THE DEBATE
Where was wellness? Local economy? Children's health?
When questions go unasked, they go unanswered. When problems go unrecognized, they go unresolved.
America’s first presidential debate of 2024 is being roundly critiqued in its aftermath by analysts with their pie charts and commentators with their opinions. Yet, no one seems to be analyzing or commenting on the questions themselves. Or, more precisely, what questions were NOT asked, and what topics were missing altogether.
Living Well Locally suggests that health, local economy, food quality, and loss of soil health and biodiversity are all of critical importance to our very survival, not just as a country but as a human species.
Through our LWL lens, this oversight begs to be pointed to. Our country’s abysmal rankings on chronic disease, children’s health, addiction, and healthcare outcomes should be top priority topics for those who are asking to lead America.
Was it merely an oversight? Is the poor health of our country somehow a taboo topic for the national stage? Why do local and rural economies deserve less attention than the national economy? These are the places where we live. Where our children are going to school and growing up and becoming addicted to social media and processed foods and opioids and fentanyl. We don’t live in the national economy, we live in place-based economies. Most of us at least.
Even though these hard questions did not get asked by debate organizer, CNN, there was a candidate, excluded from the event, who answered the same questions from afar. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. included poor health, addiction, regenerative agriculture, processed foods, and more in his answers to the questions that were asked. He pointed to how wellness farms for addiction recovery can be funded with a new revenue stream, and how critical it is that we focus on improving the health of Americans. And especially on reclaiming the health of our children. You can hear the 3-candidate debate here, beginning at minute 24.
One in 44 American children are now diagnosed on the autism spectrum, one in six has a developmental disability, and 40% have a chronic illness. These CDC figures are staggering. They are placing our country in survival mode and our future in jeopardy.
Debates are a good thing. We need much more real and deep conversation on the hard challenges we face - as a country, as individuals and families and communities. Although politics sometimes seems like a necessary evil, it is essential that we find leaders who understand issues and can articulate nuanced solutions based on solid awareness of how those issues came to be.
Democracy and freedom depend on a well-informed electorate.