culture crisis

[Esther]

Dear Mr. President:
During my shift in the Emergency Room last night, I had the pleasure of evaluating a patient whose smile revealed an expensive Shiny gold tooth, whose body was adorned with a wide assortment of elaborate and costly tattoos, who wore a very expensive Brand of tennis shoes, and who chatted on a new cellular telephone equipped with a popular R&B ring tone. While glancing over her Patient chart, I happened to notice that her payer status was listed as "Medicaid"!

During my examination of her, the patient informed me that she smokes more than one costly pack of cigarettes every day and somehow still has money to buy pretzels and beer.

And, you and our Congress expect me to pay for this woman's health care? I contend that our nation's "health care crisis" is not the result of a shortage of quality hospitals, doctors or nurses. Rather, it is the result of a "crisis of culture", a culture in which it is perfectly acceptable to spend money on luxuries and vices while refusing to take care of one's self or, heaven forbid, purchase health insurance.

It is a culture based on the irresponsible credo that "I can do whatever I want to because someone else will always take care of me."

Once you fix this "culture crisis" that rewards irresponsibility and dependency, you'll be amazed at how quickly our nation's health care Difficulties will disappear.

Respectfully,
STARNER JONES, MD

I checked with snopes.com and confirmed the story.

[RandyWayne]

How RASIST of you!

Booooooo! Hisssssss!





Oh ya, and

[Esther]

Originally Posted by RandyWayne

How RASIST of you!

Booooooo! Hisssssss!





Oh ya, and

It sure has a ring of truth to it. I worked in the medical field for a number of years and saw the exact thing. Aggravating at best.

[Sam]

Originally Posted by Esther

It sure has a ring of truth to it. I worked in the medical field for a number of years and saw the exact thing. Aggravating at best.

just our tax dollars at work

[RandyWayne]

Originally Posted by Esther

It sure has a ring of truth to it. I worked in the medical field for a number of years and saw the exact thing. Aggravating at best.

My wife works at a store located in a very low income area and sees the exact same thing. People on food stamps who also don't pay a cent for their drugs yet walk out with their daily booze, cigs, and all manner of junk food. They were all high fiveing in the store (literally) the day after messiah-obama was elected.

[jfrog]

Originally Posted by Esther

Dear Mr. President:
During my shift in the Emergency Room last night, I had the pleasure of evaluating a patient whose smile revealed an expensive Shiny gold tooth, whose body was adorned with a wide assortment of elaborate and costly tattoos, who wore a very expensive Brand of tennis shoes, and who chatted on a new cellular telephone equipped with a popular R&B ring tone. While glancing over her Patient chart, I happened to notice that her payer status was listed as "Medicaid"!

During my examination of her, the patient informed me that she smokes more than one costly pack of cigarettes every day and somehow still has money to buy pretzels and beer.

And, you and our Congress expect me to pay for this woman's health care? I contend that our nation's "health care crisis" is not the result of a shortage of quality hospitals, doctors or nurses. Rather, it is the result of a "crisis of culture", a culture in which it is perfectly acceptable to spend money on luxuries and vices while refusing to take care of one's self or, heaven forbid, purchase health insurance.

It is a culture based on the irresponsible credo that "I can do whatever I want to because someone else will always take care of me."

Once you fix this "culture crisis" that rewards irresponsibility and dependency, you'll be amazed at how quickly our nation's health care Difficulties will disappear.

Respectfully,
STARNER JONES, MD

I checked with snopes.com and confirmed the story.

20-25 dollars on beer a week for a 24-30 pack. Probably about the same for smokes (assuming 2 packs a day). That's maybe 50 dollars a week. (Of course you can probably get by cheaper on both.) The "new" cell phone doesn't say much. There's cheap new cell phones and expensive new cell phones. Either way, the one time cost of the cell phone isn't what's important it's the monthly fee which can be as cheap as 30 dollars for unlimited minutes (smarttalk from walmart i think is the name). As far as the tattoes? Maybe she saved up for them all. As far as the clothes... maybe she bought them from the goodwill or a yardsale or maybe Ross.

