Kimball Ladien, M.D. Cares about People
By Michael Heath / selfpublishingUS.com
As a physician, Dr. Ladien’s concern for people may seem obvious. He cares about patients; that goes without saying. He is also concerned with the welfare of the homeless, jobless, downtrodden and drug addicted.
Dr. Ladien does not view the causes of these woes as individual self-inflictions separate from the community; he sees our society as not answering to the needs of its people. Communities produce the disenfranchised who then seek their own daily survival through gang membership, crime and drug use. Rather than attempting to fix the problem one person at a time, Dr. Ladien seeks a paradigm shift where the whole populace is offered opportunities. Well-paying jobs enrich people’s lives, rebuild localities and help make everyone safe.
It is easy to discuss the need for after-school programs to keep kids out of trouble, and job opportunities used to solve the crime problem. It is an old saw written by sociologists as long as there have been rough neighborhoods. Ladien goes deeper. In his book Safe Haven, he points out that all of society profits when productive, drug-free people are in the workplace. When people have jobs, they have money and a great sense of self-worth. Ladien points out that this is not someone else’s problem. It is society’s responsibility to see that people have a chance to better themselves.
Dr. Ladien has a game-changing solution that would have a worldwide effect. His book The Chicago Project outlines a win-win approach providing countless jobs and fresh water to areas needing it the most. The answer is desalinization plants using renewable energy. Facilities that desalinize water use a lot of energy, so doing it in an economically feasible way would have huge benefits for mankind. Imagine solving the water crisis in California or building gardens in the desert of the Middle East. Think of the jobs produced by such a commitment. Ladien’s passion for the project prompted a run for his party’s Congressional nomination in the Illinois 5th district to bring these ideas to government decision-makers.
President Kennedy once said: “If we could competitively -- at a cheap rate -- get fresh water from saltwater, that would be in the long-range interests of humanity, which would really dwarf any other scientific accomplishment.” Let’s hope that Kimball Ladien, M.D. is that politician who makes it happen.