Reality Check

In Carl Sagan’s words, we live on a “thin film of life” on an ordinary planet on the outskirts of an unremarkable galaxy among 100 billion other galaxies, all containing 100 billion stars each.  Now we know that many of these stars have planets that might contain life because they have water and exist in what is called the “goldilocks zone” where water can be liquid and life as we know it, can survive.

On the macro side, we try to estimate its size and shape, but the extent of the universe remains an mystery. On the micro side we still cannot find the most fundamental sub-atomic particle. Some scientists propose that the universe is infinite in both directions – infinitely large and small. Our minds cannot even comprehend the concept of infinite. So why do we think we’re so special?

Why do we think that a putative creator with human characteristics, weaknesses and all, worries about how we dress, is angry about birth control, takes sides in our athletic contests, saves some people and ignores others, prefers Republicans over Democrats and rewards and punishes us based on how well we follow “His” rules?

Yet, we are now listening to politicians promoting their religious views as social values. Claiming theirs are the right ones and criticizing others’ as the wrong ones instead of offering solutions to our economic and political problems. Here’s a few headlines that I’ve gathered from around the Internet:

·       Arizona Republican Links President Obama, Abortion and Nuclear Terrorism

·       Public Education As A KKK Conspiracy To Suppress African-Americans?

·       Oklahoma GOP Attacks Family Planning For Poor

·       Santorum: Satan is Systematically Destroying America

·       Congressman Blasts Girl Scouts for Promoting 'Homosexual Lifestyle' and Communism

·       Watch Franklin Graham Question President Obama's Faith, Explain Why Mormons Aren't Christian On Morning Joe

·       Santorum Staffer: Obama’s Energy Decisions Determined By His ‘Radical Islamic Policies’

·       Indiana GOP Calls Girl Scouts “Radicalized” Organization

·       Idaho Republicans Push For No Insurance Coverage For Contraception

So while the “warring tribes” we call Congress, continue to place their political futures above the welfare of the people who elected them, our country is slipping behind.  Behind whom, you ask? Behind the “The group of twenty advanced democracies—the major countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, the Nordic countries, Canada, and others.”

Reality check: The U.S.A has…

• the highest poverty rate, both generally and for children;

• the greatest inequality of incomes;

• the lowest social mobility;

• the lowest score on the UN’s index of “material well-being of children”;

• the worst score on the UN’s Gender Inequality Index;

• the highest expenditure on health care as a percentage of GDP, yet all this money accompanied by the highest infant mortality rate, the highest prevalence of mental health problems, the highest obesity rate, the highest percentage of people going without health care due to cost, the highest consumption of antidepressants per capita, and the shortest life expectancy at birth;

• the next-to-lowest score for student performance in math and middling performance in science and reading;

• the highest homicide rate;

• the largest prison population in absolute terms and per capita;

• the highest carbon dioxide emissions and the highest water consumption per capita;

• the lowest score on Yale’s Environmental Performance Index (except for Belgium) and the largest ecological footprint per capita (except for Denmark);

• the lowest spending on international development and humanitarian assistance as a percentage of national income (except for Japan and Italy);

• the highest military spending both in total and as a percentage of GDP; and

• the largest international arms sales

And while I’m mentioning the military, we spend more on defense than the rest of the world combined. Yes. That’s right – combined!

Might our priorities be misguided?

Robert DeFilippis