APHA

Last week I had the opportunity to attend the American Public Health Association Conference in Denver, CO.  I was presenting one of the programs I run and of course trying to glean any tips of the trade or ideas from others that could be useful to anything we do.  I did pick up a few things that I'm sure will come in useful so it was a success overall, however, I must admit that what fascinated me most was the variety of opinions, comments and lectures that surrounded the theme of the conference, "Social Justice: A Public Health Imperative".  As always at these big academic conferences, the time is booked with different breakout sessions on everything from current research, to case studies, to models of successful programs.  Then of course there's an opening and closing session that directly address the theme of the conference.  In the wake of the recent health care reform bill there was a lot of discussion about health disparities and what can/should/will/might/needs to/ought to happen with health care and public health in general in our day and age.  It was interesting to me to hear the presentations and especially the comments and questions raised by members of the audience.  I know that anytime you start talking about issues that are somewhat political, or that address subjects like racism, prejudice, and discrimination emotions seem to flare, but I was still surprised at some of the comments and attitudes expressed.  There were certainly moments when I thought "Seriously?! Did he/she just say what I think s/he did?" I know there's no easy answer to many of the problems facing us today and we certainly can't be fence-sitters on most issues, but  I don't think that ascribing to the extremes is usually the best answer either.  Sometimes I feel like I'm becoming a minority simply because I'm not fanatically supportive of one side or the other.  Strange how we've come so far in the past 100 years or so, yet there is still so far to go to become a unified loving society.