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FRISTY THE SURGEON
September 26, 2004
When Bill Frist was running for the United States Senate, I wrote a column lamenting the fact that a man with a highly specialized gift of medicine that benefited so many was giving it up to become a politician. I don't remember my exact words but that was the gist of it.
I thought about that column after Frist's speech at the recent Republican convention, the one in which he referred to trial lawyers as "the culprits of increased health care costs" and "predators." There are predators among trial lawyers, just as there are predators among school teachers, the clergy, law enforcement and the medical profession. Frist is, in my opinion, not one who should be pointing the finger of ethical behavior.
While doing a little background on Sen. Frist, I ran across the following spoof written by an online columnist named Madeleine Begun Kane. She called her piece "Fristy The Surgeon" and indicated that it should be sung to the tune of "Frosty The Snowman," by Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins. One of the verses goes like this: "Made a mint from HCA./ Rarely casts his vote for the common folk/ Wants to be the Prez some day."
The spoof, of course, is just the opinion of one writer. Nobody knows what is in Frist's heart but his aw shucks speech about how he is a medical doctor first and foremost definitely opens the door to a discussion of what he does as opposed to what he says - as we have so often heard lately of John Kerry's focus on his Vietnam War record. So let's have the discussion.
Until last May there had been a long-standing gentlemen's agreement in the United States Senate that the majority leader and the minority leader would not campaign against each other in their home states. I watched with interest. When Frist, the majority leader showed up to campaign against his counterpart, Tom Daschle, displaying the win-at-all costs, take-no prisoners strategy shared by so many of the good doctor's cohorts, it became evident to me that in order to have a gentlemen's agreement, two gentlemen are needed.
To be sure, just how repugnant violating a gentlemen's agreement is depends on personal principle -- even though I find it (ital.very) distasteful. So let's discuss Frist's ties to the health care industry. Frist's father and brother founded Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) which was and may still be the nation's largest for-profit hospital chain - an American success story.
There's definitely no law against being successful, but many people are of the opinion that Sen. Frist, who still owns a healthy chunk of HCA, should step aside from senate votes involving health care. He apparently feels that having his holdings in a blind trust insulates him from a conflict of interest. What do you think?
As for rising health care costs that have left more than 40 million Americans without health insurance, lawsuits (ital.do) contribute to the problem. Unfortunately, the threat of lawsuits against HMOs and insurance companies that allow bean counters to practice medicine has been one of the few safeguards poor people have had. It could be that greed among pharmaceutical companies, which along with health care organizations ranked third among Frist's list of donors over a six year period, also contribute - just slightly - to the rising costs.
I'm well aware that Frist has his charities, that he does work without charge from time to time. That's very admirable for the few individuals who receive his help. But there are millions of people doing without medical insurance and the majority leader of the Senate -- especially a majority leader who is a medical doctor -- has the bulliest of all pulpits to fight for the people who can least afford it.
In order to do that, however, it may be necessary for Frist to decide whether he most wants to be a doctor, a champion of the people who don't have a lot of money to contribute for political campaigns or an ideologically driven candidate for president. I don't think it's possible to do all three.
It may be that what was said of the missionaries who went to Hawaii in the 19th Century and ending up owning huge chunks of the islands can be said of most politicians: "They went to do good and they did right well."
Copyright David Hunter 2004
WAS IT PREMATURE POTTY TRAINING?
August 28, 2004
When you live in Knox County, Tennessee it's easy to forget that there is a sizable community of Democrats. On August 14, 2004, 1200 plus gathered at Knoxville's new convention center for the East Tennessee Truman Day Dinner. The food was good and the speakers were interesting.
David Keith who is an award-winning actor and director served as the master of ceremonies. The star of such classic movies as "An Officer And A Gentleman," "The Lords Of Discipline, " one of my favorites, "Firestarter" and too many others to mention, Keith earns his living in the film industry but his home is still in East Tennessee.
Early on, Keith asked how it felt to be in a room with 1200 people who all shared the same opinion of the man in the White House. It was really quite a surprise how much applause he got, as often we have been told how out of touch those Hollywood people are with mainstream America.
You have to wonder about that term, "mainstream America," when you consider that the country has never been more evenly divided than it is and the outcome of the 2004 presidential election will probably be decided by 5 or 6 percent of the population, those who haven't made up their minds on either candidate.
