The pentagon announced today that there have been five more American fatalities in Iraq.
How do we measure the value of even one life?
Is it a matter of gender, ethnicity, or just what?
Those who have not experienced the death of a son, daughter, or other one they have loved may have understood with their intellect, or maybe their heart,but most unlikely they could have integrated the two.
Are American lives the only lives which will count for us if we define ourselves as loyal Americans?
I don't think so.
If one of us has been tortured, and endured incredible pain and hardship, will his heroic tribulations enhance his compassion or blunt it. By all views a heroic man guaged by what he has endured John Mc Cain appeares to me to have been captured , NOT LIBERATED BY IT.
6ur Surge has been a failure if not a catastrophe.
I believe that John McCain, a genuine Amerian hero in the face of those extraordinary hardships he endured as a prisoner of war, has lost a great deal in his sacrifice for his country-including the ability to lead us wisely.
In my estimation,as a doctor,as a psychiatrist,and as
myself a survivor of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, McCain has lost his sense of proportion. His world
now is peopled by his demons.
He seems now to function with the intense fixity of an Ahab. Iraq and a vison of revenge obsess him.
It is truly sad- his functioning now, is ossified by old hurts, and advancing years. I hope we,as a nation, will be too mature, and too compassionate to blindly follow him off the cliff into an absyss beyond.
Following his win in South Carolina he vowed,while flailing his arms in a frightening portrayal of democrat Dean at his most extreme, to pursue Osama to Afghanistan, and personally to eliminate him. He appeared to be offering to do so with his bare hands. Should he achieve that grandiose goal he would only succeed in sullying his hands, and as well as an unforgiving heart and our National honor.
Dr. Sox
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Saturday, March 15, 2008
today H is for Hello
Hello,
My name is Myron Stocking. I am an m.d. who has always found my work fascinating and almost always rewarding.
However, I think it is with blogs as it is with condos-a great many more are built than are needed.
Therefore I would like to make clear who I am and what this blog will be about.
1.I am a retired psychiatrist. I am an m. d. I think we if we were modest and honest we might add m.ds. to our category of blogs and condos-we have more than we absolutely need. Tho no one ccould deny, when human and well trained drs. are a precious resource. It seems to me any objective and well informed observer will be aware of the enormous challenges that are unfulfilled in our own medical delivery system. To be specific: a society that values it's citizens would provide each of them regardless of age, class, wealth, or health, with good medical care. We are not deoing that.
2. I am an old guy-77. I wish that would suggest I am wise. I think readers should not take that for granted. I have expeienced a great deal, and I do the best I can with the tools I have, but as I look at my age-mates, I think that what I regard as age appropriate dementia is frequent enough to make that a useful descriptive term. I am not as discouraged as that might suggest. There are many skills that require thousands of repetitions to be learned. That being so the elderly may get an assist from the extra opportunities life has afforded them to repeat.
3. I am a writer and a teacher who cares deeply about both writing and teaching.
4. A word about the structure of the blog: It will be wide-ranging in content. On particular days I might begin with thoughts triggered by words or topics that begin with any letter of the alphabet.
I will try to keep entries concise, but that will be an on-going challenge. A number of wise men have noted it is harder to write briefly and do justice to a topic than to ramble at greater length. I think of the quote attributed to more than one person: "If I had had more time I would have written a shorter letter"
5. My own value system places honesty way above conformity or political correctness.
6. I will to the extent I am able respond to those who make comments.
6. I think that is enough for now.
My name is Myron Stocking. I am an m.d. who has always found my work fascinating and almost always rewarding.
However, I think it is with blogs as it is with condos-a great many more are built than are needed.
Therefore I would like to make clear who I am and what this blog will be about.
1.I am a retired psychiatrist. I am an m. d. I think we if we were modest and honest we might add m.ds. to our category of blogs and condos-we have more than we absolutely need. Tho no one ccould deny, when human and well trained drs. are a precious resource. It seems to me any objective and well informed observer will be aware of the enormous challenges that are unfulfilled in our own medical delivery system. To be specific: a society that values it's citizens would provide each of them regardless of age, class, wealth, or health, with good medical care. We are not deoing that.
2. I am an old guy-77. I wish that would suggest I am wise. I think readers should not take that for granted. I have expeienced a great deal, and I do the best I can with the tools I have, but as I look at my age-mates, I think that what I regard as age appropriate dementia is frequent enough to make that a useful descriptive term. I am not as discouraged as that might suggest. There are many skills that require thousands of repetitions to be learned. That being so the elderly may get an assist from the extra opportunities life has afforded them to repeat.
3. I am a writer and a teacher who cares deeply about both writing and teaching.
4. A word about the structure of the blog: It will be wide-ranging in content. On particular days I might begin with thoughts triggered by words or topics that begin with any letter of the alphabet.
I will try to keep entries concise, but that will be an on-going challenge. A number of wise men have noted it is harder to write briefly and do justice to a topic than to ramble at greater length. I think of the quote attributed to more than one person: "If I had had more time I would have written a shorter letter"
5. My own value system places honesty way above conformity or political correctness.
6. I will to the extent I am able respond to those who make comments.
6. I think that is enough for now.
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