M.A.G.A. and D.E.I.

. . . through a wellness lens.

Political campaigns are in high swing. Our country will have a new president soon. What Living Well Locally wants to know is this: how will our next leader address one of America’s greatest threats?

By this, of course, we mean the poor health of Americans. CDC data are sobering: obesity affects 20% of children and 42% of adults; 40% of school-aged children and adolescents have at least one chronic illness; autism is spiraling upward with 1 in 36 children now on the spectrum; 1 in 6 (17%) children aged 3–17 years are diagnosed with a developmental disability, and over 33% of young adults aged 17 to 24 are too heavy to join the U.S. military.

This is no small thing. The prevalence of chronic disease in our country is staggering. With such data staring us in the face, health would surely be on the short list of every major candidate, right? But it is not.

Most readers will recognize M.A.G.A. and D.E.I. as the rallying cries of our two major political parties. Making America Great Again is Republican-speak. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are signature values of Democrats.

Making America Great Again will be long and hard - perhaps even impossible or meaningless - unless we turn around America’s chronic disease crisis.

While Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are laudable goals, they do not address the poor state of our children’s health. And they cannot, alone, ensure wellness.

Are greatness and equity possible when chronic disease ravages a population, when healthcare costs exceed that of defense, and when children are facing more disease and shorter lifespans than their parents?

Our Democratic candidate pledges to make equity a central goal and include everyone at the table. She does not speak to how chronic disease adds to the national debt or how wellness supports self-empowerment and determination. She asks what people need from their country, but not vice versa.

Our Republican candidate recently told an audience that he will return America to greatness by 'beating all our rivals' in technology, science, energy, industry, space, AI, and bitcoin. His list did not include health. And he did not speak to how industry and technology have damaged the environment and failed to solve chronic disease.

‘Science and technology’ and ‘inclusion and equity’ are laudable goals, but unless their relationship to human health is understood and addressed, neither will solve our health crisis, both will add to the national debt, and both will offer hope that may not materialize.

Both promise things that will be hard to achieve unless real solutions to chronic disease are found, and our children are made healthy again. Beating the rest of the world in all the marvels of science and technology will not be possible if we become sicker. Giving everyone a seat at the table and equal access to a costly and failing healthcare system will not make us well.

Are we looking in the wrong places for greatness? For enhancing inclusion and humanitarian values? Can we have any of these things when poor health is not being addressed?

Thankfully, an Independent candidate is putting children’s health and chronic disease on the national political stage, really for the first time. This gives Living Well Locally hope that a corner is being turned and that a significant threat to America’s future is no longer being ignored. Could wellness even become the bipartisan issue that brings unity to American politics?

Living Well Locally proposes place-based wellness as a vision for how America can be made well again, for how communities can create cultures of health in which everyone can be naturally included, where neighbors help and encourage each other to take control of their health and their lives. Self-care might even become a patriotic gift we give back to the country we call home.

As grassroots consumers and patients, we can and are changing business and industry through the marketplace. Slowly. With the help of political leadership, our transition to a healthy population and a more sovereign country free of corporate influence can happen faster.

In summary, Living Well Locally suggests: Making America Great Again can be about making people well again; Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion can play a key role in calming the culture wars rather than inciting them. When people are working together to achieve wellness, good things happen.