Martin Luther King III professed that, “Violence is the language of the unheard.”

We in the United States were early champions of such a language, for more than 150 years the Thirteen Colonies gave fealty to a king across an ocean, and our rebellion didn’t start when one redcoat committed a crime on an American colonist, or one single tax that caused us to rise up violently, but a compounding mass of issues.

Violence is the most severe of human reactions, and with the recent murder of Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare, it acts as an unfortunate hand on America’s wrist, feeling the pulse of many of her people.

The United States has the most expensive healthcare in the world, but we are certainly not number one in life expectancy. Not in literacy, not in health, not in happiness (The latest Gallup report’s USA isn't even in the top ten for the last one, and likewise reports found the same is true for literacy and health.) People will often claim that the USA is the greatest country in the world, but, in what?

Just its military?

I love my country and my constitutional right to unfettered free speech – that same free speech that allows me to write this article and others – but in the meantime, millions of people are suffering and are in need of the healthcare they pay for. CBS reports that in 2024 the insurance premium for a family was nearly $25,000. The fourth largest company on the Fortune 500 list, United Healthcare, insures over fifty-two million people, but the Boston Globe reports that they deny one in every three claims – twice the industry average.

A video seems to show Luigi Magione killing Brian Thompson, the late CEO of UnitedHealthcare, which saw a four billion dollar increase in profits – profits gained from denying medical coverage – and all across the internet Luigi is hailed as a hero. On bullets found at the crime scene the words “Deny, Delay, Depose” were written on the casings and those same words were recently spray-painted across one of United Healthcare’s offices in Las Vegas, as well scrawled along the slides of railcars.

This article is not a celebration of Luigi, but a reflection into the angst and pain of Americans: if fifty million people use UnitedHealthcare, and at least a third of them have been denied claims and find out from the plethora of articles online already about the topic: that the company made four billion dollars in profit, allegedly at their expense. Things may only get worse, and unless something changes, they will likely not get better.

Unless things change in the healthcare industry and suffering is reduced, how can they? It doesn't help at all that people with the power to change things say things that are so out of touch: the CEO of UnitedHealth Group, the parent company of the late Brian Thompson, said about the deceased, “(Thompson) made a profoundly positive impact on the lives of so many people. People he never saw. People he never met.”

To the casual observer or those who have had their medical claims denied, the math adds up terribly: twelve billion in profits for UnitedHealthcare before the CEO took over, and then up to sixteen billion in profits before his death; all the while denying claims of people that need it.

The Dailymail and Intouchweekly, as well as many other news websites, have been bringing up jury nullification (when a jury agrees there is enough evidence to convict someone, but chooses to cast a not-guilty verdict) because the sympathy and support Luigi Mangione has been receiving from the American public. Even Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor told Newsweek that jurors may be swayed to do so. Likely because of it, far more Americans will understand exactly what nullification is before trial.

There is a real chance that at the trial, the jury “nullifies," and finds Luigi not-guilty, seeing as just how many people are angry at healthcare in the United States. How will things change then for Americans if the New York prosecutor fails at prosecuting what seems to be a cut-and-dry affair with all the evidence that was found on his person?

Even if the jury doesn't give Luigi a pass – the rage, and anger of those who can no longer pay for cancer treatments or other ailments continues on, unabated.

People may state nobly that violence is not the answer, but people have been crying out for years about how awful the American healthcare system is, using words to try and fix the problem to no avail. As the American author and Auschwitz holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel wrote,“When language fails, violence becomes the language.”

Let this violence not be forgotten about or buried as it is a symptom of a problem that we as Americans need to attend to with diligence and care so that no more need to be hurt in a cycle of pain. We need to vote for politicians who will make bare health insurance and strip it down so we can rebuild it for the sake of the American people while continuing to punish those who break the rules of law.

Austin Petak is an aspiring novelist and freelance journalist who loves seeking stories and the quiet passions of the soul. If you are interested in reaching out to me to cover a story, you may find him at austinpetak@gmail.com.

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