All Hat No Cattle

Posted on August 25, 2004 in Campaign 2004 Crosstalk Medical Ethics

If you have come here because of the reference at All Hat No Cattle, welcome. I was surprised to see the referrals flooding in this morning. I did not seek out the publicity. This blog, like many others, is a journal of personal experience and opinion. I am still deciding what to do about last Friday’s experience at an Orange County, California cardiologist’s office. I am not ashamed of what happened, but I feel shamed without cause.

What was done to me should happen to no one. At least one of my friends feels that this is also being done by Democrats, but I have seen no proof of this. Perhaps it does and I would say the same to them as I said to this doctor. Do not politicize the medical office. We are here for treatment and stress is an enemy of that.

On the other hand, here in the Orange, I have not seen this kind of behavior being played out by liberals and I did not see it being played out six and more years ago when I lived in Silicon Valley where there are more liberals. The news of the past few weeks about the use of church membership rolls suggests that there is an organized attempt to enter politically neutral establishments for the purpose of propaganda and recruitment. What happened to Glenn Hiller shook me even more deeply. I doubt that this event was directed from on high by the Bush Mogul Machine, but I see it as evidence of a Confederacy of Dunces lining up to attack John Kerry and anyone else who disagrees with their resounding cruel political correctness.

As I said at the outset, I am considering my options. It is not likely that I will sue as some friends suggest because I am not in this for the money. Whether I have grounds for a complaint with the California Medical Board remains to be seen. That or going anonymously (if that is possible now) to the newspapers or the Kerry campaign are the options before me now.

No one except for another doctor (and then only in a hint) has suggested what the man hiding behind his 1972 diploma did to me was right. My personal doctor gave me the “its his office” line. Yes, but it is my health and both men are bound by the Hippocratic Oath to make that their first priority in their workplace.

Some who heard of what happened through my wife called me “heroic”. If I am a hero, I feel very much alone and isolated as seems to be the case with many who point out the madness and corruption of this age. I am struggling not to lose my faith in doctors as a class and to keep my health — I am diabetic, asthmatic, and suffer from depression — my primary focus. This is not a price heroes or ordinary people like me should have to pay. I suggest the exercise of personal controls — reminders of ettiquette — to bring us back to sanity. Plus an informed vote for those candidates who are problem-solvers rather than problem-makers, people who relieve the stress of the many by small personal commitments and good manners.