United

I once asked an emergency room doctor what the cost of one gunshot wound in Newark was to taxpayers—specifically, the medical costs associated with the uninsured men who are rushed to hospitals, clinging to life, and are often saved by talented women and men with the skills of frontline military medics. He said it could easily be up to $ 100,000—even $ 200,000 or more—for the medical costs alone, depending on the severity of the wound. Of course there are other costs, too, and financial metrics alone don’t measure it all. What is the cost of the emotional and spiritual damage to children, to a family, a neighborhood, a nation?