"If one of us, any of us, any American is traveling in a town somewhere in America and a medical crisis hits them, for someone who is diabetic or perhaps has heart disease or some other problems, where do we get the records to determine what to do?"
About this Quote
The phrasing "traveling in a town somewhere in America" is doing quiet work. It assumes mobility as a norm and treats internal travel as a stress test for the nation: if you can cross state lines but your medical history cannot, the country is modern only in parts. "Where do we get the records" isn’t a bureaucratic query so much as an accusation about institutional fragmentation. Someone will be forced to make life-and-death decisions with missing information, and the blame will belong to the system, not the doctor.
There’s also a soldier’s sensibility here: logistics, readiness, continuity of command. In a battlefield mindset, information is survival. Murphy’s subtext is that a nation that can muster troops and move supplies should be able to muster something as basic as a person’s medical story when the body becomes the emergency. The intent isn’t technological fetishism; it’s a demand for infrastructure that matches the promise of being "American" wherever you are.
Quote Details
| Topic | Health |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Murphy, Timothy. (2026, January 15). If one of us, any of us, any American is traveling in a town somewhere in America and a medical crisis hits them, for someone who is diabetic or perhaps has heart disease or some other problems, where do we get the records to determine what to do? FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-one-of-us-any-of-us-any-american-is-traveling-165099/
Chicago Style
Murphy, Timothy. "If one of us, any of us, any American is traveling in a town somewhere in America and a medical crisis hits them, for someone who is diabetic or perhaps has heart disease or some other problems, where do we get the records to determine what to do?" FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-one-of-us-any-of-us-any-american-is-traveling-165099/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"If one of us, any of us, any American is traveling in a town somewhere in America and a medical crisis hits them, for someone who is diabetic or perhaps has heart disease or some other problems, where do we get the records to determine what to do?" FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-one-of-us-any-of-us-any-american-is-traveling-165099/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.
