Third-World Adds New World Of Problems
Aelyn Thompson
News Editor
Every year, over 580,000 Americans die of cancer.
Every year, 600,000 people in the United States alone die of heart disease.
Every year, 21 million people in the United States are diagnosed with diabetes.
One-third of America is obese and overweight,which just so happens to be a leading cause of heart disease, Type 2 Diabetes and certain types of cancer.
In 2014, 4960 people have died of ebola worldwide.
One American has died of ebola.
What’s the frenzy? Why are we employing social networks and search engines to generate funds to fight ebola when we have millions of people in America already dying of diseases and health conditions we don’t think twice about?
What are people missing?
We need to focus on the problems at hand. It’s frustrating that every time Facebook and the Google opens, corporations are focused on a disease that’s trivial in comparison to the ever-growing list of health issues Americans face. Ten times the amount of people died of suicide last year than ebola deaths total in modern times.
Where’s the funding for mental health patients and their families?
Granted, there are organizations like The American Heart Association and The American Cancer Society. There are donors and events that funnel money into those circles. Those are million dollar industries; that is completely understood: America is addressing certain health concerns.
But look at funds for helping conditions like schizophrenia or COPD? In too many instances, these potentially fatal conditions are forgotten.
Mental institutions with rehabilitation and medication are made out to be shameful, making people think that it’s not okay to seek treatment for mental health issues that affect one in every four Americans. Aside from the connotation, they are some of the most costly and inaccessible treatments.
People wonder why no one can get help for alcoholism and drug abuse when rehabilitation could cost as much as $75,000 in an inclusive rehab center, which is double the money of a college education.
It’s not that ebola isn’t relevant in our lives.
It’s there.
It’s frightening.
But, all these truly real and local problems are made to seem unattended to and forgotten.
We cannot overlook our own citizens for people across the oceans.
Third-world countries do need our help, but they also have more citizens dying of influenza, extreme poverty, starvation and water contamination.
Let’s focus on improving those countries that need our help and teach them to help themselves as well.
America needs to fix its ever-increasing issues before it gets distracted by almost frivolous issues that keep us from improving our own nation.
