Editorial: Thanksgiving’s shades of gray

With the coverage of State Children Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) quieting down, senior citizens preoccupied with $4 prescriptions at Wal-Mart and Big Tobacco hiding out in their offices, laughing at sick kids and Measure 50’s failure, health care appears to be a quiet issue at the moment. However, we intend to change that and politicize Thanksgiving at the same time.

For the typical OSU student—busy and broke—Thanksgiving is a welcome relief, eating a home-cooked meal, watching football and seeing their older, grayer, wrinklier and smellier (we’re looking at you, Grandpa) loved ones. If this applies to you next week, take a moment to survey their health. How healthy is your family? How affordable is your family’s health care? What situations have helped or hurt your family? This isn’t an argument for socialized medicine or universal health care, but of the universal human condition—we all want to be healthy. As supported by reports from the Centers for Disease Control, American Journal of Public Health, World Health Organization, State University of New York at Potsdam and the U.S. Census Bureau, Euro-Americans are disproportionately affected by suicide, liver disease and heart disease; African-Americans are disproportionately affected by diabetes, infant mortality and homicide.

In 2004, African-Americans faced a greater deficit proportionally than Euro-Americans toward achieving adequate, preventative health care.

While African-Americans alone faced a deficit of $46 billion toward achieving health care base standards, Euro-Americans spent nearly $108 billion on “sin” goods like tobacco.

While these statistics are unfortunate, we hope to bring humility. It is surrounding us: many OSU students will be the first in their families to graduate college. Though many OSU students come from privilege, we all will enter society as the educated class with the power to change the world and the instruments to make these changes happen.

Though Americans certainly have the right to consume what they please (within the law), and individuals ought to bear the financial burden for their own health needs, the reality is that each ethnicity is hurt from their respective situations. Is there a positive outcome for both sides? Are we as students listening as the Baccalaureate Core encourages us to make these changes? Just as the typical feel-good movies of the holiday season will tell you, family and love are the most powerful things we have. Health is not only a matter of treating disease, but quality of life and prevention. Of the countless marketing messages we hear every day—especially in the coming month—remember your own identity and where it comes from: the heart.

Now, pass the gravy and turn up the tube—John Madden has some riveting analysis for us. Well, not really. Happy Thanksgiving!

Originally written for and published in The Daily Barometer.