I grew up in the 1960’s, but I’ve never found marches and demonstrations to be especially meaningful ways to communicate my concerns, political or otherwise. It seems to me that there are plenty of marches these days. On Tuesday 150 or so people marched around the Rapid City Regional Hospital campus, led by Brent Phillips, president and CEO of the hospital. A nurse recently posted a video on Facebook in which she used graphic profanity toward Native Americans. She was fired within a few hours of the discovery of her racist post and later apologized in a television interview, but the hospital was scrambling to come up with a clear public demonstration that it in no way condones such hateful and hurtful expressions. The march was dubbed a “solidarity” march to demonstrate that the hospital was committed to serving the entire community. The newspaper has a picture of hospital president Mark Gibbs walking hand-in-hand with Horace Wounded Arrow at the solidarity rally.

I am appalled at the racist statements, embarrassed by the video that should have never been made, let alone published for others to see, and disappointed by the actions of some of my neighbors in this community. But I didn’t take part in the march. I failed to see how being part of a crowd was going to build relationships. Maybe the community needed public demonstrations, but I couldn’t quite see how marching was going to solve the problems of institutional racism and embedded distrust.

Tomorrow there is a “Keep the Promise; Stop the Lies” rally, march and demonstration, complete with picketing in Hot Springs. Hot Springs has been home to a Veterans Administration hospital for a long time and its stately campus is a beautiful part of the the community. Things are changing in health care and the Veterans Administration keeps making gestures that the hospital will one day be closed. Alarmed citizens of Hot Springs are doing whatever they can think of to try to keep the hospital in their community. Of course the economic effect of closing the hospital would be devastating to the small town.

The problem of how best to provide health care for veterans is complex. In an era when there were far too few hospitals to provide adequate care to the citizens of the country it seemed to make sense to create a separate health care system to provide care for veterans returning with combat wounds and other needs. This evolved into a system of hospitals and care centers spread across the nation. It also meant that veterans might have to travel to obtain health care. For a veteran living in Rapid City with its regional medical centers and conveniently located physician practices, it can be a bit frustrating to have to travel to Hot Springs or Sturgis to receive routine care. But hospitals are huge institutions and making changes is always complex. The location of a hospital effects the local economy, the lives of employees and the vendors that provide supplies and resources to the institution.

It is easy for me to say that the decisions about the hospital are complex. And understanding a bit of that complexity makes it hard for me to take sides. And thinking the way that I do, I can’t quite figure out what is accomplished by a rally, a march and picketing at the entrance to the hospital.

Historically, picketing and marching have been ways for people who had few resources to express their opinions in a public manner and get noticed. In the struggles for a 40-hour work week, reasonable job safety, an end to child labor and other fair employment practices, strikes and public demonstrations were methods of rallying support for causes that were, at least initially, unpopular. The point of the demonstration was to show the public how many people supported a particular cause and to demonstrate majority support.

With all due respect, 150 people marching around the hospital doesn’t even demonstrate a majority of the physicians employed by the institution. Yes, the executives and corporate heads did show for the press photos and make a splash for the news cameras, and I suppose it is good to know that they are willing to step away from their desks long enough to express their opposition to overtly racist statements. I remain, however, unsure of what was accomplished in terms of creating an environment in the hospital where patients don’t fear that they will be treated unfairly.

If we refuse to talk about the out-of-control cost of health care in our community and the effects of entrenched poverty among Native Americans in South Dakota, can we really address institutional racism in the hospital? What causes more harm in our community: overtly hateful statements posted on YouTube or the pay discrepancy between the CEO of the hospital and the minimum wage worker washing dishes in the cafeteria? At least the minimum wage worker isn’t the lowest paid employee of the institution. Regional also employs disabled workers at sub-minimum wages.

Let me be quick to say, since I have already been critical of the institution, that I do not have the solutions to the out-of-control increases in the cost of health care in our community or in our nation. I don’t have an answer for the increasing discrepancies between the care afforded to the wealthy and that obtained by those who are impoverished. I don’t know how to “fix” poverty in our community.

I do, however, have an obligation to be an informed and engaged citizen. I do owe it to my neighbors to try to live responsibly and to seek justice for those who have been wrongly denied access to the benefits of our society. It is incumbent upon me to work to end racism and to open up channels of communication, conversation, and community for all.

Eldridge Cleaver famously said, “There is no more neutrality in the world. You either have to be part of the solution, or you’re going to be part of the problem.”

I really want to be part of the solution. I’m just not convinced that the best way for me to do so is to join in with the marchers.

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