From the article on the National Institutes of Health website quoted at the beginning of this editorial series, last Friday:
Approximately half of the awarded funds will support the work of six disease study sites, which will examine conditions such as fatty liver diseases, hepatocellular carcinoma, asthma, chronic kidney disease and pre-eclampsia, among others. The sites will enroll research participants, at least 75% of whom will be from ancestral backgrounds underrepresented in genomics research.
Many scientists believe that chronic and acute diseases affect people differently, at least partly dependent upon their ancestral backgrounds, but also upon their lifestyle and diet. Of course, lifestyle and diet can themselves be dependent upon a person’s ancestral background — based on family traditions and beliefs, and also based on how the surrounding society treats that person. As the NIH article notes, some ancestral backgrounds are “underrepresented” in genomics research.
Heck, some ancestral backgrounds are underrepresented in almost every aspect of American society.
What we can gather from the quoted paragraph above is that NIH will be making a concerted effort to include underrepresented ancestral backgrounds in their research.
Which is to say, persons with underrepresented ancestral backgrounds will, in this particular research project, be treated as ‘special’ — because of past neglect by previous research projects.
What we are striving for, here, is some kind of equity among a diverse population. That has not been the historical pattern in America. Historically in America, some ancestral backgrounds have been subjected to bigotry, hatred, and discrimination.
The [researchers] will also collect data on participants’ environments and social determinants of health to be used in conjunction with the multi-omics data. Combining the multi-omic and environmental data can offer an even more comprehensive view of the factors that contribute to disease risk and outcomes.
A friend sent me a link to a video, the other day, featuring a rather angry and obviously frustrated parent, speaking to her school board. She told them she’d been attending school board meetings for about five years, and she clearly felt the need to educate the school board.
Here’s the 3-minute video.
“There is one goal for the educational system. It should be to prepare children to enter careers, to be productive members of society. It’s not a counseling session. It is not a self-help area. It is not somewhere to find yourself. And we should not be led by the children, for goodness sake…
…”Let me tell you, less than 5% of the entire population of North Carolina identifies as LGBTQ. You guys all claim that you want democracy. Well, you know what democracy is? It’s the majority plus one! It’s 50% plus one!
“You know what? More than 50% of the people in this state claim that they believe in God. Almighty God, who made us male and female! God who made marriage between a man and a woman. God, who said that we must protect our children!”
I am, of course, compelled to disagree. “Democracy” might conceivably be defined as “the majority plus one”, if you were an angry, frustrated, God-fearing parent addressing a school board.
But that’s not how we’ve defined it in America.
The word “democracy” does not appear in the Declaration of Independence, nor does it appear in the U.S. Constitution. The word “majority” appears once in the Constitution, to define a “Quorum” of congressional representatives.
Most definitely, “democracy” was never defined as “a majority plus one” in our country’s founding documents, even though that particular manner of defining a legislative approval by a government body has become standard practice.
Three words that do appear, repeatedly, in both documents, are: “liberty”, “freedom”, and “rights”.
Our country was founded on the idea that individual liberty and individual rights are sacred… so long as the larger society is not harmed thereby. A belief that God ordained marriage to be between one man and one woman is certainly useful in guiding a particular person’s behavior, and our Constitution protects that person’s liberty and their right to hold this belief — and express that belief — without government interference.
Our Constitution also protects the liberty and rights of a person who believes that God endorses same-sex marriage, and the liberty and rights of a person who has no belief in God.
I shared in a previous installment the published mission of the Archuleta School District:
The mission of Archuleta School District 50 JT is to empower students and staff to achieve personal and academic successes in a safe and appropriate learning environment while providing them with the tools to effectively navigate the 21st century.
We note that this mission statement does not specifically mention “preparing children to enter careers.” It does mention “personal and academic success” but seems to leave those terms undefined. One student’s ultimate definition of “personal success” might be very different from another student’s definition.
I also shared, previously, the published mission of our District-authorized charter school, Pagosa Peak Open School (PPOS):
Developing brave and experienced lifelong learners who contribute to our evolving world.
The word “success” is missing from this mission statement, but success is nevertheless defined. PPOS will succeed in its mission if our students and staff develop into brave people who continue learning for their entire lives, and who contribute to the world, in some way.
Preparing for a career might be part of this success, or it might not. Conceivably, a student could end up as a Buddhist monk, begging for food in Thailand, or as a housewife (or househusband) without any “career” whatsoever, and still bravely contribute to an evolving world.
Charter schools were authorized in Colorado in offer families educational choices. I suspect the angry mom in the video above would not find what she wants in either our District schools or at PPOS. In Colorado, she has the liberty, freedom, and right to start a charter school that can offer like-minded families yet another choice.
That’s what I would call ‘democracy in action’.