It may be that "mainstream America" is one of those terms like "judicial activists" that are tossed around pretty frequently by people who have forgotten that George W. Bush became president through an act of judicial activism when the U.S. Supreme Court decided to halt the counting of votes in Florida. Apparently only judges who make decisions that run contrary to conservative Republican policies are considered judicial activists and the others are righteous judges adhering to the Constitution.
"Left wing liberal news media" is in the same category as judicial activists and mainstream America. Every day Rush Limbaugh reaches more people than any other single commentator in America but Republicans are always quoting Rush and columnists like Diana West, Ann Coulter, Thomas Sowell, Robert Novak, Oliver North, Armstrong Williams and Cal Thomas about how conservative voices are drowned out by the left wing news media. Makes you wonder where they read these columnists, doesn't it?
Not long ago local Republicans were outraged when I wrote a column in defense of John Kerry's war record. I was called "out of touch," "tilted to the left," "ignorant" and a "liar." It made me wonder how many local Republicans complained about the Diana West column that ran on the same page - symbolically, to the right of my column - in which she did everything but question John Kerry's IQ while discussing what she obviously considers his ignorance of foreign affairs. Several angry people demanded to know who I thought I was to question a great woman like Ann Coulter on that same page about her grasp of what constitutes patriotism.
Why I continue to be surprised by the patriarchal attitude of neocons (even the females), I don't know. I should have grown used to it by now. Those who disagree with any tenet of their philosophy are obviously too naive (or ignorant) to see the true light of dog eat economics I sometimes think it was potty training started too early in life. Maybe my friend Carl is right. He believes the very people who needed to smoke a little weed and mellow out, never got around to it.
Copyright 2004 by David Hunter
OVERWORKED VERBAL BUMPER-STICKERS
August 20, 2004
Every writer knows that language is at best an inaccurate means of communication. The Letters to the Editor section of the American newspaper is both a rampart of the First Amendment and the final destination of overworked clichés. A cliché is a banal, trite, hackneyed, tired, worn-out and predictable word or statement.
Among those words frequently turning up on the Letters to the Editor pages across the country these days, are "activist judges," "extreme liberals," "elite," "core values," "mainstream Americans" and "born-again Christians." So popular have these clichés become, they've all but replaced "politically correct" "secular humanists," "thought police" and "feminist agenda."
Let's look at "mainstream Americans." Mainstream means the middle of a stream or river or, in popular usage, the prevailing or majority opinion. The United States of America is so politically divided at the moment, Republicans on one side and Democrats on the other, that 5 or 6 percent of the voters will pick the next president. Those who refer to the mainstream are really just talking about other people who hold the same beliefs as themselves.
There is no mainstream in America today and there hasn't been for some time. Five or 6 percent is not a majority. The term "core values" very often turns up in the same sentence with mainstream Americans. The definition of core values, at least as it is used in Letters to the Editor, means voting my political preference and belonging to a group called "born-again Christians."
In fact, the Letters to the Editor sections very often have letters that say there are enough born-again Christians - sometimes it's 4 million or 6 million or 9 million- "to go to the polls and take back this country." Presumably, those who refer to born-again Christians are speaking of an elite Christianity as opposed to all other Christians in America. Since there's no way read the human heart or even take a head count, these numbers must be arrived at by counting the members of specific denominations.
The new birth or regeneration does not belong to any denomination. It is an orthodox Christian belief, not a sectarian belief. All Christians, who believe that Jesus the Christ died for our sins, was buried and rose again, are new creatures, born of water and the spirit, members of the catholic and apostolic church, of one body. Becoming a Christian does not require a specific set of words or a particular type of Baptism. There are no slaves or free, male or female - nor Democrats and Republicans in the sight of God. We stand equal at the altar, sinners all.
As for the activist judges, when the Supreme Court of this land stopped the counting of votes and by a 5-4 majority installed a president, it was most definitely an act of judicial activism because it was brand new territory. I and millions of others didn't like it but we accepted it. When Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore defied a court order to remove the Ten Commandments and that same United States Supreme Court refused to hear the case, Moore was acting as a judicial activist and became hero to many. But we can't pick and choose which laws to obey.
Let's face it, clichés are alive and well because they don't require any thought. A cliché is a verbal bumper- sticker.
Copyright 2004 by David Hunter
DAVIDHUNTER333@comcast.net
David Hunter is a former street cop, the author of 13 books
and a columnist for a major Tennessee daily newspaper.
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