I’ve heard a lot of criticism (even hostility) over the years from people disdainful of ‘the mainstream’ and, in particular, mainstream medicine. People who routinely complain about ‘the system’ in general, or any public service.
Yet I wonder how such people respond when their child falls from a tree and has a bone protruding from their leg? Do they take them to a mainstream hospital or call a mainstream ambulance?
Do they protest when a mainstream doctor injects their child with a pain-relieving drug produced by a large pharmaceutical company?
Are they concerned enough about needle stick injury or the possible side effects of the chemical-loaded drug to refuse treatment for their child?
When their neighbour’s house is on fire, do they ring the mainstream fire brigade?
If there’s a violent house invasion or a road accident, do they dial 000, or a friend?
When they’re in financial distress, do they accept the support offered by social services, or enter the weekly lotto draw?
It seems to me a lot of people are deeply contemptuous of ‘the system’ from which we all benefit, until such time as they need something from it.
They routinely shake their fist at the world, while simultaneously not recognising how fortunate we all are to occupy a first world country at this point in history?
Seeing room for improvement and arguing for change is one thing, yet ignoring the roof over our heads is entirely another.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