Anyways, the bottom line is this: Republicans act like if anyone has a few nice things or things they want or even a few vices that a finger shouldn't be lifted to help those people.

[Esther]

Originally Posted by jfrog

20-25 dollars on beer a week for a 24-30 pack. Probably about the same for smokes (assuming 2 packs a day). That's maybe 50 dollars a week. (Of course you can probably get by cheaper on both.) The "new" cell phone doesn't say much. There's cheap new cell phones and expensive new cell phones. Either way, the one time cost of the cell phone isn't what's important it's the monthly fee which can be as cheap as 30 dollars for unlimited minutes (smarttalk from walmart i think is the name). As far as the tattoes? Maybe she saved up for them all. As far as the clothes... maybe she bought them from the goodwill or a yardsale or maybe Ross.

Anyways, the bottom line is this: Republicans act like if anyone has a few nice things or things they want or even a few vices that a finger shouldn't be lifted to help those people.

Are you saying the Democrats think no matter how much wealth is acquired by an individual the state should still pay their bills?

[Twisp]

Originally Posted by Esther

Dear Mr. President:
During my shift in the Emergency Room last night, I had the pleasure of evaluating a patient whose smile revealed an expensive Shiny gold tooth, whose body was adorned with a wide assortment of elaborate and costly tattoos, who wore a very expensive Brand of tennis shoes, and who chatted on a new cellular telephone equipped with a popular R&B ring tone. While glancing over her Patient chart, I happened to notice that her payer status was listed as "Medicaid"!

During my examination of her, the patient informed me that she smokes more than one costly pack of cigarettes every day and somehow still has money to buy pretzels and beer.

And, you and our Congress expect me to pay for this woman's health care? I contend that our nation's "health care crisis" is not the result of a shortage of quality hospitals, doctors or nurses. Rather, it is the result of a "crisis of culture", a culture in which it is perfectly acceptable to spend money on luxuries and vices while refusing to take care of one's self or, heaven forbid, purchase health insurance.

It is a culture based on the irresponsible credo that "I can do whatever I want to because someone else will always take care of me."

Once you fix this "culture crisis" that rewards irresponsibility and dependency, you'll be amazed at how quickly our nation's health care Difficulties will disappear.

Respectfully,
STARNER JONES, MD

I checked with snopes.com and confirmed the story.

Nice follow up letter in that same newspaper:

On 6 September 2009, the Clarion Ledger published a follow-up letter from another reader under the title "Health Care Reform Is Not 'Us vs. Them'":


I've been stewing about an Aug. 23 letter to the editor ("Why pay for the care of the careless?") in which Dr. Starner Jones questioned the worth of a patient to receive Medicaid because of her gold tooth, tattoos, R&B ring tone on a new cell phone, cigarette-smoking and beer-drinking.

This kind of personal attack is nothing new with the hateful rhetoric of late. But it's a real slippery slope when one questions whether another human merits support for health care because of appearances and choices. There are a lot of folks in this state who make less-than-perfect choices about finances and health. We are the poorest, fattest state, after all.

We need to turn off our TVs and radios and do our own research on health care reform. All the Fox-fed and MSNBC-led masses are out spewing the same language the pundits are using.

Look at entities who, bottom line, want to raise their ratings and celebrity, not facilitate a meaningful or productive discourse.

This country deserves more. Read the health care reform bill. And learn the real issues of our entire community. We're all Americans.

This is no "us vs. them" issue. We are all in this together.

Jennifer Sigrest

Clinton

[coadie]

When my sister in law did house visits, they also had huge wide screen teevees.

Libs love welfare.

[Light]

Originally Posted by coadie

When my sister in law did house visits, they also had huge wide screen teevees.

Libs love welfare.

So do the oil companies.

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