Dear Editor,
With all the turmoil over Obamacare over the past few years, I have heard a lot of discussions about what America could be and what America should be.
The majority of these discussions focus on healthcare and public transportation and inevitably involved comparing the United States of America to a country in the European Union.
The point these discussions would make is what was offered in the EU was better than what we were getting in the states. I, do admit, this was often the conclusion I came up with, but my opinions haves since changed.
This past summer, I travelled to Europe and got a taste of the EU for myself, and the conclusion that everything is relative in life has once again been confirmed. While Americans sit at home and complain of what America should be like they fail to realize that the things they so want for their country are just as flawed as the system we have now.
As I talked to locals on the streets of London, I found they had distaste for their medical system. Their complaints boiled down to that their system was great for emergencies but for long-term health issues, this system only offered more levels of bureaucracy. The joke that British people have bad teeth was only reconfirmed with their complaints for the failure of a dental health system in their country.
Once we got off the streets, we traveled around London on their famous Underground. The system was vast and would take you anywhere in the city and was truly unlike anything found in the United States.
New York and D.C. have similar systems but nothing like as vast as the Underground. United States citizens have wanted cheap public transportation like this for years and the reason we have not got it is simple. America is vast. It is not only vast, but it is also very spread out. The cities that have these transportation systems are tightly compacted metropolises. The truth is, it would cost more to provide these systems than it would actually be worth.
Upon landing back in the States, I had this sense of contentment in that I knew I truly lived in the best country in the world. It also left me with a sense of worry, that our politicians are so out of touch with the world they did not come to the same conclusion as me.
The EU might have unique ideas, but it is nothing the United States really needs. This is America the beautiful, it always has been and always will be, so stop trying to fix something that is not broken.
Cameron Bennett, film and media arts junior