration of Independence, the Pledge of Allegiance, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. These are words purported to be of high value to both sides of the aisle and yet one side seems to have dropped the value of life when they openly state they do not believe healthcare is a right. Instead, healthcare is only a privilege.

This all stems from “unalienable rights” which the declaration says have been given to all human beings by their creator. How does reducing any “unalienable right” such as health rights needed to live, get reduced to a privilege? Why are some politicians in the “richest country in the world” refusing life saving treatment?

Recently, via police cams, I witnessed a young Minnesota man suddenly stop his car after hitting something. Two officers on the same highway noticed he seemed to be giving CPR to the unknown injured creature, so they pulled over to help. Imagine, three men were trying to save a life when it was clear they would not receive insurance payments. The officers were stunned when it turned out the injured creature was a squirrel, unalienable rights go to rodents as well as humans, and gratefully the squirrel’s life was saved.

Saving lives of the smallest creature generates a great joy. Lost lives in fire, earthquakes and tsunamis always bring sorrow, especially if they are children.

Those who speak of the privilege few do not define who or what will fall into the category of the privileged. The squirrel could fit in that category since the back-to-life animal zoomed up a very tall tree to protect hidden nuts he had acquired. Does he qualify? If human qualifications are limited to wealth, how is wealth defined — by hundreds, thousands, millions, billions or more? Did you seek the definition from the creator, or did you make it up yourself? Are those who insist on limitations of life through healthcare the same who claim “the right to life” of an unborn child?

We live in a country with unalienable rights that date back to our creator. Let’s keep it that way.

Jarryl Larson

Edgecomb