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Show 4 Wednesday March 5, 2014 OPINION www.dailyutahchronicle.corn ACA first step in the right direction U.S. must raise bar for human freedoms JACKSON HANNON Columnist T LUIGI GHERSI/The Daily Utah Chronicle GEORGIE ZAMANTAKIS Columnist T he open enrollment period for insurance from the Affordable Health Care Act will close March 31. As the period comes to an end, I find it fitting to reflect on the growth that came out of this act. President Barack Obama took an amazing and commendable leap forward with this act, ensuring that all citizens of the United States have insurance for whatever unexpected health complications may arise in their lives. This act ensured that being a woman is no longer a pre-existing condition that increases the amount you pay, it extended the amount of time that kids can remain on their parents' insurance, and it increased access to Medicare for the elderly. All of these steps made tremendous progress in protecting the right to basic health care. However, there remains a large amount of progress to be made. Trans* individuals seeking genderconfirmation surgery still find barriers to accessing this procedure. In an interview with The Huffington Post, Shakina Nayfack said, "This surgery, not for all trans people but for trans people for whom it's right, is a life or death situation." Every individual has the right to feel comfortable in their own body, to look in the mirror and see themselves and find refuge. For many, health care obstacles makes this impossible. Many insurance companies do not cover gender-confirmation surgery nor are they required to do so by law. These surgeries are deemed "cosmetic" for individuals seeking to align their bodies with their identities. The inability to go through this process leaves many emotionally distraught, alienated within their own bodies and potentially suicidal. These same surgeries are covered by companies for people with cancer — cisgender women with breast cancer are able to have breast reconstruction surgery paid for by insurance, although it is not a strict "health" need. The cost of these surgeries, according to costhelper.com, can range from $12,000 to $50,000, depending on insurance coverage. How can anyone be expected to afford this? Many trans* individuals are fired from their jobs, barred from hiring processes and kicked out of their homes, yet they are expected to come up with $12,000 to $50,000 on their own? This is just one of the many necessary steps this nation needs to continue making in the realm of health care. The idea of health care needs to be reconstructed within the American mindset. Health care is not a commodity — it is not a good to be purchased, and it is most definitely not a luxury. It is a basic human right, and without it, the consequences can be life or death. There is no reason universal health care should not be provided to every U.S. citizen. Billions of dollars are spent killing individuals abroad as well as incarcerating innocent individuals in the U.S. prison system and Guantanamo Bay. The federal government could begin diverting some of the money they spend on death and wrongful imprisonment to saving lives and ensuring a proper quality of life. letters@chronicle.utah.edu Nuclear accidents are dangerous, unacceptable radioactive material Karen worked with. She had filed an official complaint with the International Atomic Energy Administration about the safety conditions in the plant after she was exposed to plutonium. Soon after, she was mysteriously killed in an automobile accident. letters@chronicle.utah.edu letters@chronicle.utah.edu SALLY YOO/The Daily Utah Chronicle As far as anyone knows, the leak is still releasing radiation into the air even now Again, the cause of the leak is unknown, and the plant remains closed. At least 13 employees were exposed to plutonium and americium from the radioactive emissions. Although the DOE claims the levels of airborne radioactivity are not life-threatening, I do not trust their hasty analysis, as there have been miscalculations in the past. The way I see it, any amount of leaking radioactive gas is bad. The famous case involving Karen Silkwood and the nuclear processing Kerr-McGee Corporation in 1974 is still shrouded in suspicion over the safety of the Washington Post. In 2011, the last U.S. troops (though certainly not the last Americans) left Iraq, not with a fanfare but instead during the dark of night, without informing the Iraqi security forces who were supposed to be their allies. We invaded the country in 2003, and since then, there have been multiple reported cases of abuses by American individuals. In February 2007, according to The New York Times, two Iraqi men were killed by a helicopter after having made motions to surrender, and the military chose not to respond to questions about rules of engagement. After the debacle of Abu Ghraib, the events were brushed off as the actions of a few bored soldiers, and little was done to investigate the culture of the service that allowed the actions to happen. Our expressed anger and disappointment with the human rights abuses of other nations is well and good, but as a country we have failed to deal with our own abuses. Though it may make Americans feel good to read about a report of human rights violations around the world, it only serves to highlight our failings to an international audience. We enjoy a certain amount of supremacy in the international system, and we can and should do better when we act in these affairs. Columnist he term "cause unknown" is an ominous one, particularly regarding accidents and strange occurrences at radioactive waste storage facilities. But that is how officials are describing two separate incidents, nine days apart, at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M. The WIPP facility is the only one of its kind in the United States. It houses plutonium contaminants, of which the plant receives more than 17 shipments from across the nation every week. In the first incidence, a truck carrying salt in the north side of the mine mysteriously caught fire on Feb. 5, causing all workers to be immediately evacuated from the installation. At least six employees were hospitalized for minor injuries. All operations were brought to a halt, and as of yet the cause of the fire is unknown. On Feb. 14, there was a radioactive leak in the south side of the WIPP mine. The U.S. Department of Energy has gathered samples from water, ground and air, and they confirm so far that there was in fact a contamination in the air. Ryan Flynn from the New Mexico Environment Department said, "Any type of release outside of the facility or inside the facility is unacceptable and is disconcerting." he U.S. State Department's human rights report claims the Syrian war "stands apart in its scope and human cost" from other human rights abuses in the past year. Though it also notes the continued crackdown on protestors around the globe in places such as Ukraine, Venezuela, Turkey and China, according to the BBC, it ignores a simple fact. The U.S. has been complicit in human rights abuses, and until we remedy that situation, the soapbox we stand on is heading for collapse. The State Department is right to criticize many of the recent events regarding protests. In Turkey, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's government cracked down on protestors over the development of a park, going far beyond any legitimate need. The anti-gay laws in Uganda and Nigeria are a mark on the history of the human race. The treatment of Russian LGBT activists is appalling, and treatment of political opposition figures, such as Alexei Navalny, who has been placed under house arrest is a serious breach of justice. The U.S. condemns these actions, yet some states deny equal rights to LGBT individuals. Our great state of Utah bans the "advocacy of homosexuality," in classes in public schools (Title 53A, Chapter 13, Section all) while Arizona has a law on the books which bans portrayals of "homosexuality as a positive alternative life style," in public school classes according to a column by Ian Ayres and William Eskridge in The |