The Lecture

Growing up, I have always felt and fought for the “underdog.” So much so, that my parents called me the one with the, “golden heart.” I was that kid who begged my mom to send in money to the ASPCA and would voluntarily help out at the bake sales Saturday mornings because I was genuinely concerned that the veterans we were raising money for wouldn’t get the help they needed.

However, as time progressed, my interest in my future and the control I had on it engulfed me. And eventually, I pushed aside my nine-year-old self’s dreams of being the person to end human trafficking of the girls my age in Vietnam. My “progressive” self had new aspirations to create a career path that guaranteed “success” (at least the American definition of success).

Until just recently, I was still in this mindset. However, I had not truly escaped until listening to a lecture that my public health professor, Doctor Sami,  gave about her experience with helping a community in Ghana.

This community was experiencing mysterious deaths that was believed to be because of poor personal-hygiene. However, Doctor Sami continued to investigate and found the true reason for the deaths. She was scheduled to stay with this community for a week, but against her boss’ wishes, she stayed seven weeks and built trust and a pathway for communication. Because of this, she was able to save the community from more deaths. Although it was essentially just a story, Doctor Sami’s lecture gave me goosebumps and moved me to tears. Her passion for her field of work uprooted my repressed passion and evoked my desires to help the helpless.

My own experiences resemble Rousseau’s philosophy in The Basic Political Writings. Because I was distracted by thoughts that were highly influenced with drive towards financial security, I lost, to some extent, my passion for helping people and the root of empathy. Less developed people have the ability reject the empire of selfishness and embrace essential characteristics of genuine compassion and empathy because they are not not blinded and held back by thoughts that evoke progress in the arts or by the unnatural and essentially meaningless.

Healthcare: An Empire

Health care. What is it and why do I care so much about it? It partly could be because I’m a nursing major, or it could partly be because I believe that healthcare is a human right.

Healthcare by itself is not an empire. However, because it is influenced so greatly by politics, it has morphed into a controversial and a highly complex entity that many, including myself, would consider an empire.

Consequently, healthcare, in a sense, has also turned into a business. And unfortunately, the business aspect of healthcare, although necessary, has taken over. Many might blame this on the fact that the political sphere is run by business and money.

A personal experience:
                 When I was younger, I tore my mcl in my knee. Because my insurance (medicaid) isn’t taken by many doctors, I spent two years going through the process of trying to find a surgeon willing to preform the surgery. After being picked up and dropped by two doctors, I finally found one. Unfortunately, because I had to wait so long, my knee began to heal incorrectly. Now, I no longer can play sports, or run for a long period of time. For me, I found this especially devastating because I grew up loving and playing sports.
This entire fiasco was created directly because our health system is treated as a business. I was unable to pay for my own surgery and the government helped with medicaid. But this isn’t the issue. The issue lies in the fact that doctors who are capable of helping, who swore into helping for the greater good, were unwilling to help because they were not going to be paid as much.

The empire behind healthcare has blinded us from the real reason for its existence which is the fundamental flaw.

I don’t know the answers and I don’t think I ever, truly will. I don’t think that there is one answer or one solution; there never is. But there is beauty in this because it opens up doors for improvement and fluidity within the system.

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