If I had cancer then caught the flu because I had to crawl home in a snowstorm after being bitten by a dog then broke my arm on the way to see the doctor because I got hit by a car while I was crossing the street, and languished, starving, I sure as hell would hope that once I finally got to the hospital, the doctor wouldn’t send me off with only a prescription for my athlete’s foot and tell me to come back when that was cured.
All this talk about the president taking on too much: the economy, banks, education, healthcare, stem-cell research, the stimulus package, taxes, ending the Iraq war, the energy crisis… the list goes on and on, and after only seven weeks in office.Â
Damn right he’s taking on too much! Too much he shouldn’t have had to. The Republicans left him a disaster, and the Obama administration is attacking these problems head on. It’s gratifying to see him attack many of the problems the patient is suffering from. Because the patient is us.
We can only hope that Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is the next to go, and that the president finds a way to afford gay marriage some support.Â
All our ills are all our ills. What affects one of us affects all of us. Untreated, the broken arm affects the health of the patient just as the flu does, cancer, malnutrition. Untreated, each can lead to death. The wise doctor doesn’t try to cure a patient one malady at a time. The wise patient doesn’t let him.