PHOTOS, PAGE 1

       Editor and prime reporter is Doug Terry, a veteran television and radio reporter in   Washington, DC, (details below)

A thoughtful commentary from a frequent reader of The TerryReport, Ted P Gemberling, a medical librarian in Birmingham, Alabama:

A MAJOR PROBLEM IN AMERICA AND THE ROOTS OF OTHER DIFFICULTIES:

 A lot of people are mentally stuck in the period about 1950-1970. That was the period after World War II when a lot of the world’s industry had been destroyed, and America had the only large functioning industrial economy. So people all over the world were buying our manufactured products, and we thought we could do everything: defeat communism, end poverty, and send every American to college. I don’ think it’s any accident that the “positive thinking” philosophy took hold so strongly among Americans at that time. When we had such a strong sense of possibility, why not believe that success is all about each individual’s “can-do” attitude? But the problem is, that world is long gone today, and there’s no way to bring it back. There are lots of competent people around the world who can do the same work we do, and in many cases for less money. And it’s only just that it should be so: why shouldn’t other countries have their “day in the sun”?

Evidence of this problem comes from something I read in the NY Times several years ago. In the late 1940s, Walter Reuther of the United Auto Workers wanted the Detroit auto makers to push for national health care, but they would have nothing of it. I suppose it smelled of “communism” or “socialism”, and they were confident they’d be able to take care of their workers without it. Maybe that attitude seemed reasonable at the time, since we were on top of the world economically. But in retrospect, we can see what a mistake it was not to follow Reuther’s advice. Our healthcare costs are so much higher than those of countries with national health care and eat into our ability to compete.

Too many people believe in “American exceptionalism”. Not that there aren’t some wonderful things about America. We’ve done things we can be proud of. America is probably still one of the freest places in the world, if not the freest. People all over the world still want to come here. But if we think we don’t need to do practical things other countries do, like setting up national healthcare, we’re fooling ourselves.

Mr. Gemberling did graduate studies in history and religion  and has lived in various parts of the US in addition to Alabama, including California, Indiana and Kansas as well as his native Washington state.

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