In a powerful 1982 film, “The Verdict,” Paul Newman delivers one of the most touching defenses of evident truth ever captured on film – for a woman rendered crippled through drugs mistakenly given to her by a prominent hospital, defended by prestigious lawyers, while he stands alone.

In his character’s impassioned closing in the medical malpractice case, Newman speaks these winning words to the jurors: “We say, Please, God, tell us what is right; tell us what is true. Yet there is no justice: the rich win, the poor are powerless. We become tired of hearing people lie. And after a time, we become dead … a little dead. We think of ourselves as victims … and we become victims …”.

I thought of this speech as I saw enumerated the damage to our country’s humanity contained within the “big, beautiful bill,” with harmful ramifications for the majority and greater enrichment for the most privileged.

– $600 billion in reductions to Medicaid over 10 years, likely closing many rural hospitals and nursing homes in both red and blue states.
– $300 billion in cuts to nutrition aid, leaving the most needful among our citizens, 11 million of them including children, in hunger.
– $1.5 trillion in tax breaks to the top 5% of earners.

“We say, Please, God, tell us what is right; tell us what is true. Yet there is no justice: the rich win, the poor are powerless …”

But we are not powerless, we can raise our voices — and we can vote out the offenders.

Paul Baribault
Lewiston