Reality bites a friend

I just had dinner with two friends of mine, both pretty liberal (we try to avoid politics) one of whom just came back from a visit to Portland Oregon. While there he was struck with a severe illness and, after two days trying to endure the pain, took “the first ambulance ride in my life” to the hospital. Were he waited, writing in agony, for five hours while the staff dealt with the massive crowd of homeless drug overdose and shooting victims. He went on to say that the city is “fucking war zone”, with a homeless population out of control and crime, thanks to the state’s legalizing thefts under $1,000, out of control and forcing businesses to close.

So that was in effect, a liberal who got mugged and has moved a little bit right. Our other friend, who hasn’t been to Portland, dismissed most of it, but did acknowledge that when he was injured while working on a carpentry job in Boston, he went to the local emergency room with a profusely bleeding hand, where they bandaged it sufficiently to stop the bleeding and then he, too waited for hours while the active gunshot patients were tended to. He blamed either Reagan or Trump for that, he wasn’t quite clear.