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Dr. Errington Thompson is a critical care trauma surgeon, author, and talk show host. Listen to the Errington Thompson Show, available through Podcast and download at: www.whereistheoutrage.net
by Errington C. Thompson, MD –

When I look at the 20-year period from 1950 to 1970, I see a time where anything was possible in America.

If you wanted to build a dam to make power for those in rural America, you could find a way. If you wanted to build a series of highways to connect the East coast to the West coast, somehow we found a way to do it. When we wanted to put a man on the moon, we did it!

Government that fits … and meets our needs

As America grew, our nation became great not by contracting but by figuring out ways to expand, to grow. I need my government to be big enough to support expansion. I need my government to be big enough to repair bridges and build new schools. I want my government to be big enough to invest in new forms of clean energy. I want my government to expand with our population and our needs. I simply can’t support any politician who wants to cut the size of government.

It seems to me that over the last 60 years we have been fighting for the rights of everyone to be treated as equals. The civil rights movement started as equal rights for blacks; Martin Luther King gained fame for the Montgomery Bus Boycott. And as his movement grew, so did his vision. He rose to international prominence with the March on Washington, but he died fighting against poverty. It was the Poor People’s Campaign that was his unfinished business. Dr. King and the other civil rights leaders believed in a rich county like the U.S. we shouldn’t have people living in poverty.

Living wages

To be honest, that campaign remains unfinished business. The way that we lift Americans out of poverty is really two-fold: we need jobs, and we need jobs that pay a living wage. This is fundamental. I’m tired of seeing a single moms (and dads) working two or three jobs, and still having trouble putting food on the table. That’s just wrong. Any politician who doesn’t support increasing the minimum wage can’t get my vote.

GLBT rights

I don’t know why LGBT people are the way that they are. I don’t know if it is genetics or the environment or some combination of both. The bottom line is they are who they are. We need to accept them for who they are. I’m a black man, I can’t change that. All I can try and do is be the best black man that I can be. All you can do is be the best that you can be—black, white, mixed-race, gay, straight, developmentally or physically disabled….

Together we make this melting pot called diversity. Diversity is what truly makes America great! We have come too far in the civil rights movement to start backtracking now. I can’t support any politician who passes laws that discriminate against a group of Americans.

Abortion rights

Abortion must be legal. I have never really understood the continued attack on abortion rights. We know that some women will do anything and everything not to have an unwanted child. Overturning Roe v. Wade is not going to stop abortions; they’ll still be taking place, just in back alleys and dirty rooms. Any abortion ban would only stop safe abortions. Is that what we want? Of course I understand the religious objections. And my response is, if you are a religious person who does not believe in abortion, then do not have an abortion. But if you want to help others, then work to educate young women so they understand their options. Teach them that not having sex is only one way to prevent an unwanted pregnancy.

Years ago, I took care of a young woman who came into the hospital with terrible abdominal pain. She had this terrible large hard mass that I could easily feel. I took her to the operating room and cut out that mass. It had a very weird, kind of petroleum smell. The lady had injected herself with turpentine because she thought that she was pregnant. This should never happen in America. Women should have easy access to good scientifically-based information before they ever have sex. I can’t support any politician who will not stand up and say that women should be in control of their own bodies. Period.

Voting rights

We have to support politicians who are working hard to figure out ways to make it easier to vote. We need to have a two-week period of early voting. No one should have to take off from work in order to vote. Voting should be as easy as falling off a log or buying something on Amazon. To   make that possible, drawing voting districts needs to be taken out of the hands of politicians. A nonpartisan commission should feed agreed-upon parameters into a computer and let the computer draw the districts.

We really don’t need ID cards. What we need is more polling stations. Moreover, I really cannot wrap my head around computer voting. Computers are too easily hacked. The stakes are too high. Give me a paper ballot and then we can feed that through a computer so that we have a backup system for counting votes if—when—the machines are hacked. Any politician who does not openly support getting every eligible voter to the polls for every election doesn’t get my vote.

Respect, empathy, civility

In a country of over 300 million, we do not have to all agree. We have to be civil to each other. We have to listen to each other. We have to have empathy for each other. This is the only way that we can move forward as a nation. We need to support candidates that are serious about governing. If you are a politician who is not serious about moving this country forward then get out of the way. Because you will never get my vote.