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Dr. Margaret, that is. She makes me so proud to be a woman. It's not just her determination to be heard, although that counts. And it's not just because she is ready to give up a career which others are holding onto by old platitudes. It's definitely not because she expects leniency because she's a woman. She's doing it for her patients, children who deserve a fair chance.
Bill Moyers, in his Journal, interviewed her again to see why she was turned away from the White House gate after the president asked for suggestions. All they wanted to do was leave a letter for him. But then there was a meeting and once again she ended in jail, only because she believes single payer for health insurance is the way to go.
This is just the latest chapter in my understanding of the imminent issue--health care--and long term concern over gender equality. It's coming up like the weeds which flourish even as dandelions start to give us false confidence. Possibly the whole issue of the Stupak amendment makes things all the sharper. (Dr. Howard Dean weighed in on Moyers' show also.)
I'm thinking of changes from the days of Comstock and Margaret Sanger. What's this with politicians who like to embrace private sexual matters and turn them into public talking points, or legislation? Long before Dubya Bush and his Falwell-like agenda, there was "banned in Boston." It was a reference to book censoring, blamed on the Catholic Church. After Roe versus Wade, no other Supreme Court decision has been so analyzed and used for political gain.
Along comes Dr. Margaret Flowers. She has children, some of her own and many patients who are too young to confront guards and police. She wants them, through their physicians, to have a good start in life. So she tells how insurance companies call the tune concerning her decisions for them.
Are we ready for a new Freedom Movement? Let doctors be doctors!
On the surface money is not the main impediment here. Or is it? Are all sides--insurance companies, pharmaceutical manufacturers, hospitals, medical associations, patients' advocates, and politicians--forgetting about the professionalism physicians claim to have?
Two men on Moyers' show, presumably with opposite views, spent twice as much time on the show concerning the recent troublesome Supreme Court decision as did Dr. Flowers with her single payer issue. They spent most of their time talking about money and opinion polls and I'm not sure they are willing to stand at the White House gate over any issue. So I'll stick with the Good Doctor and her small patients. Mostly this seems to be a question of using common sense. No wonder I have not heard anything from the mainstream media about how children are the ones we should think of first when there are bad times, be they from earthquakes or obfuscation in the hallowed halls of legislation and justice.
I have never depended much on the White House to tell me how to run my life. Those folks are there to keep us all from getting uppity.
I do like uppity women. Each in her own way. Elizabeth Blackwell. Harriet T ubbs. Susan B Anthony. Rosa Parks. Rachel Carson. Margaret Mead. And now Dr. Margaret Flowers.
