Utopia is a Fairytale

After watching the August 19th edition of "Donnybrook", where St. Louis panelists Bill McClellan and Ray Hartman hosted the call in portion of the program, I felt compelled to voice the overwhelming point of note I took away from viewing this edition of the show. The panelists field questions and offer their opinions in response to callers on a myriad of local topics of interest, not the least being the idea of building a mosque near 9/11, Ground Zero in New York.    Many callers expressed their opinion that the Muslim Americans were less American than "real, born and raised" Americans.  One said that Muslims born and raised in America were less.  Bill McClellan tried to discourage arguing over the disparaging point of contention, acquiescing to "agree to disagree".  Ray Hartman expressed more contentiousness siting the Japanese interment camps during World War II as not America's proudest moment.  It is only my presumption that Ray's Jewish heritage may factor into the portion of the equation where bigotry, hatred and intolerance demands vocal vehemence.

Unfortunately, the technical advantages the world knows today, via our communications and devices to reach out and touch someone, does not alter the hatred that still exists in the world.  Although ignorance is no longer an acceptable excuse, knowledge is not the missing link.  It is more about the hatred handed down through families.  It can not leave it's gnarly, ugly, smelly contamination off those it touches.  It behaves like cancer, reaching it's tentacles around it's victims, choking the lifeblood from reaching the heart and brain, instead, infiltrating toxins that prevent nourishing oxygen and leaving impairment.  There is little chance of coming back.  The damage is done. 

Since the beginning of time, wars have been an expression of intolerance.  All the brilliant minds have yet to cure this neurotoxin.  Answers remain illusive conjecture leaving malevolence alive. Peace is a long way off and Utopia remains an illusion.

Sticks and Stones

Entertainment reporters are abuzz over the purported hypocrisy inherent in exclamations from America's Next Top Model host, Tyra Banks, upon gazing at the "smallest waist/waste in the world" possessed by an up and coming potential next top model.  The "skinny" is that the high fashion industry has always been and will continue to be dominated by the glamour of haute couture where young, ethereally lithe, beautiful bodies are draped in the fabrics of designers, at an exorbitant cost well beyond the realm of the average, healthy American woman.  A king's ransom is spent marketing these wares in photographs that are choreographed works of art...creations that conjure a dream rather than the ordinariness of average daily life.  The fashion industry is about big bucks, not big butts.

Hypocrisy lives in everyone to one degree or worse.  The Catholic church has demonstrated a way of life that hid abominable hypocrisies that resulted in damaging many lives beyond repair and they remain in business.   That said, Tyra would be well within her rights to reiterate her statement "kiss my fat ass".

The Bottom Line

It is deeply disturbing to read the defensive response of James  and CEO and Pat Komoroski, President of SSM DePaul Health Center regarding The Post-Dispatch coverage of the death of young patient, Alexis Evette Richie at SSM. Go to link: http://www.stltoday.com/news/opinion/mailbag/article_ae9bfda0-2cf8-571c-8c94-a9f4edd83360.htm The tragic negligent sequence of events unnecessarily terminated her short life. It is a fact of life that errors happen as cavalierly stated by the SSM officials. However, I've known mistakes that were not "life and death" dealt with in a more severe manner culminating in termination of the culpable employee. It is a bitter pill to swallow when an innocent is terminated through negligence or ineptitude. Accountability and consequences are inevitable and just.
Although the Post-Dispatch may have juxtaposed some sequential facts, they have not committed criminal action, intentionally or inadvertently. The bare bones are that the direct intervention of SSM DePaul personnel in St. Louis, MO is responsible for the death of this young woman.   If in fact, officials at SSM DePaul are devastated and sympathetic to the patient and family, I hope part of their support enforces that the bottom line of this institution is not monetary and they provide some stress relief to the family in putting their money where their mouth is. Recognizing culpability and providing familial support in this situation would be to ensure that the family is not billed for services rendered...or inflicted. Compensation for their grievous errors will come later. Trust and confidence will be harder won.