LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Celebrating Shared Humanity

Choosing commonalities over differences

February 21, 2025 | VOLUME 3, ISSUE 1

Last night, I watched the Super Bowl halftime show by myself from a hotel room overlooking mountains in southern West Virginia. My wife, Amy, called me from our faraway home after the kids were asleep to tell me that our 13-year-old rapped along every word to Kendrick Lamar’s halftime performance.

I am not like Kendrick. Not even close. Kendrick was raised in Compton, California, and experienced homelessness as a kid. He’s become a cultural icon, the most influential artist of a generation, and a Pulitzer Prize-winning lyricist. Kendrick is currently best known for the Grammy Award-winning and Super Bowl halftime finale song, “Not Like Us.” If you have been hiding from all forms of media since the song was released in May, “Not Like Us” originated in a rap “beef” but has since been adopted by people spanning ages, genders, races, ethnicities, incomes, etc, to speak to whatever “Us vs Them” struggle resonates in their life. The song currently has more than 1 billion streams on Spotify—at least 100 of them into my son’s headphones.

Drew Harris, MD, FCCP
Editor in Chief, CHEST Advocates

I know I’m not alone when I say that in 2025, we do not need an anthem that celebrates our divisions and differences.

In the last eight years, I have traveled in a beat-up Subaru the equivalent distance of three times the Earth’s circumference to care for rural Appalachian coal miners and their families. And I am well aware that there are plenty of differences between myself and my Appalachian patients. Cultural, economic, religious, political, dietary…even our vehicles and hairstyles. It would be easy for a coal miner to say, “Dr. Harris is ‘Not Like Us.’” Or vice versa.

But we choose not to do that. We find commonalities ranging from the typical (eg, family life, hard work, the outdoors, sports) to the unique (I’ve lost count of the number of coal miners who, like me, have had a traumatic finger amputation).

Drew Harris and a coal miner showing their partial finger amputations

Dr. Harris and a coal miner show off their partial finger amputations. Photo courtesy of Dr. Harris.

Celebrating our shared humanity, rather than our differences, brings us together in a productive way. This helps us build trust with each other, improves our dialogue and doctor-patient relationships, and improves the health and well-being of our community.

And that’s the intent of CHEST Advocates. To bring people together. To elevate inspiring stories of CHEST members who are doing amazing things that respond to their patients’ and community’s needs.

So, take a break from the dizzying headlines, executive orders, and court challenges. Come together with a community that remains committed toward helping our communities.

This issue of CHEST Advocates is centered on shaping the clinicians of tomorrow through mentorship, recruitment, and equal opportunity—both interpersonally and professionally. One particular person who resonated with me was E.S., who said, “I do believe that we are in control of the future,” and “I don’t feel powerless in this space to affect that future.”

In another article, Kedar Johnson, PhD, MSHI, the Research Fellow of the Action Collaborative for Black Men in Medicine, noted that we have to be patient to enact the change we hope to see in the world; but that even amidst a challenging and chaotic 2025, “we have to start somewhere.”

Start here.