Nazi medicine

Everyone in this area who has used the Nazi epithet against those with whom they disagreed during this past year’s debate on health-care reform (that includes you, radio talker Chris Stigall) should take in “Deadly Medicine,” the exhibit that opens this month at the new headquarters of the National Archives at Kansas City near Union Station.  (See related story)

Perhaps after seeing the exhibit, these sloppy thinkers would realize that they have slandered people whose well-motivated goal is to provide health care to all, regardless of class, quite unlike the Nazis.

Even if you believe that health-insurance reform could lead to the government-mandated rationing of care, that is hardly the same thing as the Nazi program of “racial hygiene.”

It’s all too easy these days to go for the Nazi analogy, which is why it’s good to have the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum around to remind people of what the word actually meant and still means.

Letter to the editor

Hadassah helps in Haiti

We are by now all familiar with the devastation caused by the recent earthquake in Haiti, and the “disproportionate” humanitarian response by the state of Israel. I thought your readers would be interested in the following facts compiled from Hadassah wire reports by Wendy Elliman, Chava Shelkowitz and Pamela Vassil:

• Israel sent IDF rescue troops and medical personnel from Hadassah and other major Israeli hospitals within days of the devastating earthquake. Because of Israel’s long experience with bombs and terror attacks, the army and medical community are expert at handling emergency rescue and medical crises.

• During their stay in Haiti, the Israeli team treated 1,111 patients, performed 317 life-saving surgeries, and helped bring to the world 16 babies — all under the most difficult field conditions.

• Dr. Shir Dar, an OB-GYN from Hadassah Ein Kerem, delivered the first baby born at the Israeli field hospital — named “Israel” by his grateful mother. Also working at the IDF field hospital from Hadassah are orthopedic surgeon and anesthesiologist Dr. Taras Shirov, Dr. Revital Hivert of the Department of Prosthodontics, operating room nurse Reuven Gelfond from Mount Scopus and medical clown Dudi Barashi.

At Hadassah, health care is our heritage, and it is rewarding to know that every day we deliver the most advanced medical care in the Middle East. We continue to reach out to relieve suffering around the world.

Shari Sokol
Leawood, Kan.
President, Greater Kansas City
Chapter of Hadassah

21st-century refugees in KC need our help

It’s hard to fault the workers at Jewish Vocational Service for many of the problems encountered by African and Asian refugees to Kansas City, Mo., in the past couple of years.

They seem to be doing the best they can against daunting odds, and supervising agencies agree. But JVS can’t work around the underlying problem, which is that the federal government provides hardly enough money for the refugees to transition to self-sufficiency in good times. And making that transition is doubly tough in the midst of the ongoing recession.

Refugee-resettlement agencies across the country report the same sorts of problems. So it’s good to be able to report in our story today (See related story) that the feds have recently moved to increase their allocation to agencies like JVS for refugee resettlement this calendar year.
Individuals can help, too, with donations of time and money to help the refugees adjust to their new home.

Letter to the editor

Woe is us

Rabbi Margolies gave his (no surprise here) top pick for his “Woe is us” candidate. (“Have something to say!” Chronicle, Feb. 20) For accuracy, he got the tense wrong, as it should have been: “Woe could be us” with regard to Palin. In reality, she has done no harm.

The “Woe is us” actor is already in the White House. Those who still have doubts should acquaint themselves with these Obama appointments: Rashad Hussain, Salam Al-Mayarati and last year’s withdrawn pick of Chas. W. Freeman.

Only time will tell the full extent of the damage Obama’s embracing of terrorist defenders has done. Netanyahu and the Dalai Lama were escorted out the back door of the White House and made to walk by the first couple’s garbage bags after their brief visits. In sharp contrast, emperors, misogynist kings, dictators and backers of terror groups are repeatedly greeted by a genuflecting president who has represented each and every one of us by those pitifully embarrassing actions. When I see him do it, I want to scream, “I am not part of that bow, your Majesty!”

More disturbingly, CPAC has just saluted Ron Paul as its top candidate in its straw poll. That is someone the rabbi may want to consider targeting with his animus.

Three or seven more years of Obama should be memorably disastrous. The thought of even five minutes of Ron Paul is too woeful to even imagine.

Dr. Leonard M. Moss
Scottsdale, Ariz.