The 2014 Ebola outbreak was a “red-pill moment” for the world. Ebola is a terrible disease that broke out in the worst possible place and has only been controlled through the herculean, heroic efforts of the local national and international communities. The young nations of Sub-Saharan Africa have some of the most fragile healthcare systems in the world. Save the Children’s report “A Wake-up Call” brings the disparity into focus. The report suggests that it would take $86/year to provide minimum essential services. In 2012 the governments of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone spent $9, $20, and $16 per person/year respectively on healthcare, while the US spent $4,126 and Norway $7,704. Martin Luther King said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Perhaps this year with the rise of globalization we recognized that failing or overwhelmed healthcare systems anywhere are a threat to health everywhere.
In The Matrix (1999) Morpheus warned Neo of the risks of seeing the world as you wish it to be instead of seeing it as it really is. “Taking the red pill” has become a popular cultural reference for swallowing the sometimes painful truth of reality.
As many mavens have observed on both sides of the argument, the lessons we must draw from Baltimore cannot stop at the need for police reform. The stark statistics are also arresting: an African-American baby born in Baltimore between 2006 and 2008 had a significantly shortened life expectancy compared to a white baby born during the same period (70.2 vs. 76.2 years). The African-American baby was twice as likely to be born at low birth weight (15.1% vs. 7.4%) and was nine times more likely to die before the age of one. Nine times. Baltimore is emblematic of all our American cities including our Nation’s capital, where the death rate for poor children is similar to that of children in El Salvador or Cambodia.
We have a choice. We can continue the rancor and continue writing things to be read by those who agree with us; blaming each other while we do nothing.
Or we can move toward recognition and admit: Something is terribly wrong. Someone must be wrong. Perhaps, just perhaps… we are all wrong about something. Continue reading
Henry V 4.3 