Fixing the Law System In the U.S. Activists can do
Fixing the Law System In the U.S. Activists can do
There are three videos concerning fixing and reforming the legal system in the United States that I want to discuss and analyze in this paper. They all depict people who care a lot about what is happening and who have a lot of ideas and proposals of solving the actual problems. These people are Philip K. Howard, Jeffrey Brenner and Marc Micozzi.
The first video is the speech of the founder of the Common Good, Philip K. Howard, at an official TED conference. Being a lawyer himself, he sees all the mistakes plainly and knows how to overhaul the U.S. legal system. He gives a clean scheme to it by proposing four ways for fixing it. Firstly, you should “judge law mainly by its effect on society, not individual situations” (Howard). Secondly, “trust in law is an essential condition to a free society. Distrust skews behavior towards failure” (Howard). The third way is that “law must set boundaries protecting an open field of freedom, not intercede in all disputes” (Howard). And finally, the fourth point he mentions is that it is possible “to rebuild boundaries of freedom if the law is simplified and if we restore authority to judges and officials to apply law” (Howard).
The main point of his speech is that law can work only if it is trusted by the citizens, and I fully agree with it. I think that law is the foundation of freedom, but today, the United States remind more of a legal minefield. Such professions as teachers and doctors are likely to be paralyzed by the fear of suits. Law should be simplified, and without following the proper legal system, no society can be perfect.
I think that today, in the United States, the law seems to be hidden by the government and it prevents the further democratization of the society. It is necessary now to make the law much more accessible to the public. If we don’t make it clear and concise so that it can guarantee the rights of the people and clearly explain the powers of the government, the law will keep on alienating the citizens.
I support Howard’s notion that the problem of the American society is that nobody wants to take responsibilities, but I hope one day, this illness will be cured as well.
The second video I want to discuss is the interview of Dr. Jeffrey Brenner by the New Yorker writer and frontline correspondent Atul Gawande. Jeffrey Brenner is a doctor in Camden who seeks out the community’s sickest and most expensive patients. His aim is to lower the health care costs, one of America’s most important problems for today.
The idea of contributing to rebuilding of the existing health care system came to Jeffrey Brenner’s head after the incident when a young man died because of the policemen’s inaction. He was so furious he started developing the map of the so-called “hot spots” in Camden signifying the crime cases, diseases, permanent patients – everything. Such system gave the opportunity of dealing with statistics and reacting faster.
Another Brenner’s contribution I admire even more is his proposal of curing people at home. Firstly, it lowers the costs. Secondly, it is better for the patients. There is this beautiful old tradition of visiting the patient at his home, communicating with his family and making him feel comfortable because he is not stressed with the view of the white walls everywhere. The idea of lowering costs reveals in saving all the money the patient has to pay in the hospitals. Jeffrey Brenner supposes that if gather all the hospital bills, the patient can buy a new house.
Jeffrey Brenner has gathered a team which forms the organization “Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers”. I think that this is the future – assume control of a situation when you see that it doesn’t work. I admire his theory that the medicine has to change its direction – from being individual and having one specialist as the king to the group of people working together where the team is the king. I am pretty sure that patients highly estimate the fact that the doctors really take care of them and their costs. When the doctor looks in my refrigerator and checks what I am eating, this must make me feel like someone really cares about me and the results of my treatment. This way, I would definitely not feel ignored.
In the end of the interview, Brenner mentions that if such a poor and unfortunate city like Camden can reform the health care system, than it is possible everywhere throughout the world.
The last video concerns more the existence of the alternative medicine rather than a solution of the broken health care system in the United States. The video shows different directions of the complementary medicine, such as Chinese, Indian, Homeopathy, Herbalism, Naturopathy, Osteopathy, Chiropractic and Massage. I was really surprised to find out that one third of the Americans practice these methods.
I fully agree with the experts that you should be very attentive and cautious with using any of the non-prescription drugs because they can both cure and do harm. Herbs seem safe but at the same time, you must remember that they can also become dangerous if you don’t know them well. Chinese medicine seems very doubtful to me because it is often very cheap, and there are a lot of cases when it was harmful to the person’s health. Though I do believe that in general, the Chinese medicine has an ancient history and it is very profound and serious.
Why do so many Americans treat themselves with the help of the complementary medicine? Usually, it is the only way that helps when the traditional medicine is rendered useless. It is the well-known fact that acupuncture, for example, saves people from the backaches more often than even surgery. So sometimes the alternative methods really work. Though I still believe that it is the placebo effect that gives the results.
I honestly stay skeptical to the use of the alternative medicine but I know that in the situation when the traditional medicine doesn’t help you, you will try everything possible to get well. Plus, I know that there are some complementary treatments that are not harmful and really make change, so the best thing for the health care system might be the mix of both traditional and alternative medicine. But in that case, the alternative medicine will automatically transform into the traditional one.
References
Baer, H.A. (2001). The sociopolitical status of U.S. naturopathy at the dawn of the 21st century. Medical Anthropology Quarterly 15 (3): 329–46.
Ernst, E. (1999). Funding research into complementary medicine: The situation in Britain. Complementary Therapies in Medicine 7 (4): 250–3.
Gawande, A. (2011). Doctor Hotspot. The New Yorker. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/doctor-hotspot/?autoplay
Howard, P. (2010). Four ways to fix a broken legal system. TED. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/philip_howard?language=en
Matuk, C. (2006). Seeing the Body: The Divergence of Ancient Chinese and Western Medical Illustration. Journal of Biocommunication, 16 (45).
Starr, A. (2010). Alternative Medicine: An Overview. Digital Educational Video. Retrieved from http://digital.films.com.ezproxy.sju.edu/play/KDXJBM
