Nearly a decade ago, I came up with a saying, “It is in giving that we get.” It particularly hit home to me due to my family in Myanmar. When we share with each other, a strange thing occurs. The giver gets as much as the recipient gets. Whatever my family gives me, they benefit as much as I do and vice versa. Trust me; my saying is a central aspect of life.

However, I couldn’t imagine that I was the only person to have come up with that truism in all of human history. So, I googled my saying. It was part of a prayer by St. Francis of Assisi. “For it is in giving that we receive.”

Therefore, I had inadvertently paraphrased St. Francis. This essay parallels my paraphrasing of St. Francis. The title for this is essay is A Sickness Too Took Root. Therefore, before writing this article, I googled my title…and got nowhere. Thus, Google is hiding the author from me, or I have actually invented a new saying, soon becoming a famous one. Either way, you will benefit from this essay.

A sickness too took root.

It seems that America is suffering from the dilemma of the various roots being sick in our society. This is true within families, local communities, states, and nationwide. Therefore, this essay highlights some of the unhealthy roots we face.

The first root in a neighborhood sickness. Jim, a roommate of mine while in college, is a dog-lover also. He has had several Irish Setters over six decades since our college days. Jim lives just outside of Vail, Colorado. While we haven’t seen each other for years, we regularly exchange emails. This is especially true in the past couple of years; Jim has kept abreast of Ginger, my Irish Setter, and her two dances with death.

In a recent email, Jim wrote about how dog owners tend to pick breeds of dogs due to their mindsets. He mentioned how Irish Setters and their owners tend to be fun-loving and enjoy life. Both the dog and owner mature more slowly, but by the time the dog gets to five or six, they tend to be much more lowed-keyed and very bonded to their master. That is certainly true for Ginger and me.

My friend lives in a small subdivision with various breeds of dogs. Some breeds tend to be aggressive, which parallels their masters. He mentioned what he calls diminutive dogs. These dogs are a couple of pounds but are constantly barking and acting aggressively. A guy down the street from him has one, which the owner named his dog, Bull.

Jim rightly calls that phenomenon projection. His dog’s name is what he wants to be like but feels that he isn’t big or strong. The guy barks or complains all the time, which is a substitute for the owner’s inadequacies.

I wrote to Jim about agreeing with him. However, that inadequacy issue isn’t merely at the neighborhood level in life. At the state and federal levels, we see the same phenomena. People with inferiority issues compensate by acting macho. White supremacists aren’t supermen. On the contrary, they feel inferior to those other people and fear that those others are threatening his life.

My comment triggered Jim to get onto the issue of racism. Whites fear that other groups can best them in sports, jobs, and life in general.

I responded that I didn’t see any real difference between racism and sexism. Racists and sexists feel inherently less than the others. Interestingly, females, the weaker sex, make up more students in medical school than their male counterparts.

The percentages of women enrolled in medical school

The percentage of female residents in obstetrics and gynecology is 83.4%, allergy and immunology is 73.5%, pediatrics is 72.1%, medical genetics and genomics is 66.7%, hospice and palliative medicine is 66.3%, and in dermatology is 60.8%.

The ratio of female to male vets is even more stunning.

Female to male vets

And what’s this about macho men? The state governments, primarily mostly men, instruct women about what rights females possess regarding reproductive rights. Men telling females? How would men respond if females told men what their rights were? Men are limiting almost entirely the rights of a female to determine how to deal with pregnancies and even birth control.

Running parallel to the assumption that males tell females about their reproductive rights, states restrict blacks and minorities from voting. That flies in the face of the 15^th Amendment of the Constitution. According to that amendment, federal or state governments cannot restrict voting rights based upon race. Texas and a couple of dozen state governments are setting the rules for who can and can’t vote. White Texans feel that blacks and Hispanics wouldn’t vote for Republicans. Therefore, they will restrict them from voting.

However, there are other lies than about white male superiority is. Rep. Liz Cheney read a list of text messages to Mark Meadows to tell Trump to stop the riot on 1/6 at the Capitol. Apparently, Trump wasn’t reading them. So, the Chief of Staff was the means to get to Donald the Dumb.

Rep. Cheney mentioned Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, Brian Kilmead, and Donald Jr. Their only reason for stopping the mess Trump started was to preserve Trump’s legacy. They all lied about what was happening at the Capitol to the media, including Fox News. Nonetheless, what about calling off Trump’s thugs to stop the possible killing of members of Congress, the Vice President, and congressional aides. Does Trump’s legacy trump protecting our democracy?

Finally, this is a personal matter, and the insurance company that provides prescriptions to me by mail lied to me. I have taken blood pressure medication for twenty years. It hadn’t been sent, and I didn’t have enough for that week. I called them and told them that I hadn’t received that prescription. The person said that I had canceled that prescription. I politely said that there must be a mistake to which the person at the other end said that I had canceled it in a call a week before.

I counter the lie by saying that I merely asked my new cardiologist’s name to be on the prescription. Further, I noted that my cardiologist sent a script to them. The person said that she saw it on her monitor. Nevertheless, I had canceled it. Why would I have canceled of prescription that my new cardiologist had sent them?

Realizing that my insurance company had made a mistake, she would fill the prescription. I told her that I didn’t have enough pills for the week and wanted expedited delivery.

She put me on hold while she spoke with her supervisor about this matter. After waiting ten or more minutes, she returned and said that the insurance company wouldn’t expedite my prescription because I had canceled the prescription, which I hadn’t. However, if it didn’t get to me on time, I was to call my cardiologist and ask him to write another prescription and for me to take it to my local pharmacy. I don’t lie.

A sickness too took root….