A reflection of America in the 21st Century

Several months ago I was fortunate enough to attend a health conference in San Francisco with other health related cohorts. What I learned gave me a shock and brought to mind that age old question--Why?

At this present time a black infant has a better chance of reaching his or her first birthday in Tobago, Haiti or Cuba than in the United States.

Of all industrial nations the US is 19th in the life expectancy for women.

60-70% of black teenage males in the American inner city are functionally illiterate.

The US refuses to sign the treaty to outlaw landmines.

The US refuses to sign the treaty to define "child" since it would outlaw the use of children in armed conflict.

The US refuses to agree to the new War Crimes Court unless the US receives immunity for war crimes committed by US troops.

The governments philosophy that it is protecting our freedoms by rapidly diminishing them. Many people seem to agree with this. Do we believe that we should live in a world filled with cameras? Do we believe that our reading preferences should be open for FBI inspection? Do we believe that it is ok to be arrested and incarcerated for an indeterminate amount of time without charges being filed, without our identities even divulged, without the right to counsel?

Why?

The US continues to espouse equality across the world and the American ideals of "opportunity" but we have these miserable statistics, as well as many more, which imply that perhaps the rhetoric is stronger than the intent.

We as a people are too good for these failures to continue. The major reason for the differences in health care between the US and many of the poorest nations is that they offer their residents universal care. Many even provide free emergency care to visitors from other nations. The US is cash only--even for its citizens.

In addition many of those cultures also respect family unity more than ours. We throw off our unwanted children, elderly and poor for others to care for.

We treat our people in the inner city the same way we treat poor third world countries--if there is no great monetary incentive they aren't worth helping. We will defend to the end the continuation of Taiwan as an independent nation due to the major trade we have with that country but refuse to acknowledge the wanton destruction of Tibet and small African nations because they have nothing to offer us.

The US did not have an issue with the atrocities committed by the Taliban until we, ourselves, were hurt. We support puppet regimes and dictators and then, when they turn on us, we condemn them as barbaric.

The government continues to restrict laws passed to protect the environment so that the large corporations don't have to abide by them. It is far better, so our government decides, for future generations to deal with the destruction of habitat and disappearance of whole species of living things, failing air quality, over fishing, and global warming, so that corporations may make a profit and perhaps, just perhaps, trickle some of that profit down to the rest of American society.

I realize that my statements will be unpopular for many, and I have no suggestions for a cure to our ills, but I would ask that you think about them and see what you can come up with. Together we may make a small change to occur which can only get larger over time.