Chip

“What are you going to do with the rest of your life? I mean, how long will you carry weights that aren’t yours? How long are you going to do the ‘right thing’ while everybody gets in your way doing wrong?”

N.F. then backed his pickup to the garage and we got the keg on the dolly and into the cooler. I said, “I see that no company is going to hire a guy who is over a half century old with a world full of experience when they can get a kid in serious debt with a college degree to do the work for less than half.”

Then I considered the fact that quite a few corporations are anti-American because it is they who send jobs overseas to our enemies for the sake of personal profit; that is the profit of execs and major stock holders.

“You never answered the question RJ, what are you going to do?” N.F. drew a pitcher of beer and poured me a mug full, waiting for an answer.

As we walked to the barn as the sun went down I said, “I have to change everything I perceive about myself because the America I knew is gone.”

“The country is different, not because of the President, but because we let corporations buy the people we elect like field hands hired to do wage work. The President as well as Congress answer to their money masters, not the people.” N.F. declared, “Fuck them, fuck the Congress, fuck the President and fuck their corporate masters…what about you?” N.F. took a long swallow, refilled his mug and motioned me to put my mug forward for a necessary topping off.

“I am going to go into some business for myself, something that I can do, something that I can make money at, I’m trying to put together a plan…a way to hustle myself through the tough times and get away from the nonsense.” N.F. said, “your not gonna do that if you wanna make money…the nonsense is where money gets made. People want what they want and will do anything to get whatever it is…life is a constant chain of transactions, trading what you have or what your willing to do for what you want.”

N.F. took a sip and asked, “what is it that you want?” I said “I want some more beer!” I ducked the question because the answer wasn’t simple. I just wanted to get away from all of it. I am burnt out on all manner of entertainment, plays, concerts and especially bars. But being a person alienated from my own world, a stranger in my own house, I find myself going where lonely people go. When I’m not around other lonely people I hang out with N.F. and bond with a keg of beer.

About that time Bernie showed up with a rifle and a night vision scope. After Bernie showed off his new rifle and what all he could see on a starry night we got on the subject of partying to death. It came up when Bernie discussed how he got the rifle. Bernie purchased it from Helen, the wife of his late friend Chip.

Chip died from a chronic liver disease and Bernie was pressed by N.F. for the details. Bernie needed something to settle his beer down so we cracked open a bottle of Jack Daniels white label.

Bernie got comfortable and then took us back to 1979. “Back in ’79 Chip and Doug (Bernie’s Brother) graduated West Point and headed for duty, Doug in Korea and Chip in Germany.

'79 was a fucked up year, Ayatollah Khomeini was back in Iran, China invaded Vietnam and everybody wanted to get high. Well at the end of July in 79 Chip got fucked up at this party and got real sick. He reported to his Command which quarantined him for almost 30 days with yellow skin, yellow eyes and Shingles.”

Bernie loaded the rock glass with Jack as N.F. filled his mug to the brim. I broke out my pipe and blonde Cavendish pipe tobacco cured by Uncle Lo as N.F. filled my mug and then Bernie continued his recollection. “Chip went to this party in Amsterdam where he did a little bit of everything, hash, blow, grass forever…but the weird sex he was having with some freaks from Morocco was probably what did it. Chip said he was swapping cum from these bitches after eating snatch and licking assholes.”

This part of the story didn’t really bother me until N.F. broke out some saltine crackers and sardines to munch on while Bernie took a minute for a bite of those stinking sardines on crackers.

Then my stomach started to growl. I loaded the pipe and kept the smoke rising to mask the smell. Bernie went on, “Chip got out of the Army after 6 years or so but Doug stayed. Chip met Helen in the mid 80’s. After his tour was up and he got an Associate Professors job at VMI (Virginia Military Institute).

Chip always had wild sex and did serious partying. One day Chip couldn’t get out of bed and he had lost all color, he looked like a ghost. Helen took him to the VA and he got the news that not only did he have Hepatitis C but his liver was all scarred up and not working well.

About 4 years ago they put him on a waiting list for a liver. Chip didn’t need to wait, it was a death sentence. Only the rich, the connected or the famous get transplants.”

“What the fuck?” said N.F. his face in a scowl as he finished drawing another pitcher of beer. “Your talking about Chip, the guy who came here to the pig roast about two years ago with your brother?” Bernie reclined with a sad look and said “yeah, that was him.

Crackin’ jokes, laughin’, tokin’ a hard working, fun loving all American guy. Four years on a waiting list and he couldn’t get a liver. But rich drugged out rockers, movie stars, politicians or filthy rich business men get a transplant in hours.”

