I was interviewed this evening by a woman doing a project on the children of Holocaust survivors. She was a doing a qualitative survey for a class in Tucson, Arizona. She found my name from a local report on my daughter Emily, who was injured at a demonstration in the West Bank to protest the Israeli attack on the Gaza flotilla in late May.
The interviewer used the term "G2" to describe my generation. This sounds vaguely Mendelian, or a take on a Himalayan peak. She asked whether there were any advantages to being "G2"- as you can imagine I could not think of any. She also asked if I believed in God, to which I answered in what I feel is a classically Jewish manner, "define God".
One point I did make is that I feel that there was a survival advantage to having a suspicious, pessimistic view of the world, which helps make "G2" not being the happiest bunch of people.
I do feel that "G2" people do have a somewhat special outlook on the world, and that they feel that they have a special obligation to the survivors to honor their survival, through family, work, and the upholding of Jewish ethical ideals.
Al in all, it was an interesting process. I told the story of my parents' journeys through Russia, Uzbekistan, Israel, and the U.S. I also recalled those left behind to die in the camps or of malaria. To think of the Holocaust and its effects on one's family is an embittering process. It puts one in a defensive posture about the world, which is not always helpful or productive. And, as in the case with Israel, it is a limiting and debilitating posture which prevents one from looking past his or her ethnicity and into a more inclusive world view.
Monday, November 1, 2010
Ted Sorensen
Ted Sorensen, Kennedy speechwriter, and prominent Democrat, died at the age of 82. The New York Times gives a fascinating obituary of the man. A native of Nebraska, he came to Washington at the age of 23 with a law degree from Lincoln with apparently no connections (although his father was Nebraska's attorney general for a time) and then landed himself a job with then Senator Kennedy in 1953. Hitching his wagon to this star, he ghostwrote the Pulitzer prize winning Profiles in Courage and came to the White House as part of Camelot in 1961. He was President Kennedy's speechwriter and aide, helping negotiate during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He remained a prominent Democrat throughout his life, though not in a public capacity. He ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 1970 (Bobby's seat), and was taken out of the running for Director of Central Intelligence when it was found out that he was a conscientious objector to the draft (can't have that).
I do wonder whether in this day and age one can go to Washington without connections and find oneself in the middle of the seat of power just by dint of initiative and talent.
I do wonder whether in this day and age one can go to Washington without connections and find oneself in the middle of the seat of power just by dint of initiative and talent.
The Quiet
As my middle aged body clock sets into an early morning routine, I am able to reflect in the relative quiet of the office.
The morning papers and NPR are of course reporting on the impending doom which is likely to befall the Democrats tomorrow. President Obama is faulted for lackluster and uninspired leadership, and for not connecting with people. I find that political writing typically falls into this post-hoc analysis. See the outcome and then explain it off. If the outcome is somewhat different, then the analysis is of course different. There is of course faulty logic in all of this. The analysis could of course be that people vote their pocketbooks- when the economy does poorly, the voter looks unkindly on incumbents. This cuts both ways politically. After the fall of Lehman in September 2008, when the credit markets froze and the Dow went into a free fall, Obama and the Democrats were assured vistory. Now, when the consequences of the financial crisis works its way through the general economy, with high unemployment and high foreclosure rates, the Republicans are the beneficiaries. The unemployment rate and GDP growth will predict the next president in 2012 (absent any major war or terrorist threat).
Stay tuned.
The morning papers and NPR are of course reporting on the impending doom which is likely to befall the Democrats tomorrow. President Obama is faulted for lackluster and uninspired leadership, and for not connecting with people. I find that political writing typically falls into this post-hoc analysis. See the outcome and then explain it off. If the outcome is somewhat different, then the analysis is of course different. There is of course faulty logic in all of this. The analysis could of course be that people vote their pocketbooks- when the economy does poorly, the voter looks unkindly on incumbents. This cuts both ways politically. After the fall of Lehman in September 2008, when the credit markets froze and the Dow went into a free fall, Obama and the Democrats were assured vistory. Now, when the consequences of the financial crisis works its way through the general economy, with high unemployment and high foreclosure rates, the Republicans are the beneficiaries. The unemployment rate and GDP growth will predict the next president in 2012 (absent any major war or terrorist threat).
Stay tuned.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
War and Peace
I am close to the midway point in a panoramic masterpiece of the 19th century novel, War and Peace. I have been through drawing rooms, counts and princesses, and the battle of Austerlitz. The Russian aristocracy is completely taken with the French- their language, customs, and their hated/admired leader, Napoleon. I have undertaken this project of a novel in an attempt to read through the great books. It is an interesting exercise that teaches me not only about life in early 19th century Russia, with its slave-like serfs and forays into Enlightenment philosophies, but also about the difficulties in reading such a work outside of the classroom.
I have also learned that the characters of Boris and Natasha, those cold war characters in "Rocky and Bullwinkle", were taken from Tolstoy. Who knew?
