The United States Is the Distraction Capital of the World
SALINAS, CA — Those of us who are lucky enough to live in the United States have a lot.
Our country isn’t perfect. But, as Americans, we’re blessed to have limitless opportunity, personal freedom and the ability to decide how our future turns out.
Yet, for all we have, we also lack something extremely valuable: focus. This land of abundance is also the land of distraction. Americans often have trouble being present in the moment.
That observation came to mind recently as I watched the evening news and learned that the United States had attacked Iran.
Of course, like every other American, I have my own opinions about what’s happening in the Persian Gulf. But, at least for now, I’m happy to leave the foreign policy analysis to the professionals.
What concerns me at the moment is how quickly we seem to move from topic to topic. Weren’t we just embroiled in a heated but necessary national dialogue over immigration raids and other enforcement policies that go too far? The patients that we see in our clinics — many of whom are immigrants who work every day to keep the U.S. economy chugging along and revitalize the country’s spirit so that America stays America — haven’t stopped thinking about the raids. Many of them are undocumented despite their best efforts to fix their status. They live in fear of being deported or worse.
Now the subject has changed?
As a student of history, I’ve always known that my fellow Americans have short memories.
Now, with the boom of technology, I realize that we also have short attention spans.
Don’t misunderstand. We should follow the news. As citizens, we have to stay informed. But we shouldn’t lose sight of one story as we chase the next one.
That’s not being informed. That’s just being distracted. Maximiliano Cuevas, MD is the CEO of Clinica de Salud del Valle de Salinas, a collective of non-profit community health care centers that serve patients in Monterey County.