“Perceptions,” by Gerry Warner

Op-Ed Commentary

Just what we need before Christmas – another berserk story from the Excited States of America showing how far the nation has slipped down the pole of insanity to irrelevance and anarchy.

It all began a little more than a week ago when a young Ivy League school grad armed with a home-made “ghost gun” made from a 3D-printer got off his bicycle long enough in downtown Manhattan to stalk United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson and put two bullets in the back of the former executive who fell to the cold concrete deader than the proverbial doornail.

And few of the passers-by even looked up!

The killer then hopped back on his bike and disappeared into the hazy air of a Manhattan morning and wasn’t caught until almost a week later when a sharp-eyed McDonalds’ customer came across him chowing down on a breakfast burger in Altoona, Pennsylvania and called the police who easily did what an army of cops couldn’t do in the biggest city in America.

They arrested him on charges leading to murder.

And now the stage is set for what is sure to become another “trial of the century” in a country losing its ability to separate right from wrong and in danger of losing its moral compass too. Will its highly polarized political class save it?  Doubtful. Will its business billionaires and $500-an-hour lawyers do better? I doubt it even more.  After all, they live off it and live obscenely well.

Do I exaggerate? No way and point out that the person charged is one Luigi Mangione, 26, a former private school valedictorian, University of Pennsylvania graduate and son of Louis Mangione, a wealthy Baltimore businessman and resort owner.

But Mangione’s wealth fades when compared to revenues of $371.6 billion made by UnitedHealthcare in 2023, making it the richest health care insurance provider in the USA. Murdered CEO Thompson was paid $100 million in salary alone the same year. But critics point out that United Healthcare regularly denies almost one-third of the claims made against it, strongly boosting its bottom line but leaving thousands of insurance claimants untreated.

The evidence against Mangione is strong including bullet casings found at the scene matching his “ghost gun” and imprinted with “Delay, deny, defend” a phrase  he borrowed from the “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski, who he greatly admired.

In a bizarre manifesto, alleged to be written by Mangione, he showed his hatred of the American health care system after unsuccessful back surgery. “Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming,” he said, adding Americans pay the highest health care rates in the world but get results below some Third World countries.

He also praised the anti-technology theories of Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti who accused Americans of becoming “well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”

Despite his fanatic views, Mangione has won support from thousands, possibly millions, of Americans, who clearly support his extreme views and hatred of the American health care system.

“Free Luigi” memes are all over the Internet and other social media platforms and there’s wide-spread speculation over who should play the manly looking killer if a movie is made of his infamous exploits.

But this hasn’t impressed Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro according to a story on PBS. “In some dark corners, this killer is being hailed as a hero. Hear me on this, he is no hero,” Shapiro said. “The real hero in this story is the person who called 911 at McDonald’s this morning.”

But a wave of derogatory posts quickly swept over the Net supporting Mangione’s despicable deed.

Being a Canadian, I dislike writing so often about the craziness of American politics. But what can you do? There’s no other county in the world that resembles Uncle Sam as much as the Great White North and we’re not exactly enamored with our health care system either. But to gun someone down on the street in cold blood doesn’t make sense. It only makes the situation worse and encourages more violence of the most abhorrent kind.

Don’t you agree?

Gerry Warner is a retired journalist, who doesn’t know what to think anymore.

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