>Thursday, August 13, 2009
Last updated: Thursday August 13, 2009, 9:42 AM
BY TIM ADRIANCE
The Record
REGARDING BOTH “Debate, not tirade” (Editorial, Aug. 12) and Jimmy Margulies’ editorial cartoon (“Who needs the government making decisions for me?” Aug. 12), I see hypocrisy on your own editorial page and, dare I say, a “tirade” on your own part.
The editorial states, “Dissent is welcome. Destroying any chance for substantive discussion is not.” But isn’t the cartoon, which paints those who speak out against the administration as mere puppets of “right-wing lobbies,” inflammatory and a clear slap against many of us who comprise an informed and vocal electorate?
With an estimated 400 other citizens, I was at Rep. Steve Rothman’s town hall meeting in Elmwood Park. Although I do not agree with most of Rothman’s position on the health care issue, I do commend him for running a fair and civil – for New Jersey – meeting where everyone was given a chance to speak.
The only “puppets” of lobby groups I saw were the few who were for the administration-proposed plan; they were clearly identifiable because they all had the same professionally printed signs paid for by a lobby group. The majority present were just citizens who have had it with a Congress held in contempt by the people they control. Simply put, the majority opinion at Rothman’s meetings has been, “We do not trust Congress.”
I agree that there are some wild claims made about the House bill, HR-3200. I have read it, and there is much that is wrong and much to fear (health-wise and fiscally). There are no “death panels,” but there is voluntary end-of-life counseling and that counseling may not be done by your own doctor.
Nevertheless, how can we not believe that the very words of one of President Obama’s chief aides on the health care issue, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, brother of Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, do not reflect what is really intended: rationing of health care, among other things?
In a Hastings Center report from 1996, Dr. Emanuel said “communitarianism” should guide decisions on who gets care. He said medical care should be reserved for the non-disabled, not given to those “who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens. An obvious example is not guaranteeing health services to patients with dementia.”
In a June 2008 Journal of the American Medical Association article, he wrote that “savings will require changing how doctors think about their patients: Doctors take the Hippocratic oath too seriously, as an imperative to do everything for the patient regardless of the cost or effects on others.”
Even Obama in his June 24 WABC televised town hall meeting on health care contributed to this discussion. He was questioned about whether there should be a cutoff of surgical options for older people after they have reached a certain age. Obama stated, “Maybe you’re better off not having the surgery, but taking the painkiller.”
We the people want debate. We want truth. And we want to be governed by our consent. We will not stand silent any longer. We are not pawns of a lobby. We are educated citizens who are simply speaking out in order to preserve freedom and liberty.
Tim Adriance is co-founder and on the leadership committee of the New Jersey Tea Party Coalition, the Bergen County group of New Jersey Tea Parties United, the statewide organization of the regional groups.
