CHICAGO, IL — It’s great to be home which for me, is Chicago, Illinois. I snuck in while the Democratic Convention takes center stage in Denver, following several delays due to a tornado sighting as my flight from Montgomery, Alabama to Atlanta sought to depart.
Speaking of the Democratic National Convention, given Hillary Clinton’s ardent desire to be president of the United States, and the realistic chance that she had with this election before her campaign was shadowed by that of Barack Obama, I am pleased with her presentation last night.
She artfully deconstructed some of the political walls she had built between herself and her former opponent, and in so doing, garnered for herself a smidgeon of legitimacy. Her dream of being president need not die. Her core message, and perhaps closeness to Bill, simply didn’t resonate with enough people to seriously consider her for the office (or vice presidency) now.
The subject of Universal Health Care will also need to be presented in a new context: one that is not framed by the accessibility and price of drugs, but one that supports and ensures the availability of the most effective methods of restoring health.
Instead of a federal agency that protects the financial interests of pharmaceutical companies while millions of Americans experience needless surgeries, amputations, and deaths at the hands of trusted “health” professionals, there must arise a preference toward that which works best. There is no reason for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to try to restrict public access to natural foods and substances in the way that it does pharmaceutical companies. There are no pharmaceuticals designed to work within the human body. As such, anything that is intended for internal use that is not natural, should indeed be subject to rigorous proof of efficacy. Unfortunately, very few pharmaceuticals ever do provide such proof, and they get approved anyway.
Purveyors of natural, non-toxic products, who seek FDA approval, should not be subject to the same barriers, since the risk factors to human health are infinitesimally small, whereas the risks of taking a toxin (such as for chemotherapy), are astronomically high.
More and more people are starting to see that the medical system is geared toward helping the public live with (“manage”) disease, rather than be well and stay well. “Physical education” used to represent a period of exercise, and a break for students. Even that is waning. Many youngsters are so concerned about the clothes they wear and their image amongst peers, that they dare not even think of sweating on them. Problem is, they are not being educated enough to understand just how detrimental their lack of exercise is on their health. The fact that they are getting sicker, younger, proves the point, if anyone is noticing.
This is a subject that is ripe for a turnaround. The Universal Health Care proposal that was proffered by the Clinton Administration in the 1990’s would not have addressed the real issues. Had it succeeded, it would have simply made more people addicted to old ways. Its defeat was, in fact, a blessing. Health care should be effective and affordable, and should not be based on an assumption that drugs are an effective answer to disease. That statement does not describe current mainstream thinking.
We now have another opportunity, and responsibility, to bring a New Convention in Health Care to the table.
