Access: Septa Bioethics Government

Many issues are dominating the news, but two issues will cause us great discomfort. Septa has reduced their trains, buses, and subways because it had million-dollar losses last year. But it has affected every area of our life. I was with a doctor last week at Jefferson who told me he will have to rent a small apartment in the city as his commute by train leaves at a time where he can make it to the office in time for his early procedures and get him home after a long day.

The lack of Septa travel options affects the arts in the city because the commute is more than people can do. Parking in the city for a show or concert will become untenable. This is true as well for professional sports. All of this will have a domino effect where restaurants will be hurt because their customers will not be able get to them easily. Hospital patients will have great difficulty making appointments for the result will be traffic and parking that the added car transportation will make it untenable for increased parking.

The Philadelphia Public and Parochial School Systems depend heavily on Septa. Getting to school is challenging at best and will be impossible for some without Septa. I have read horror stories about how some students will have hour and a half commutes to and from school.

The people who will be hurt the most are those with less resources than what exist in the suburbs. One of the most important concepts in bioethics is access. It is critical not only in medicine but throughout our society. It is directly related to class.

Years ago, I was a priest in a parish during the summer on Peakes Island in the Casco Bay. Everyone traveled to and from the island on a ferry. When I went to Portland which was the arrival point, I would make my way around the beautiful city of Portland. I noticed something. There were a large noticeable number of disabled people making their way around the city. I thought that there must be institutions where disabled people had to live. I asked the obvious question. Where are they?

There were just one or two. How come there were so many disabled people in the city? The answer was access. The city of Portland made sure that buses and other forms of transportation as well as entrances to buildings were equipped to be helpful to the disabled. One’s economic status has a lot to do with access. I had a student who was absent a few days from our school when we were on City Line Avenue which separates the city from the Mainline. He was an inner-city student who depended on public transportation by bus and didn’t have the fare and was embarrassed to tell me that. I changed that problem very quickly.

We moved our campus out to Newtown Square to get more room to make us a better school. 99% of our students in Merion came to Newtown Square, an additional commute added. We made sure that we worked out transportation for them. However, one of my students took two busses to get to us, but a person who was assigned to help him complete his journey didn’t show because of illness. He went to the local Hoagie shop and asked if the shop delivered hoagies to EA. They said, “Yes!” He then asked if they could deliver him and his hoagie to EA. He contributed much to our school, received a great education and graduated from a top tier university.

But lack of access can be deadly. Trump and the Republican Party have created a nightmare for the present and future. They have cut off healthcare to the neediest as well as the food assistance programs. The EPA has reduced the people who qualify for the Covid Vaccine. Kennedy has fired experts in the vaccine field putting millions of people at risk. The CDC Director has been fired after being on the job for one month because she disagreed with Kennedy’s approach.

In essence Trump has fired anyone who disagrees with him. His approach to stopping DEI is difficult because past administrations interwove DEI into all aspects of government. Trump says he is looking for people to add to his concept of meritocracy when he continues to appoint people who are incompetent. Various FEMA officers were let go yesterday because they challenged the fact that FEMA is being handled so poorly by Kristi Noem.

We will not be ready when the next Katrina like catastrophe occurs putting large numbers of people at risk. He also reduced the weather alert people to predict terrible storms. Since he doesn’t believe in climate change, he cut funding to that enterprise of saving the planet for future generations.

Researchers for important cures for various diseases no longer have access to that life saving progress since he has denied funding universities and other entities committed to research to make our future treatments more advanced.

His administration and his revenge tour have created so much fear. There is a chilling picture of Trump announcing that he is taking over Washington. Behind him is Hegseth with a grin on his face. His beautiful bill and tariffs will ultimately provide lack of access of all to food and services particularly hurting small businesses and farmers. Migrants have lost their dignity as they are rounded up by ICE. They have lost their access to the American dream.

When you see all these things as Trump just being Trump, it is hard to see the millions of people being harmed or who will die. The President doesn’t have a cabinet. He has “yes men and women” who in a recent three-hour meeting told him what a great job that he is doing. We have lost access, which is fundamental to bioethics, to travel as well as sound government. We were warned!  Start seeing all of Trump’s actions through the lens of access.