I could start on the outskirts of this idea, focusing the ongoing health crisis in Flint, Michigan, over contaminated drinking water. There, we have allowed an entire urban population to suffer the consequences of poor decisions made by politicians since 2014 (NPR, “Lead-Laced Water In Flint: A Step-By-Step Look At The Makings of a Crisis;” Merrit Kennedy, 4/20/2016).
We might also consider the lives ruined through fracking in Pennsylvania. There, energy companies couldn’t wait to extract natural gas from the ground. Their political clout was allowed to outweigh the lives of families and the autonomy of communities. The result has been contaminated wells, abandoned farms and despair (The Fracking of Rachel Carson, by Sandra Steingraber; Orion Magazine, Sept/Oct, 2010).
But the heart of the matter is this: the human body pays for political decisions. Let me say that another way. The political landscape – regulations made, regulations tossed out, laws passed, laws that fail to pass, programs enacted, programs dismantled – all of that plays out against our flesh, the landscape of our mortal bodies. We do not have to be at war for the actions of our leaders to put us in mortal danger.
The manipulation of economic markets, for instance, often results in increased unemployment, which has physically destructive consequences. Debilitating health conditions occur among those who are jobless for a long time. As months and years without a job go by, people experience an increase in physical ailments, both their number and their severity(Unemployment May Be Hazardous to Your Health, by Roni Caryn Rabin; NY Times, 4/3/2017).
Consider also the immigrant families threatened with deportation. It turns out their children can slip into an apathetic, unresponsive coma for years – out of fear of being forced to return to their country of origin. Other children in that situation skip school, miss free meals, skip church and doctor visits for fear of detection by ICE agents (The Trauma of Facing Deportation, by Rachel Aviv; NY Times, 4/3/2017). Sometimes, the best way to see the extent of the harm being done to us all is to see the changes in children’s overall health.
Native Americans and Alaskan native people experience some of the highest rates of illness and disability in our country. Political decisions were made long ago that removed indigent populations from having a seat at the table. Shunted aside into tribal lands chosen by politicians, with no voice in the country’s direction and laws, many Native Americans and Alaskan natives have been dispirited and ill for generation after generation. A far higher percentage of their young are lost to alcohol, drugs and suicide (UNDESA, Division of Inclusive Social Development, Indigenous Peoples, 17th Session Report of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, July 2, 2018).
The current rhetoric about dismantling the Environmental Protection Agency is like a doctor telling someone who is recovering from cancer, “Nevermind. I’ve decided to inject you with the plague.” Since its inception in 1970, the EPA has been able to steadily improve the planet’s and the nation’s health: cleaning up polluted rivers and streams, getting rid of smog over cities, reducing mercury and other toxins from ground water, removing pesticides from the foods we eat, protecting endangered species. More of us are alive, and more of us enjoy a greater level of health because of the course charted by EPA regulations.
The lack of any humanitarian concerns on the part of the 45th president and a Republican-dominated congress as they enact their agenda is the most sickening politics of all. To know that our leaders are callous towards refugees and immigrant populations, disrespectful of minorities and world leaders, cavalier about universal access to health care and eager to dismantle laws that protect citizens from harm gives rise to mental despair and depression among all who define democracy by its attention to human rights.
If you have a social conscience, your body is always absorbing injustice and oppression, absorbing the pain of others who are affected by the political decisions being made, absorbing the terror of those who are threatened by government policies, absorbing the fear and despair of people who are already marginalized being marginalized even further.
Suicides among LBGTQ folk, murders of transgender folk, disrespect towards minorities, hate crimes – statistics show these numbers have all risen since President Trump’s election (The Rise of Hate, by Volsky, Tucker, Rosen and Chong; The Center for Amercian Progress, 3/22/18). Teachers of children as young as pre-school and on up through high school tell us more and more children are talking to them about fear, anxiety and insomnia. Doctors report that people in the over 70 population in particular are coming in to talk about increased levels of pain, as well as more illness and disability. These are the unmistakable signs of the extent to which political decisions, even political rhetoric by itself, can be life-threatening.
If current events raise your blood pressure, make you sleepless, take away your appetite or increase it well beyond its normal bounds, if news reports leave you boiling with anger or find you in tears, those are physical signs of political anguish, whether the decisions are affecting you directly or not. No matter how carefully you reason through current events, no matter how thoroughly you read trusted sources, no matter how often you talk over the issues with others, the body also has its say.
The only antidotes to unsafe and potentially lethal political decisions is first, to resist policies that negatively affect the health of our citizens. Join protests, write letters to elected officials, make phone calls; find some way to add your voice as a citizen to others who are resisting policies that will harm us.
The second antidote is to elect politicians who pay attention to the consequences of their decisions on the mortal body. This includes people elected at the local level: to our own local school boards, housing authorities and health boards. It includes politicians running for state office – our governors and state legislators. And it includes our senators, congressional representatives and our President – those who are supposed to act for us in the federal government. Use your voice and your clout as a citizen at every level available.
For more information on the intersections between politics and the human body, I highly recommend Orion magazine. Many articles combine research on environmental issues with a sensitivity for human and aesthetic values. If you are interested in the relationship between architecture and human health, do get your hands on a copy of Christopher Alexander’s book, A Pattern Language. You will find there a consideration of the human consequences of everything from the design of cities and towns, to the positioning of individual spaces within homes. If your interests begin with human rights, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Southern Poverty Law Center provide studies of the human costs of our laws as well as materials for transforming society.
