Sunday, February 12, 2006

A Shout Out to the Nurses I Know...

Arguably I should be noting that Dick Cheney is now no better than my friend Dan'l's psychotic uncle who once took a shot at a doll factory while hunting, possibly hoping his brother was behind the wall, or my wife's great grandfather who was killed by a squirrel, but I'm sure there will be video paraody aplenty over the next few weeks, so we'll just give it a nod and move on.

What I'd actually like to do is to point this (Tom at Curly Tales of War Pigs - alt) article out to all the nurses I know - my mother, my sister, Cookie Queen, who isn't a nurse but works with them, the nurse who went bowling with Dan'l and I once (her bowling wasn't so good, but she had an attractive bum, so it was a good evening and bowling the perfect choice), Mean Mr. Mustard's wife, my conservative coworker's wife, my conservative friend's wife, and all those nurses I worked for over a ten-plus year span of my life which, if you know a nurse in Minneapolis, probably means a nurse you know or a nurse who was/is in charge of a nurse you know. I always figured the administration would go after a computer programmer or two - after all we deal in confidential information every day in some way, we're easy pickings. But a nurse? Conservatives spend an amazing amount of time explaining to us that health care professionals - specifically h.c.p.s - should be able to "follow their conscience" regarding matters of health care such as birth control, AIDS, morning after pills, whom to treat, et al. Liberals have always said that this only means matters of conscience as those individuals (as conservatives) see them (i.e. no denying Viagara) and point out that they're messing with other people's lives rather than just expressing a personal opinion. You can now be absolutely certain there are one-way limits on the discourse.

Nurse Investigated for 'Sedition' After Writing Letter to Editor (Editor & Publisher)
Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) has asked Veterans Affairs Secretary James Nicholson for a thorough inquiry of his agency's investigation into whether a V.A. nurse's letter to the editor criticizing the Bush administration amounted to "sedition."Laura Berg, a clinical nurse specialist for 15 years, wrote a letter in September to a weekly Albuquerque newspaper criticizing how the administration handled Hurricane Katrina and the Iraq Wwr [sic].

4 comments:

LissyJo said...

It is refreshing to hear of nurses who are voicing an opinion such as this. I am surrounded by right-winged conservative nurses. Actually, to be more accurate, i am surrounded by republican nurses who know nothing about what i going on and yet their vote counts the same as mine does. At least the passionate right-winged conservative nurse is aware and doing **something**.

Conversation at work this past weekend:
"My husband was asked to sign a petition to not shop at walmart. What is the big deal?"

"I don't know. All those people against walmart obviously don't have any kids to shop for."

"I know! Walmart has everything. And it's cheaper."

"Yeah, i love walmart."


I KID YOU NOT!

PTW said...

Sedition? Sedition...as in treason. So now letters to the editor are treason? What do these jackasses have to do to get tossed from office?

PTW said...

LissyJo:
Give me a "W"!
Give me an "A"!
Give me an "L"!

Wait, I have to go have a drink.

Anonymous said...

Luckily I work in a more liberal area, only a few conservatives around. BUT it also drives me insane when they rant about things and haven't read any details. Example - staff member complained about how democrats where saying the Medicare D program wasn't working. She said it was working great for her father. I answered that he was very lucky and asked if she had heard any of the reports about the MILLIONS of people for whom it WASN'T working and the fact that states are having to float loans to pharmacists who are giving patients their meds, even though the money isn't coming through. Obviously, she hadn't heard about that....GRRRRR!

Scooter - I asked Dan about the bowling outing with that nurse & he didn't say a word, just got a big smile on his face.