Family medicine is a specialty defined by its breadth and its resilience, and the arc of my career has reflected these qualities. From starting out in a small town practice to navigating the waves of corporate acquisitions, I’ve experienced the full spectrum of change in our profession.
I’ve witnessed the shift in our business priorities from volume to value. I’ve celebrated the growing consensus that healthcare is a fundamental human right, and I’ve practiced medicine long enough to glimpse the arc of the moral universe as it bends—ever so slightly—toward justice.
Through the years, this Academy has played an important role in bending the arc. And while progress can be frustratingly slow, the incremental achievements of our Academy are both tangible and consequential.
At times, the expectation of continued progress has tempted me to consider stepping back and winding down. However, those thoughts would vanish in late January, as I watched—in shock—as critical web pages at the CDC and NIH were deleted and vandalized. It was during this time that I was encouraged to apply to the Nominating Committee. And the timing felt like more than a coincidence.
The attacks on science and medicine did not end with the censorship of websites. They continued with the appointment of woefully unqualified men to lead our nation’ s healthcare and humanitarian agencies—men who have moved with deliberate haste to undermine scientific integrity, promote pseudoscience, and vilify the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusivity.
I find it difficult to put into words my growing apprehension about the future. It is said that poetry is where emotion finds its thoughts and words, and my thoughts often return to William Butler Yeats' poem, “The Second Coming,” written during a time with remarkable parallels to our own.
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold," Yeats wrote in 1919, as his pregnant wife lay near death from influenza. His sentiments captured a world reeling from the Great Pandemic while repressive, authoritarian movements were just beginning their devastating march across the globe.
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world…
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
A century later we find ourselves once again emerging from a global pandemic, one that has laid bare the gaping rifts in our social fabric. Like Yeats, it is easy to lose hope when the vision of a healthy and peaceful future for our children and grandchildren is at risk of falling apart. In times such as these, people of goodwill may find themselves caught between silent acceptance and futile resistance. But there is a better path forward.
Alone, each of us is powerless to stand against the tide of history, but our institutions, like this Academy, transcend our solitary limitations. Institutions keep things from falling apart. Institutions are the “center” to which we must hold fast.
Now is the time to rally around our Academy. Now is the time to reinforce our convictions and nurture our own passionate intensity. Our Academy must be our center—a center that holds sway against the dismantling of public health; against the proliferation of pseudoscience; against the retreat from universal healthcare; and against the abandonment of the public good as a unifying ideal.
The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice—and it will—but it does not bend of its own accord. We, and our Academy, must be there to help it bend.
I am Griffin Cupstid, and I am ready to stand with you in that effort to earn your vote and your trust, and to serve on the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Family Physicians.
Alone, each of us is powerless to stand against the tide of history, but our institutions, like this Academy, transcend our solitary limitations. Institutions keep things from falling apart. Institutions are the “center” to which we must hold fast.
Now is the time to rally around our Academy. Now is the time to reinforce our convictions and nurture our own passionate intensity. Our Academy must be our center—a center that holds sway against the dismantling of public health; against the proliferation of pseudoscience; against the retreat from universal healthcare; and against the abandonment of the public good as a unifying ideal.
The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice—and it will—but it does not bend of its own accord. We, and our Academy, must be there to help it bend.
I am Griffin Cupstid, and I am ready to stand with you in that effort to earn your vote and your trust, and to serve on the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Family Physicians.