Political Agenda Over Reality: Guns Labeled Health CrisisJefferey Jaxen On the back of a forced vaccination debate currently in full swing, the US medical establishment is running dangerously close to losing further trust along with the hearts and minds of the people it is supposed to be healing. Gun-related injuries annually kill 32,000 Americans per year; this is the number that is used to support the argument to label gun violence a health crisis. Any injury or death from unnatural causes is a sad statistic, but when put in perspective this health crisis appears to be a bait and switch. Ignoring the real medical tragedies and shortcomings of our time, gun-related injuries represent a fraction of the people being affected by epidemic cancer, autism, and PTSD rates, continually gaining momentum alongside an appallingly high infant mortality rate. Interestingly enough, in March of 2014, Dr. Vivek Murthy, President Obamas Surgeon General Nominee at the time (now serving Surgeon General) called firearm violence a public health threat. Perhaps this continued misplaced attention year after year from a financially strained healthcare system with limited personnel is why the United States medical system was ranked 11th in the world in 2014. This is in part due to the observation that Americans live in perhaps the most bureaucratic society in history where terms like paperwork, documentation required, terms and conditions, and red tape have trumped healing and empathy. Looking at the entire medical system, one has to wonder if the whole goal is bureaucracy first, healing second. This appears to be why scores of doctors are fleeing their practices after they understand what bureaucratic medicine would look like under Obamacare. I cannot stand it anymore. More than half of my time in the office is spent filling out forms, writing letters, responding to inquiries, and attending to urgent matters that did not exist 10 years ago. And every year my income is less. At this point I would rather be paid nothing and have the freedom to decide what is right for my patients. Dr. John Curry of Fairfax, VA The United States is getting a glimpse of their medical care in the near future, and it doesnt involve adding value to society. Given that each year more and more paperwork, forms, and rules surround an average health care visit, IBM has offered their version of a final solution in the form of a Watson supercomputer to sort through it all more effectively. This is now being phased in at the Veterans Associations in Austin, Texas. The reason given was because our society has reached a point where the average doctor simply cant keep up with all the paperwork forms anymore. Instead of better patient-centered healing, education, and empathy, our 11th ranked medical system will buy robots to think for your neighborhood doctor. The end result will be a dumbing down of an already closed, one-sided medical establishment. With the addition of IBMs Watson computer coupled with forced government medical mandates, corporations and insurance conglomerates have created a system to streamline a profits-over-people approach for maximum financial return. [In an overly bureaucratic society] what they are trying to tell us is that value ultimately comes from paperwork. David Graeber author of The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy. References: LA Times: Gun Injuries a Public Health Emergency Jefferey Jaxen is an independent journalist, writer, and researcher. Focusing on personal empowerment and alternative health, his work reveals a sharp eye to capture the moment in these rapidly changing times. His personal page is located at JeffereyJaxen.com. 