American Clarity Essays political, philosophical, and theological from an American romantic.

A short while ago, one of my relatives gave birth to a baby girl.  Within hours after delivery, being thoroughly exhausted, the new mother found herself trapped between the need for relaxation and the motherly instinct to caress her newborn, a conflict which the hospital recognized, though the mother had said nothing.  The hospital offered a solution: in a gesture appearing to be kindness, the hospital offered to take the newborn into the nursery for a short while so the mother could recuperate, with which the mother agreed.  But when the mother and her husband received the bill long after they’d left the hospital, they found themselves in a state of shock: the price of utilizing the nursery alone cost upwards of $800 dollars.  Begrudgingly, they paid their portion of the bill, incapable of any effective protest. (more…)