Obviously, education is hugely important, along with healthcare.

Hear, O children of nations, the words of Kelly Reilly, spoken with clarity and strength: “Obviously, education is hugely important, along with healthcare. They’re the basics and you’re hurting your own country if you don’t pour money into them.” Though her voice comes from our own time, the wisdom she utters belongs to all ages. For she points to the twin pillars upon which every society must stand—the cultivation of the mind and the care of the body. Without these, a people weaken; without these, a nation falls.

What is education, if not the seedbed of wisdom, the forge of citizenship, the very means by which children become guardians of tomorrow? And what is healthcare, if not the shield of life, the preservation of strength, the mercy that sustains the weak and restores the fallen? Together they form the foundation of a just society, for what good is learning if the body is broken, and what good is health if the mind remains in darkness? To neglect them, Reilly warns, is not simply an error—it is an injury inflicted upon the very soul of the nation.

Consider the great empire of Athens, which shone brightly because it nourished both body and mind. Its people trained in the gymnasiums for health and strength, and gathered in academies to sharpen thought and speech. In this harmony of physical care and intellectual growth, they birthed philosophy, drama, democracy, and art that endure to this day. But where nations abandoned one or both, decline soon followed, for imbalance breeds weakness. Thus history itself testifies to the truth of Reilly’s words: to neglect these basics is to wound one’s own destiny.

Think also upon the story of the United States after the GI Bill of 1944. At the end of war, millions of soldiers returned home. Through wise investment in education, the government opened universities to those who had once been shut out, and through expansion of healthcare, it protected families rebuilding their lives. From this came decades of prosperity, innovation, and leadership in the world. It was proof that when a nation pours resources into the mind and body of its people, the entire country rises.

Reilly’s words carry also a warning to the present: when leaders turn from these pillars, when they starve schools of resources or deny care to the sick, they are not saving money—they are spending the future. Ignorance becomes the harvest where learning is neglected, and despair becomes the harvest where illness is untreated. The price of neglect is far greater than the cost of investment, for it is paid in broken lives, wasted potential, and a weakened nation.

But let us not hear her words as lament only—they are also a call to action. To pour into education means to raise teachers as pillars of society, to provide children with the tools to dream and to build. To pour into healthcare means to value every life, to extend compassion to the weakest, and to strengthen the laborer, the artist, the thinker, and the parent alike. These are not luxuries, but necessities; not ornaments of wealth, but foundations of survival.

Therefore, O keepers of the future, take this lesson: demand of your leaders that they guard these twin treasures, and do your part to strengthen them in your own sphere. Teach your children the love of learning. Care for the sick and weak as if they were your own. Support those who strive to expand knowledge and healing for all. For when you do this, you strengthen not only individuals but the whole of your people.

The final word is this: as Reilly has spoken, so truth confirms—education and healthcare are the basics, the breath and bread of nations. Neglect them, and you betray your country; nurture them, and you ensure that the roots of your land sink deep and the branches reach high. Let no generation forget this, lest they purchase short-term gain at the cost of long-term ruin. Instead, let each generation build upon these foundations, and so secure the flourishing of all.