by George Bailey
Greetings from the United States of America. It is a privilege to be allowed to visit and share my thoughts and perspectives with you.
I believe I need to introduce myself: I am George Bailey DDS MPH. I include the degrees because I think they give you some understanding, for I am a health care provider here in the US with a special interest in what we call “ access to care”. I wish to thank Karabo for this opportunity. Now some background.
I have positioned myself in my profession to seek ways to provide health care to those here in my country that do not have it, for I believe health care, good health care with equality, is a right for all beings on this earth. That however is not my discussion point today, but it gives you a background as I visit with you about my thoughts in the future. You see, if health care and health is not available to all, there is a divergence in prosperity in any population and many that must do without never reach the place in society they deserve or desire. I firmly believe it is each of our jobs and within our province to make sure those around us are nurtured and do well.
In the future, I hope to give you my perspective on the United States. It is the only place I really know. I would be willing to bet you have many ideas about the 310 million Americans that comprise our citizenry, a most non-monolithic group of diverse people, and the prime reason for our prominence on the world stage. They brought us to this point, but without fundamental changes in our society here, we will not remain as we are for long. America I offer is crumbling from within. But cry not for us, for we have wrought our own destruction with greed, corruption and disinterest in the process of nation -maintaining. One of my history professors once said that was inevitable; sobeit, but it saddens me none the less.
Some of your perceptions may be wrong, some right; but never judge us by what you see of our TV and movies. You also may wonder as well about our representative form of government, and related problems to that… or even our racism that is still present today, 50 years hence from the freedom riders and Martin Luther King Jr. I hope to share much with you about my views on health care, economics, society or even the arts, something that forms a common bond between all peoples. I want to learn from you as well. Let me know what your wishes are.
Now quickly, for I have used a fair allotment of words to build a back drop for my future meanderings: some of my first offering on a specific topic. Many of you may be aware America is blundering through what we call mid-term elections: the election of non-Presidential candidates every two years not coinciding with a Presidential election, which comes every four. Confused? Not to worry, for most voters here are as well. Many could care less, but we have a new phenomenon this time around: the Tea Party, a group taking its name from a Boston rebellion in the 1770s against our then ruler, England. Ring a bell? Anyway, this group is supposedly against BIG GOVERNMENT, Obama style. Actually, they are really messing up the status quot here and almost making it a three party melee where but two stood before… more accurately we shall call it 2.5 parties now.
Well in this scribe’s opinion this is not the case at all– the not wanting big government thing. While they scream to follow the Constitution to the letter, they seek to dismantle any part of it that protects minorities. While they demonstrate against health insurance for all, they demand that no one do anything to the insurance most of them already have, care payed for by employers or by the government that they seem to show such great disdain for. While they rail against big banks being helped in this time of economic unrest, they desire to protect these same bank’s propensity to harm the non- wealthy, which last time I checked, was them. In short, they make no sense at all. They seem to want to help those huge moneyed entities that do their level best to harm the middle class of our nation that ensconces these very Tea Party members.
Let me offer a solution to this conundrum. I firmly believe a lot of the unrest here is racially inspired. Gosh darn, we elected a Black President, a man that offered hope to those who had been left out in the cold by the previous administration’s pandering to big corporations and the wealthy… and this was something we had not done before in over 200 years. This would lead some to believe that racism was done here in the US for he was elected by Blacks, Whites and Browns all; but, in the process, he scared some White men of the middle class, for the most part under educated and still struggling to make a better life, and bring about the so called ‘American Dream’. He opened the door to the even more disadvantaged and opined that any minority here might aspire to whatever greatness might enter their collective heads. God forbid. And be sure it is God, for Allah is a no-go now as well… we distrust Muslims since 9-11 also. We, and I am one of them by birth if not belief, are now “everybodyelse-phobes”. I made that word up by the way.
We don’t have a long time to heal, we are torn and a nation divided as I have never seen… the rational v the irrational. Yes the economy has a lot to do with it, tough times here and we are agonizingly slow to prosper. But if we are ever to regain our prominence, we must heal and come together. The world, at the risk of sounding egocentric, needs us for a few decades more. I would hope those of you there can draw something from this… never allow jealousy and distrust to overrule your need for all races and economic levels to work together for commonality of purpose. As you prosper nationally, fight the urge to preclude others from success. There is indeed room for all at the table of prosperity… there really is.
Until we meet again George Bailey
