Thursday, January 24, 2008

GOOD MORNING VIETNAM…

Reflections from Martin Luther King Celebration and the need to recognize there is still a lot of unfinished work to eliminate health care disparities.

….on this special day when many in America pause to celebrate the life and explore the dream of The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, I am honored to be in the presence of one whose primary mission or may I say, whose dream, as Surgeon General was to assure that we, Americans of color—the Negro, the Latino, the Asian, and Hispanic—and the people indigenous to America—the Mexican, Navaho, Dakota, Cheyenne, and other native peoples stayed healthy long enough to dream and work for the promise inherent in the philosophy of Dr. King—that all men are created equal and have the inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. As an Emergency Room doctor who was fortunate to study and learn under some gifted urban E.R. doctors, I have seen almost everyway medial care in this digital age can save lives and everyway humans can die; whether by gun, knife, drug, car or neglect. I have seen how poverty kills. I have also seen how poverty challenges faith, hope and love to kill dreams. As Zora Neal Hurston, a medically-neglected queen of the Harlem Renaissance wrote “there is something about poverty that smells like death… dead dreams dropping off the heart like leaves in a dry season, and rotting around the feet.” Hurston died destitute in poverty from complications of hypertensive heart disease—a stroke caused by untreated high blood pressure. Therefore, Dr. Satcher, on this day that we commemorate the life of a man whose voice and vision filled the emptiness in so many souls with hope and reason, I salute you and thank you for your public service and unselfish commitment to eradicating racial and ethnic disparities in access to health care. I thank Dr. Sathcher for working to rid our communities of Newports, Winstons, Camels, Virginia Slims and the Marlboro man, and obesity; and for being one of the first in this Country who preached violence as a public health issue to mostly unhearing ears. I commend you for your selfless dedication to public health.
The meanings of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday were eloquently phrased by Dr. King’s widow. Mrs. King wrote, among other things, that the King Holiday “is a day of interracial and intercultural cooperation and sharing. No other day of the year brings so many peoples from different cultural backgrounds together in such a vibrant spirit of brother and sisterhood. Whether you are African American, Hispanic or Native American, whether you are Caucasian or Asian American, you are part of the great dream Martin Luther King, Jr. had for America. This is not a black holiday; it is a peoples’ holiday. And it is the young people of all races and religions who hold the key to the fulfillment of his dream.” That is why I cherish the King Holiday. It is our yearly reminder that all people have the right to dream and that we should not be afraid to dream. But if we fail to set goals at every step and reassess and change what needs to be changed, if we fail to cherish ourselves and other, even those who make life difficult, and if we are diverted by the dreamless critics who discourage, our dreams will remain what they are. The King Holiday is a reminder of our potential and our responsibility to self and community.
Dr. King’s was a man of genuine wisdom and I am truly grateful because my brothers and I are the realities—the consequences of his dreams. I am grateful for the sparkle of my grandmother’s eyes when we graduated from college. I am thankful for the joy of my grandmother and parents when my brother and I were accepted into and graduated from medical schools and their celebration when we matched into the residency programs of our choice. These accomplishments of Green Streeter’s are the outcome of dreams inspired by Dr. King’s selflessness advocacy for equality and his dedication to us as a people. My grandmother Mazie and my parents truly believed in Dr. King’s dream and I am proud to say that my brothers and I gave and, hopefully, will continue to give life to the dream.
Inherent in Dr. King’s philosophy is the truth that life is not about circumstances—it is about choices and what we think. We can all dream but like someone wrote “we are what we think… all that we are arises with our thoughts, we make our world… what we think we become. Our potential is infinite; if we think we can do it, we can; we must live up to potential. Dr. King showed us the way and I pray many will be willing to walk it. Explore the world, live, love and cherish people, and let your life be an adventure, mistakes and all—and also as Langston Hughes reflected, “hold fast to dreams” let them become your reality.