Column Archives
Rescuing Georgia’s Rural Emergency Rooms
For Georgia and America to rescue their failing rural emergency rooms, state and federal legislators, hospital administrators, emergency medicine physicians, nurses, ancillary medical staff, patients, and the public at large must first come to terms with several simple and unavoidable truths: 1) Rural ERs are being abused by non-payers, drug-seekers,…
Another Rural ER Bites The Dust
Tift Regional Health Center recently announced that its affiliate, Cook Medical Center in Adel, will close its emergency department next month. This action will leave the citizens of Adel and Cook County without immediate access to emergency department services. And it didn’t have to happen. The reason for the forthcoming…
Hanging Single Mothers Out To Dry
It was 4 AM. Things had finally slowed down a little in the ER. I was sitting at my desk writing up a chart on the last patient. Just then I heard a nurse at the nurse’s station behind me talking to a respiratory technician about her niece. It was…
The Two Great Failures Of The Legislative Branch
In a supreme act of both insight and foresight, America’s Founding Fathers established the greatest system of government the world has ever known – bar none. From its most humble beginnings, our American republic has become what President Reagan famously called a “shining city on a hill,” and is considered…
A Wall That Mends
In his famous poem, “Mending Wall,” Robert Frost’s neighbor says to the poet during their annual ritual of rebuilding the stone wall between their property, “Good fences make good neighbors.” Most people agree that walls are good for neighbors, but when it comes to nations, some are sitting on the…
Trump’s Promise, Congress’ Duty
Ask nearly any representative or senator serving in the U.S. Congress his or her opinion of term limits and you will most likely get the same response: “Term limits aren’t necessary. It’s up to the voters to decide how long a person serves in office.” Ah, if it were only…
Hillary’s Mask Of Virtue
It is, perhaps, one of the greatest lines ever uttered in a Hollywood movie – “Villainy wears many masks, none so dangerous as the mask of virtue.” Spoken by Johnny Depp in the 1999 film, Sleepy Hollow, that one line describes the very essence of Hillary Clinton and her long,…
Never Trumpers And Holier Than Thouism
In their unrelenting attacks on conservatism, angry liberals utilize a literal arsenal of weapons – disinformation (a euphemism for lies), smear tactics, mislabeling, name calling, race baiting, transference, media bias, paid protesters, class warfare, propaganda, and various and sundry forms of deceit and deception. In fact, during the 2016 presidential…
Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!
The descriptors are piling up: historic, impossible, unexpected, unprecedented, unlikely, unheard of, never before seen, a movement, a mandate, a ground-swell, a torrent, a tsunami, a tidal wave…however one describes Donald J. Trump’s defeat of Hillary Rodham Clinton in the 2016 presidential election, it was, above all things, a surprise,…
If Not For America…Then Who?
It was my nephew’s college graduation. Everyone was excited – the graduates, their families, the professors and staff members. The ceremony was held outside and the weather was perfect, clear skies, warm sunshine, a light breeze carried the scent of freshly bloomed flowers across the picturesque southern campus. It was…
China – Pulling America’s Purse Strings
President Ronald Reagan believed in America. He also believed in protecting America. And he put his money where his mouth was. Serially underestimated by his adversaries and even by most of his close friends, Reagan performed not only the greatest geo-political feat of the 20th Century, but also the greatest…
When Patients Cry Wolf
As children we all learned the story of the boy who cried wolf and its underlying message warning of the dangers of being dishonest. The simple story teaches a powerful lesson that most of us carry with us throughout our lives. There are those, however, who seem either to have…
