AC_1965_Web

68 AN T I OC H CO L L E G E C L A S S O F 19 6 5 5 0 t h A N N I V E R S A R Y B O O K A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z G U Y E R tude to students in schools of public health. In medical school I had one very Antioch-like experience. With a classmate, I worked with a union in an unsuccessful effort to union- ize workers at the teaching hospi- tal; I got nabbed by the university police and threatened with expul- sion. Fortunately, some of our faculty came to our rescue. I also believe that my work in Africa and later efforts to build ca- pacity among African healthcare in- stitutions were victories. I loved the time we spent as a family in Africa and felt we were having a real im- pact on the people’s lives. I learned that it was important to work side- by-side with African colleagues and not have a top-down approach to such work. Jane and I have been re- turning to the same places in Nigeria for over 40 years now. Our daugh- ter was born in Cameroon.There re- mains much hard work to be done in these places, as evidenced by the reemergence of Ebola virus. My only regret is that most of Standing (left to right): Steve Goldberg, Marc Post, Steve Longstreth, Sandy Davis, Richard Merrill and myself. Seated: Tom’s wife, Abbe, Tom Newbury and Steve Goldberg’s wife, Mary Ellen. our “victories” have not been sus- tained. The optimism that we had as the ’60s generation has waned with the rise of right-wing con- servatism. We stopped the war in Vietnam but could not prevent wars in Afghanistan or Iraq. Our efforts to reduce poverty and inequality have been undermined by the rise of market economics.The corporati- zation of medicine has been a disas- ter for America: high costs and poor outcomes. Only the corporate inter- ests benefit.The next generation will need to rescue us from this era. In conclusion, much of my life’s work is linked to myAntioch origins. Those heady years taught me that one could be a first-rate scientist and an activist citizen. I will always be grateful for that influence on my professional and personal life. See you all at Reunion 2015.