I have in addition learned to appreciate the comment made by a football commentator during a ballgame that the quarterback had enough protection from the offensive line to read War and Peace.
I am working my way backwards in European history. A wonderful book on late 19th century to early 20th century royalty, " George, Nicholas and Wilhelm: Three Royal Cousins and the Road to World War I" by Miranda Carter, was very illuminating. All related to grandma Queen Victoria, these autocrats displayed their arrogance right to the end of their relevance to the European world. At least the British royalty had the good sense to save themselves from oblivion by relinquishing power and changing their last name from Saxe-Coburg Gotha to Windsor.
I have read through the Paris Commune of 1871, in which more destruction was done to the city than in the Revolution and the World Wars, and the disastrous Pranco -Prussian war which preceded it. The French were not always losers on the military battlefield- they controlled much of Europe during the Napoleonic era, which is actually what led me to "War and Peace".
I guess the end of the book ends badly for Napoleon (this is the problem with reading historical books- you can never ask, "so I wonder what happens next?"). But I suppose with millions dead in this 19th century version of world war, it ends badly for everyone, I suppose.
I have also learned that the characters of Boris and Natasha, those cold war characters in "Rocky and Bullwinkle", were taken from Tolstoy. Who knew?
I have in addition learned to appreciate the comment made by a football commentator during a ballgame that the quarterback had enough protection from the offensive line to read War and Peace.
I am working my way backwards in European history. A wonderful book on late 19th century to early 20th century royalty, " George, Nicholas and Wilhelm: Three Royal Cousins and the Road to World War I" by Miranda Carter, was very illuminating. All related to grandma Queen Victoria, these autocrats displayed their arrogance right to the end of their relevance to the European world. At least the British royalty had the good sense to save themselves from oblivion by relinquishing power and changing their last name from Saxe-Coburg Gotha to Windsor.
I have read through the Paris Commune of 1871, in which more destruction was done to the city than in the Revolution and the World Wars, and the disastrous Pranco -Prussian war which preceded it. The French were not always losers on the military battlefield- they controlled much of Europe during the Napoleonic era, which is actually what led me to "War and Peace".
I guess the end of the book ends badly for Napoleon (this is the problem with reading historical books- you can never ask, "so I wonder what happens next?"). But I suppose with millions dead in this 19th century version of world war, it ends badly for everyone, I suppose.
Insurance
So, of course, after I tell you that I will diversify my topics, I start with a medical issue. One pet peeve of mine is the venom that some of my patients spew with regards to the new health care reform, which they derisively dub "Obamacare". The concerns expressed by my patients are that somehow, after the reforms take full effect, they will no longer have access to adequate medical care. What the patients don't seem to realize is that "Obamacare" has not gone nearly far enough to reform the system, and that the danger lurks where it always has been- with the insurance companies.
Case in point. One of my patients, who is employed but does not have health insurance, has a serious gastrointestinal problem that needs attention. He called me with great concern about his medical problem. He told me that he and his fiancee decided to get married in the next 2 days so that he could go on her medical insurance to take care of the problem.
In my hours of paperwork at the office, I am still dealing with insurance companies asking me medical information about patients that I have just seen. This is done not out of concern for them, but whether they can glean that they have a so-called "pre-existing" condition so as to deny them coverage.
Now I know that the health care reform bill is supposed to fix these problems in the future, but I have my doubts. So much of the reform is dependent on the cooperation and integration with states, that I am concerned that red state America, at least, will opt out. I am also concerned by the fact that the Federal Government has already given waivers to self insured entities such as Macdonalds so that they don't have to follow the new requirement to provide insurance to all children in their health care plan.
The issue, my dear patients, is not with "Obamacare", but with insurance care, especially the profit driven, cherry picking type of plans.
Case in point. One of my patients, who is employed but does not have health insurance, has a serious gastrointestinal problem that needs attention. He called me with great concern about his medical problem. He told me that he and his fiancee decided to get married in the next 2 days so that he could go on her medical insurance to take care of the problem.
In my hours of paperwork at the office, I am still dealing with insurance companies asking me medical information about patients that I have just seen. This is done not out of concern for them, but whether they can glean that they have a so-called "pre-existing" condition so as to deny them coverage.
Now I know that the health care reform bill is supposed to fix these problems in the future, but I have my doubts. So much of the reform is dependent on the cooperation and integration with states, that I am concerned that red state America, at least, will opt out. I am also concerned by the fact that the Federal Government has already given waivers to self insured entities such as Macdonalds so that they don't have to follow the new requirement to provide insurance to all children in their health care plan.
The issue, my dear patients, is not with "Obamacare", but with insurance care, especially the profit driven, cherry picking type of plans.
Henoch's Views
I have decided to start to a blog not wholly devoted to medical matters, to include my thoughts on various issues of interest to me, and hopefully, to the reader. They will include topics of politics, history, psychology, maybe fiction, and other types of craziness.
We shall see how this goes.
Stuart
We shall see how this goes.
Stuart
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)