I looked at Bernie who’s tone became hard and his eyes ablaze in anger. I said, “That just can’t happen all the time can it? I mean does anybody know how many people at any time are waiting for transplants? Who controls that process?” “Money does RJ! Money controls the process, money controls who lives and who dies” shouted Bernie, who now was pouring ‘Old No. 7’ into a rock glass. N.F. and I knew what was coming next. We strapped in for a Bernie rage rant.

N.F. topped me off again as Bernie got into gear, “I’ll run it down to you RJ; Back in ’93 Governor Casey of Pennsylvania needed a heart and a liver transplant. A black guy dies right on queue and Casey gets a heart and liver the next day. Mickey Mantle admitted he was an avid alcoholic. Mantle had liver cancer, hepatitis, and cirrhosis of the liver. Mantle didn’t have to wait 48 hours in a Dallas Hospital before he had a new liver, but cancer killed him less than two months after the transplant.”

Bernie sucked down some Jack and chased it with the cold draft from the frosty mug that N.F. sat down beside him and went on. “In this our new fucking high tech 21^st Century, all kinds of stars and money people got kidney’s Gary Coleman got two kidney transplants, Natalie Cole, Jennifer Harman the Woman Poker Player, two kidney transplants, Alonzo Mourning – Power Forward of the Knicks got a kidney transplant damn near right away.”

“Yeah Bernie, but those were kidney transplants” said N.F. as he swallowed down the ice cold draft. “The point I’m making is any critical organ needed by somebody with money gets to that person with money.

The rest of us can drop dead” said Bernie as he went on to make his point quite clear. “But since you brought it up N.F., let me tell you that getting a liver is harder than getting a kidney, let me tell you the Hepatitis ravaged rich, famous and powerful who did get a liver on demand.”

Bernie took a long swallow and ran it down; “David Crosby of the Byrds and CSN, partied his liver to failure and got a transplant back in November of ‘94. Freddie Fender got a liver in 2004 and died two years later. Jack Bruce of Cream got a liver in 2003.

Larry Hagman, ‘JR’ of Dallas got a liver in ‘95, he’s still alive. Evel Knievel got a liver in ’99 and lived damn near 9 years. Steve Jobs CEO of Apple got a liver on demand in 2009. Just a few weeks ago Greg Allman of the Allman Brother’s band who admits to being a sex fiend, drug addicted, alcoholic party animal got a liver. But not Chip.

We drank a toast to Chip and Bernie later passed out on the couch as N.F. let the dogs out before he went up to call it a night. I sat with the keg and let my mind run unattended with all its moral filters turned off. I did some checking and found out the following: According to UNOS (United Network for Organ Sharing – www.unos.org) there are currently 111,776 people awaiting transplants and less than 3,500 donors identified.

According to the CDC (Center for Disease Control at http://www.cdc.gov/hepatitis/Statistics/index.htm) there are as many as 3.9 million persons living with chronic liver infections and 12,000 deaths per year from Viral Hepatitis. Also, according to the CDC, Hepatitis C is a contagious liver disease that results from infection with the Hepatitis C virus. It can range in severity from a mild illness lasting a few weeks to a serious, lifelong illness.

Hepatitis C is usually spread when blood from a person infected with the Hepatitis C virus enters the body of someone who is not infected. Today, most people become infected with the Hepatitis C virus by sharing needles or other equipment to inject drugs. Before 1992, when widespread screening of the blood supply began in the United States, Hepatitis C was also commonly spread through blood transfusions and organ transplants.

Hepatitis C can be either “acute” or “chronic.” Acute Hepatitis C virus infection is a short-term illness that occurs within the first 6 months after someone is exposed to the Hepatitis C virus. For most people, acute infection leads to chronic infection. Chronic Hepatitis C is a serious disease than can result in long-term health problems, or even death.

Up until yesterday, there was no vaccine or cure for Hepatitis C. The best way to prevent Hepatitis C is by avoiding behaviors that can spread the disease, especially injection drug use. But as of yesterday News 4 WAOI reported that “A new medication just approved by the F.D.A. nearly doubles the cure rate, according to worldwide clinical trials. Much of the groundbreaking research took place in San Antonio, at the Alamo Medical Research.”

News 4 WAOI also reported, “The pharmaceutical drug ‘Incivek’ started hitting pharmacies this week. Clinical trials at Alamo Medical Research over the last six years show that eight out of ten Hepatitis C patients who took the medication were cured.”

This doesn’t mean that we all should forget about being organ donors or being screened for Hepatitis C. If you ever had freaky sex of any kind that involved contact with blood, semen or fecal matter you better get tested.

I know that many of you out there are saying, ‘I feel fine, fuck the doctors, I won’t test for a damn thing because they might find something.’ Get tested.

If you won’t do it for you do it for your lover, wife, fuck buddy or sex partner. We live in the only country on the planet where health care isn’t a right and financial ruin from health problems is a predatory finance industry. If you don’t take care of you now, the corporations and the government will ruin you and your family later.

RJ