Common ground
Politics, we’re always told, makes strange bedfellows. So does journalism.
One day last week, a newroom leader managed to utter the words Taliban, hurricane and Jerry Springer, all in the same sentence.
“What was that all about?” someone asked him.
Before he could reply, a young reporter spotted a connection.
“What a bunch of natural disasters,” he said.
Sounds about right to me.
Two sides, no prescription
A reader forwarded me a letter to the editor published by the Clarion-Ledger newspaper in Jackson, Miss. I went online and checked out the Aug. 23 letter from Dr. Starner Jones, along with comments it inspired. Together, the doctor’s letter and one of the published responses seem to sum up the frustrations many middle class Americans feel, both about the current health care system and President Obama’s plans to “reform” it.
See what you think:
Dear Editor:
“During my last shift in the ER, I had the pleasure of evaluating a patient with a shiny new gold tooth, multiple elaborate tattoos and a new cellular telephone equipped with her favorite R&B tune for a ringtone.
Glancing over the chart, one could not help noticing her payer status: Medicaid.
She smokes a costly pack of cigarettes every day and, somehow, still has money to buy beer.
And our president expects me to pay for this woman’s health care?
Our nation’s health care crisis is not a shortage of quality hospitals, doctors or nurses. It is a crisis of culture - culture in which it is perfectly acceptable to spend money on vices while refusing to take care of one’s self or, heaven forbid, purchase health insurance.
Life is really not that hard. Most of us reap what we sow.
Starner Jones, M.D.
In response, a teacher/reader posted this: Sure, there are people who abuse the system, but why didn’t you mention the poor children who don’t have regular checkups or the elderly poor who can’t afford their medications? I teach school, and I’ve seen firsthand the struggles of two parents who have lost their jobs, or a family who goes broke when one of them comes down with a major illness. Come on, Starner, I remember you growing up, and you’ve had a better upbringing than this. Didn’t Jesus say we should love others as we love ourselves? I think that includes healthcare, among other things.
I, for one, think both of these folks make good points. Somehow we need to find a reform proposal that respects real needs and requires personal responsibility. So far, neither side has done a good job of putting the two concepts together.
Still strutting his stuff
I frequently remind young reporters - and some not-so-young ones, like myself - that there are no stupid questions. Or more correctly: the only stupid question is the one you fail to ask.
If only that were true.
Fact is, there really ARE stupid questions, lots of them. I’ve asked more than a few myself. Maybe you have, too.
But sometimes, I’ve found, a stupid question will elicit a brilliant answer.
Here’s one of my favorite examples.
A few years ago, a woman accompanied her elderly father on an emergency room visit in another city. The gentleman was in his 80s and looked every day of it - walking gingerly with the help of a cane, pulling a portable oxygen tank. The occasion wasn’t truly an emergency, so the two of them sat in the waiting area, patiently answering a long list of questions posed by a kindly nurse who carefully entered each response in the computer.
Near the end of the list, the nurse read off this question, “And what is your occupation?”
The man never missed a beat. Shifting his cane, he took a deep puff of oxygen and replied,
“I’m lead dancer in Riverdance.”
I do hope the nurse had a sense of humor. A response like that deserves a laugh, not to mention a standing ovation.
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