I am a citizen of the United States, and I am suffering and may die because of human rights violations in my country. I work with the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign (www.economichumanrights.org) and help represent the millions of people in my country who otherwise would have no voice. I sit on the board of directors of the Tennessee Health Care Campaign and I am president of Music for Health Care. These organisations believe that health care is a human right, and we work closely with local and national organisations in the pursuit of health care for all.

My home state of Tennessee is the model for a national political campaign to dismantle vital social programmes for sick and poor people throughout the US. And whatever the model is for the US unfortunately becomes the model for the world.

These are the largest cuts in US history, and deaths have already occurred as a result

There has been a tendency to believe that poverty, hunger, homelessness, and lack of health care are nearly non-existent in the US. After all, the US is …