Seventy Thoughts on Turning Seventy
On mammograms, scientific knowledge and the evil of donald trump
I went to the lab to have blood work and a mammogram yesterday. It all seemed so familiar and routine. I chose to go to a place I'm familiar with where I know that the staff is welcoming, efficient and kind. I had a little apprehension going in. I always get nervous having a mammogram; apparently I, like many women, have "dense breasts" ( sorry if that's TMI but it's part of the story) and I often get called back for an ultra sound after the initial Xray is inconclusive. The blood tests are part of an investigation into my hormone levels - -my doctor has some concerns.
So none of this would even be something to write about if it had happened any time before January 20, 2025. But everything was different this time. Everything.
I had just learned that donald trump had signed dozens of destructive executive orders, including pulling the US out of the Paris Accords and the World Health Organization and to shut down communications with the public about health concerns by the CDC and all other government health related agencies.
In light of these orders, my routine trip to the lab became anything but routine in my mind.
For one, I was overcome with gratitude for every single person whom I encountered -- from the receptionist who checked me in, to the clerk who logged my insurance into, to the lab tech who took my blood, to the mammography who expertly positioned the flesh of my breasts on the glass tray for a perfect image. All of these people had taken the time and effort to be educated to do their work- to play their role in our complex health care system. The mammographer explained the different levels of density seen in healthy breast tissue and why additional tests might need to be done. I was grateful for the radiologist's knowledge and experience to give me reassurance that my mammogram was clear. The lab technician talked about her decades of practice getting really good at taking blood without hurting her patients.
I thought about the scientists and innovators who discovered X-rays and the engineers who designed the mammography X-ray unit to get the best possible images. I thought about the factory workers who build and assemble the machines and the truck drivers who transport them to hospitals throughout the country in red states and blue and the construction workers who maintain the roads and bridges and the janitorial staff who keep the facilities clean and as sterile as possible and the doctors who discovered the connection between cleanliness and infection which made hand washing a required part of patient care.
I thought about all of these people as children, sitting in classrooms of all kinds all over the country -- learning things about science, about history, about mathematics and language. I thought about their excitement gaining new knowledge, participating in a human system that while imperfect still has the noble goal of keeping other humans alive, safe and healthy.
So while the blood was being drawn from my vein, everything went dark. No I didn't faint. But I did lose my breath while my heart started jumping with this epiphany - those who supported the election of donald trump have set something very destructive loose to prey on all of us. His anti-science, anti-history, anti-education and anti-government beliefs, while always present in American society are now the dominant views of all of those he is placing in positions of power. Over us.
So much of this is frightening and unpredictable. And that is the point. I get that. Keep us scared and off-balance and we will be too distracted to fight back.
I once had a friend whose credo he claimed he'd learned from his father. "What one man can, any man can." What he meant by this is that if one person would cure a disease, any man could, REGARDLESS of knowledge, experience or education. He was claiming an expertise that is based solely on his own subjective experience and not scientifically derived knowledge.
We saw this during the Covid crisis as quacks and narcissists put forth their own "cures" for the disease, including drinking bleach or taking horse tranquilizers. We saw others let loved ones die rather than isolate or wear masks because their knowledge ( as good as any epidemiologist's) told them those preventative measures weren't necessary. Some even convinced themselves that the masks spread the disease.
Would I want any one of them reading an Xray and deciding if I have cancer? Would I want them sticking a needle in my arm and drawing my blood? Would I want a doctor who didn't go to medical school? Would I want a technician who hadn't logged hours under supervision? Would I want the hospital run by someone's daughter's father in law who was a drunk?
I've been hearing a lot of people calling trump's plan cruel and evil. I think the cruelty is obvious -- the evil is most obfuscated. The gist can be found in examining the etymology of the word "diabolic." It literally means "to throw apart; to divide." I was even more surprised that its opposite is the word "symbolic" meaning "to bring together; to unite." That a word meaning to divide and tear things apart is associated with the devil, gives us a real indication of that values we place on unity and meaning. To be diabolic is to divide and to destroy any meaning one might make together. To be symbolic - to bring ideas and people together for greater meaning and understanding is what the devil must destroy to gain and maintain sway and power.
We've also heard trump characterized as a chaos-maker. And that too is connected to evil, disorder and destruction. The opposite of chaos is cosmos - an ordered universe rooted in goodness, balance, intersubjectivity and harmony.
It is one thing to deal with disorder and destruction when it comes from Nature. It's another thing to deliberately sow division and dissent and distrust in expertise and knowledge. To deny all meaning and reality.
That is truly evil and to continue on this path will only bring chaos, division and destruction.
Peggy, thank you for taking the time to read and respond. It's hard to fathom because it's so big and it's designed to confuse and distract us. Everything is connected but as a friend reminded me today, the war on education began decades ago and it has been laying the groundwork for this MAGA takeover. I do wish I were still in a classroom to have a space and platform to do good work. For now, I write.
This really hit home. The part about education and how all the school children sit in classes trying to find their passion. Maybe they'll be able to make a career out of that passion. But where will the creative jobs be at the rate we are going? And it really does feel diabolical. I knew it was wrong and horrible, but now it seems even more soul-crushing.
Thank you for taking the time to write this. I just turned 75, a number I still cannot fathom.I'm always so impressed by the compassion I receive in medical settings. And yes, the inventions and new ways to treat diseases and birth defects is critical. We need scientists and it begins, as you say, in the early years of schooling.