The NEJM published a paper last week that may change the future of medical evidence. It is seriously important.
But today is Memorial Day in the US. It is not time to analyze papers.
It is time to remember and honor those who gave their life in the service of this country.
I travel a fair amount and one of the moments that I enjoy—no matter how tired—is when the border guard at passport control says…'“welcome home.” It reminds me of something that is easy to take for granted.
It seems too obvious to write, but America struggles today with its many divisions. The social fabric, at least in some places, is under stress. Social media intensifies the debate. In fact, to intensify is the business model of social media.
Yet people still want to come to the US. When I turn off my phone and visit people in real life, things are normal. And our institutions have held through a trying 3 years.
Think for a moment what it means for a young person to die for their country. Maybe some of you have had health scares. You begin to feel your mortality. It is a lot.
Then you think of all the young people who actually died for this country. Dead and gone. All that future.
They gave their life to defend many of the freedoms being tested today. The right to protest; the right to disagree, and to tolerate speech that we hate. The rule of law.
And the ability of a person like David Velasquez, the son of two formerly undocumented, non-English speaking immigrant parents who slept in the attic of a church for 2 years when they first arrived in the U.S., to gain multiple degrees from Harvard.
I speak for myself, but I suspect many in the Sensible Medicine community are grateful for the wisdom of Washington, Madison, Franklin, Jefferson, Hamilton and the other delegates of the constitutional convention in creating the foundation of this great country.
A place so great that young people would be willing to die for. That is worth remembering today.
Beautifully worded, Dr. Mandrola - and totally unexpected, as I was just scrolling through some old, unread emails. I particularly appreciate your comments since I'm part of a military family. My father served in the Navy during WWII, I have over 30 years in the Navy Reserve, my husband is retired Army, and our son served as a Marine. Thank you.
Much respect for you & your work
I'll first start off with a point that I greatly agree with - free speech is critical, and our ability to disagree is one of the most important things there are - I think that's something all of us who are huge fans of Sensible Medicine agree with
Like you, I also agree that the US is a great country - also like you, I think there's a lot we could do better
Though I have much respect for & feel great sorrow for those young men & women who gave their lives, like our medical care system I think we do a great injustice when we gloss over the truth
Those men & women, most of the time, are lower-income, recruited by bordering-on-predatory recruiters who aim for those lower-income schools (see https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3000735/)
They're convinced with a story, that tells them about how they will have a chance to change their lives with free college tuition, all while defending the great tenants of this country (free speech, etc.)
The sad truth is that frequently they're used for not-so-great ends, such as Iraq, and Afghanistan - less about defending those ideals we all believe in & more about helping certain vested interests
Many of us remember the lines that were fed during Iraq - "I support our troops" - to not support them was blasphemy
But that's terrible; I support them too, I feel for them, I don't want them to get killed - but conflating the lives & sacrifices those poor young people make with foolish wars we fight doesn't do anyone any good