TRUMPED BY THE DONALD ON EBOLA
ANN COULTER’S MISSIONARY POSITION
THE VIEW FROM THE VIRGIN ISLANDS
By John McCarthy
Moderate Voice Columnist
Rupert Murdoch’s television station had been warning us for weeks about a looming danger from disease-ridden human beings crossing the border from the South.
But what Fox News didn’t emphasize was the gravity of the situation – that the people who were coming would be afflicted with a deadly contagion.
Or that these sick people with lethal viruses – would be our own citizens.
I think there probably is a reasonable argument to be made for not purposely introducing potentially fatal sub-Saharan diseases into major American metropolitan areas.
But those arguments should not be made by Donald Trump or Ann Coulter.
“The U.S. cannot allow Ebola-infected people back,” Trump told Fox News. “People that go to far away places to help are great – but must suffer the consequences.”
Conservative best-selling author Coulter wondered in her nationally-syndicated column why two American missionaries were working in the “disease-ridden cesspools” of Africa at all
“If Dr. (Kent) Brantly had practiced at Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles and turned one single Hollywood power-broker to Christ, he would have done more good for the entire world than anything he could accomplish in a century spent in Liberia,” Coulter opined.
Of course, The Donald and Ayn C. were referencing Dr. Kent Brantly, with Samaritan’s Purse, and Nancy Writebol, with Service in Mission (SIM) – medical missionaries who were infected with Ebola while working with patients in Liberia. Brantly and Writebol are being treated at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.
In a Summer of Firsts – with two’s wild – we’ve gone from two bleached-white American flags flying high on the Brooklyn Bridge, to two furious hurricanes bearing down on Hawaii in tandem – to two American heroes coming home for treatment in hazmat suits being followed in real time by TV cameras.
Oliver Stone and Vladimir Putin like to ridicule the United States for its so-called Exceptionalism. But anyone seeing two Americans getting medevaced from Africa have to know that something extraordinary was going on. When was the last time you can remember seeing live coverage of the top of an ambulance as it carries a patient to the hospital?
If comedy shows are any indication of the seriousness of the public health risk to the citizens of Georgia, then it must be very low indeed. After all, Stephen Colbert on the Colbert Report said: “add to the horror, Emory is in Atlanta so they probably had to fly Delta.” Truth be told, the Americans flew on a private air ambulance from Phoenix Air.
Which brings us to the cost. If Libertarians, Conservatives and Ayn Randites wanted to properly argue against the humanitarian treatment of our own citizens – they should have followed the money trail. After all, Republican issues (excepting reproductive choice and guns) turn on only one issue – money – how much will it cost them.
And an air ambulance flight 8,000 miles from Monrovia to Atlanta doesn’t come cheap. But the estimated $100,000 to $250,000 cost of the emergency flights was picked up by Samaritan’s Purse and SIM – so Trump and Coulter can’t complain about that.
As a lawyer, Coulter should have at least a glancing familiarity with legal liability. So it is surprising that she – and the Donald – did not take that tack. After all, it is the Republicans that are suing the President. If the family of a major airline crash victim can expect to be paid $8-10 million per deceased member – what would be the cost to Emory University, Samaritan’s Purse and SIM for an outbreak of Ebola in America? Let’s just say that the financial futures of Emory, Samaritan’s and SIM’s would be about as bright as that of Malaysian Airlines’.
And if the goal of the war on terror is to protect every American citizen from potential physical harm as we have been repeatedly told by President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama, then there might be a more pressing issue for the Congress to litigate than Presidential Executive Orders. But with the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives on summer vacation ….
Which brings us back to The Donald and “Ayn C.” The Donald and why there is still a pretty good reason why conservatives in general are not labeled “bleeding hearts.” As Woody Allen used to say, “I’m sorry I can’t leave you with something positive – would you accept two negatives?”
“Stop the Ebola patients from entering the U.S.,” Trump tweeted. “Treat them, at the highest level, over there. THE UNITED STATES HAS ENOUGH PROBLEMS!”
Ms. Coulter suggested that the Ebola disease strain be cultivated here and given to the 90,000 refugee children who have come to the United States from Honduras and Guatemala.
“The best part is that once the children are infected, we can deport them back to Central America where they can infect the rest of the population,” Coulter told Fox News. “Once all the taco jockeys in Central America are dead we’ll colonize the territory with Americans. We could put up a few McDonald’s, Wal-Marts and Home Depots. Maybe build a Disneyland. It would be a Paradise.”
© 2014 John Francis McCarthy/Secret Goldfish Publishing House, LLC
John McCarthy is a reporter, photographer and University of Michigan graduate based in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Please send comments to: johnfmccarthy807@msn.com
The Abominable Screed 