Let’s Not Get Distracted

by Errington C. Thompson, MD

Over the past several weeks, the mainstream media has been fixated on Syria. CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, ABC news, CBS news, have all been glued to this small country that’s been embroiled in a civil war for more than 18 months. We’ve been told that the Assad government has used chemical weapons against the rebels.

We’ve also been told that we know where the rockets have been launched and we know where the rockets landed. We’ve been told more than 1,400 civilians, including 400 children, have died. Now, we need to take sides. Are you going to support some sort of limited military action? Are you going to allow chemical weapons to be indiscriminately used against men, women, and children?

I think there are lots of things to consider. First of all, the legacy of George W. Bush looms large in this debate. Everybody in the United States knows that the Bush administration manipulated evidence and outright lied to United States citizens about weapons of mass destruction.

We all remember the “persuasive” presentation that Colin Powell made in front of the UN. Colin Powell’s presentation was eerily similar to Secretary of State John Kerry’s presentation in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee, last week. In the back of our minds we are wondering whether the Obama administration is manipulating evidence in order to get us to support some sort of military action against Syria.

Personally, I consider using chemical weapons against unarmed men, women, and children a despicable and heinous act. I do think it is different than the indiscriminate bombing and shelling that we’ve seen in Syria for the past 18 months. I also believe that a strong response is necessary in order to remind rogue countries like North Korea that there will be consequences if you use these types of weapons.

I believe that our allies South Korea, Japan (both within missile range of North Korea), and Israel are pushing the Obama administration and the world for that matter to respond forcefully, to send a message that this type of barbarism will not go unpunished.

I would beg you not to get distracted. We all have a limited amount of political energy that we have to expend. I would remind you that little over a month ago nearly 8,000 of us gathered in downtown Asheville in support of Moral Monday. We shouted together. We prayed together. We sang together. We promised each other that we would work together in order to make Asheville, Buncombe County, North Carolina, and the United States a better place to live. I’m sorry, I cannot get distracted by whatever’s going on in Syria.

While some of us are falling on the floor, frothing at the mouth over Syria, the median income, adjusted for inflation, in the United States, in Buncombe County, has actually dropped. Yet all measures of productivity have shown that we, the American citizens, are working harder and producing more.

We are helping American industry become more efficient and more profitable than ever. Yet we have not seen any monetary fruits of our labors. At a time when we need more help, we’ve seen unprecedented cuts in food stamps and the dismantling of earned income tax credit.

One of the few ways that we have to break out of the crippling cycle of poverty is education. Yet public education is under attack from all sides. Our state legislature has cut per-capita funding for public schools.

We will now have fewer teachers in the classroom, in spite of the fact that there is overwhelming evidence that smaller class sizes equals better learning for everyone in the classroom. Teacher salaries are also under attack. On the federal level the sequester is also choking off funding to public schools.

The one thing we haven’t heard over the last several months is much about the deficit. Several years ago, you could not open up the paper or turn on the television without hearing something about the deficit. Deficit peacocks were telling us how we had to cut government spending or we would be doomed to the fate of debtor nations like Greece and Spain.

Yet, over the last several months, we haven’t heard these deficit peacocks saying anything. Why? The deficit has plunged at an amazing rate. According to the Congressional Budget Office our deficit is on track to be less than 4% of GDP by the end of September. (Historically the U.S. deficit has been approximately 3.4% of GDP.)

As I look at the long list of things that we need to do in order to push our country towards policies that are going to help all working Americans, it’s hard for me to get upset over Syria. I am upset that we have a state legislature that is refusing federal dollars to fund Medicare. Because of this stupid, idiotic, insane idea—refusing federal dollars—hospitals throughout North Carolina are starting to cut back. They’re actually starting to fire people.

We need universal healthcare. This is something that we know will clearly help the vast majority of working Americans. We need federal investment in infrastructure in order to support our failing schools and to rebuild aging and crumbling bridges. We need our state, local, and federal government actually looking out for working Americans.

We can not get distracted by Syria. We need a government that is actively working to make life better for us.