My "come to Jesus" moment about the unsustainability of the American safety net healthcare system came one day when I was watching the trauma team of a world-renowned hospital work up a black gang-related gunshot victim. It dawned on me how perverse it was, to see multiple surgeons and ER docs, representing collectively the better part of a half-century worth of doctorate-level education and the ragged pinnacle of human intellectual achievement, working feverishly to save the life of someone, an adult, who was probably barely proficient at the educational level expected of a white third grader, all because of some abstract notion of ethics built on the false premise that the people you are caring for have the same life potential that you do.

I'd seen this scenario play out many times before, but for some reason, this time it "clicked" with me about just how self-destructive and dysgenic our safety net healthcare system is, and how so long as this remains the status quo, we will continue our slow slide towards racial ruin.