Humanity Has a Heart Problem

My compass has always pointed towards helping others. My family has always instilled in me that true success was not vertical (e.g., how many material items one could accumulate) but horizontal (e.g., how many people we could help).

Professionally, my journey to help others began on a benchtop in the cornfields of central Illinois. At that time, I reasoned that what humanity needed most was to unearth the molecular determinants of health. Continuing upstream, I thought that I would make a more tangible impact on humanity by transitioning from the benchtop to the bedside to provide direct patient care. What I would soon discover is that both medicine and technology alike, even when fueled with Ivy League solutions, still often found a way to benefit institutions more than the most vulnerable.

Realizing that both law and policy are the guardrails of our society, I figured that I would take a further journey upstream. I decided to pursue public health and legal studies to see if these societal supports could be shifted in a direction to benefit those who needed them the most. Even though law prides itself in objectivity, on occasion the influential convince the arbiters to tuck malicious intent behind words and letters — and in turn the justice of the people is sacrificed.

Though each of the aforementioned are noble professions that have undertaken noble endeavors, an alarming truth began to emerge — it doesn't really matter what intellectual or tangible edifice our society creates if the people at the helm do not steer with compassion towards their fellow mates. After all, what good are well-constructed pathways if they lead us in the wrong direction?

New technology, more capital, and better resources in the hands of a bad heart will always cause more harm than help. Yes, the solution to man's problems lies not in enhanced tools within reach of his hands, but rather his problems and solutions are predicated on the contents of his heart. Our society does not need more laws, more wealth, or more technology — what it needs is more Love.

"Society is at its best when a person in power looks into the eyes of the least, and sees the same thing that God sees; Himself."

— Dr. Marcus Rushing

— Marcus Rushing, MD