There are places on earth such as Africa with only one doctor per 100,000 population, where simple infections such as strep throat turn into epidemics due to unavailable trained medical personnel or health facilities. Whole villages are wiped out due to easily treatable infections while most Americans archetypically enjoy "the finer things in life." We spend billions searching for others out there in the galaxy as lives are needlessly lost right here at home, a.k.a. Planet Earth.
I often wonder what we will say or do if and when we make contact. Will our "welcome package" include a chapter on our "impressive" world healthcare system? Will self-interest groups call it "universal?" I guess if they interview us humans one at a time we can skirt the issue, declare ignorance, "pass the buck," and say "don't ask me: I'm only visiting this planet..."
"Our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal." -JFK
As we wait for the discovery and subsequent arrival of these extraterrestials we've been looking for, many can still continue believing there is nothing out there mightier than us. Hence, all that would matter is who we are, our personal concerns about what other fellow humans perceive us to be, and what is expected from each one of us, based upon the value systems of our peers (excluding, of course, those who answer only to themselves). The desire to help others is driven by either the spirit of charity or self-interest. So whether one believes in mightier forces or not, why are we spending so much money to find them, instead of waiting for them to find us? What if they're already here, that they just don't want to tell us yet? So why don't we use that money to fix problems like the one mentioned above, instead of getting such an expensive second opinion?
Those mighty extraterrestials could turn out to be one big self-interest group, and harbor incurable diseases which spread through our populations like small-pox and syphilis did, right after Columbus discovered America. What makes us jump into the neighbor's yard when there are plenty of weeds to pick in our own? I'm sure King Ferdinand and Queen Isabel must have had a similar conversation before Columbus got the "green-light." Obviously, Isabel had the last word.
