OPINION: If only our institutions practiced the Golden Rule – Cape Cod Times (subscription)

By R. Jay Allain

In an age that almost seems allergic to simple solutions, here's one -- a plausible idea for slashing mistrust towards our main institutions: Make practicing the Golden Rule a core value at every one.

Specifically, if each institution and its representatives began to treat all those who rely on it -- regardless of the person's race, gender, age or socioeconomic class -- as they themselves would like to be treated, a brave gust of cleansing wind would refresh every hallowed hall. Hope would surface. But to really happen, key obstacles to such mutual caring, like entrenched moneyed interests, would have to be reduced with all deliberate speed.

Take government. Is democracy itself not a lofty experiment which insists the rights and well-being of the humblest American matters as much as that of the richest among us? Yet today, powerful forces hound elected officials to insure their own economic interests are met -- regardless of its impact on the average American or the environment. These forces need to be skillfully removed. Until then, countless suffer from under-representation -- even as schools and bridges erode, good jobs depart, child-care costs soar and drinking water becomes unhealthy.

Consider medicine. Would any physician -- or health insurance CEO -- let his or her own mother or child be denied affordable, quality medical care because they couldn't afford it? No! Yet today, despite increased coverage through the Affordable Care Act, millions of fellow Americans face uncertainty under President Trump -- and a lack of care due to unfairness and costs in the current system. The rush to repeal Obamacare with no viable alternative is itself a scandal -- and a clear trashing of the Golden Rule. As the saying goes: "Without hope, the people perish" -- and shrinking life expectancy rates attest to it. We must demand better.

Finally, in the vital realm of science, let's examine an aspect of this institution with particular relevance for residents of Southeastern Massachusetts, namely, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Would any of its esteemed members live -- or ask their relatives to live -- near an obviously failing nuclear plant? Hardly. To be fully credible, such authorities would have to insist such a facility be completely overhauled -- or quickly closed down. Yet the NRC seems prone to vacillate and hedge its defense of public health when the financial interests of nuclear power companies are involved. This subverts their mission to protect the public -- something only we, the people, can remedy. Let us do so, even as we insist the once revered Golden Rule be rescued from the endangered list.

R. Jay Allain lives in South Yarmouth.

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OPINION: If only our institutions practiced the Golden Rule - Cape Cod Times (subscription)