Q&A The ethicist, New York Times Magazine

Reading for the Blind

Politically Blind

Universal Health Care

Date: December 8th., 2005
Sent to but not published in the Boston Globe

One of the major reasons given for not adopting a universal coverage health care system such as that currently enjoyed by Canada, the UK and many other western democracies is that the cost of a universal system is that patients have long waiting times to see the doctor of their choice.



Your story "Long waits for Doctors targeted" (December 12th 2005, page A1) suggests that we already have the long waits --- so we might as well adopt the benefits of tax payer supported universal health care. Why not let Massachusetts experiment by giving it a state-wide try out?

Date: December 6th., 2005
 Sent to but not published in the Boston Globe

I was heartened to read your headline "House Republicans quietly pushing for new leadership" (Globe, November 7th., page A 4). I thought this meant that the right wing were now pushing for regime change in Washington with a focus on President Bush, Vice-President Cheney, and Secretary Rumsfeld.



It was only when I read deeper in the article that I found you were referring to the leadership of the House, not the leadership of the country.



Pity!

Why did we go to war?

Date: December 1st., 2005 Sent to but not published in the New York Times


Despite President Bush's upbeat assessment yesterday, every step we take in Iraq is a mis-step.



The latest to come to light is the possibility that the Army has been "placing" positive stories in the Iraq press. These showcase the good things that America is doing in Iraq.


The problem is of course twofold. First, that is the kind of thing Saddam used to do, so our protestations of a higher morality, like the case of Abu Ghraib ring hollow in the ears of the Iraqis. We need to demonstrate and act out that higher morality not just talk about it. Second, those are probably the stories that President Bush and his inept intelligence suppliers used to provide the underpinnings of yesterday's speech. We have come to belive our own propaganda!



Everything we touch in Iraq turns to dust. It is time to withdraw.

Apt Words

Date: November 18th., 2005
Sent to but not published in the New Yorker

George Packer (The Spanish Prisoner, New Yorker, October 31st, 2005: 84) quotes Dos Passos' 1927 lament "America our nation has been beaten by strangers who have turned our language inside out who have taken the clean words our fathers spoke and made them slimy and foul."
How apt those words are today. The strangers are us. We have allowed the administration to lure us into an unjust war. We have allowed the administration to evade accountability for flawed intelligence, for torture (and the torture memos), for inadequate armor for vehicles and people, and for the big lie, currently in progress, of attacking the Iraq war's critics.
We truly lament for the nation.

Shared Sacrifice

Date: November 16th., 2005
Sent to but not published in the Los Angeles Times

The president calls for shared sacrifice. Many commentators and letter writers have pointed out that only one group is sacrificing – members of the armed forces, their families, and, in the case of national guard members, their employers.

In the current Iraq war, America is sacrificing  three things: the lives of its young men and women, its money, and its honor.

Right now, the young are paying or potentially paying the cost of all three. The youth are those dying and maimed in Iraq. With deficit financing of the war, the young will have to pay for it in the next twenty years. Only the privates, specialists, and sergeants of Abu Ghraib have had their honor tarnished while Donald Rumsfeld continues as Secretary of Defense and John Yoo teaches at Berkeley Law.

This cannot to be allowed to continue.

As in all wars the young men and woman will have to continue to do the fighting.

We, the public, must take up the challenge of paying for the war now. It would be unconscionable to leave the financial payments to today's youth. We must devise a pay-as-you-go scheme. Inevitably this will mean raising taxes which will be anathema to the anti-tax Republican conservatives – but it is their war and our war and we and they must pay for it.

Finally, it is the administration that must pay the cost in dishonor. I think we are stuck with the President, a weak but charming fellow, who was at the mercy of his entourage. Vice-President Cheney who promulgated so many of the half truths that brought us to this war and who continues to press for CIA torture despite overwhelming evidence that torture is ineffective in eliciting accurate and timely information should do the honorable thing and resign. Resignation is also required of Secretary Rumsfeld who administered a Pentagon where with a wink and a nod torture of prisoners was countenanced, who planned an invasion with insufficient troops to stabilize a post-war Iraq, and who continues to mismanage the logistics of the war and its strategic goals. Secretary Rice who was unable to get the holidaying President to take notice of the 9/11 intelligence should also step aside.

This is what America needs, this is what our troops deserve: a shared sacrifice where the non-combatants pick up the cost and where the administration oligarchs pass out into the wilderness to help America restore its "sacred honor."

Petition Deadline

Date: November 16th., 2005
Sent to but not published in the Boston Globe

Massachusetts stands at an important threshold: next Wednesday is the deadline for the submission of Petitions to Town Clerks across the Commonwealth. From the western marches of the State to downtown Boston, volunteers are busy planning hand-in routes, arranging drivers, sorting petitions by town, counting signatures, and estimating what the yield will be – that is how many of the signatures will be deemed valid by the Town Clerks of the 351 cities and towns in Massachusetts.
There are eleven petitions registered in Massachusetts but only ten of their sponsors are actively seeking signatures. They range from animal welfare, through family, healthcare, politics to the  the great issues of war and peace.
I have been working on the Common Cause (and allies) sponsored petition for Redistricting Reform. We have a network of volunteers all across the State. In Union halls across the state, signatures are being gathered. At Republican and Democratic district meetings, signatures are being gathered. At town or council meetings from Truro to Williamstown and from Salem to Fall River we are gathering signatures. At parades and Fall Fairs we are gathering signatures. In the valleys of the Berkshires and on the mudflats of th Essex marshes, we are gathering signatures. In the great shopping malls around Boston, signatures are being gathered. We even had signature gatherers at the opening to the New Ikea store at Stoughton!
We are down to the wire. At the Common Cause office on Temple Place in Boston there is anxiety masked with cautious optimism as we hope that  we'll get 100,000 signatures by the end of this coming weekend.
But we are not yet sure. We need every signature we can gather so, if you want to sign the petition and haven't done so yet, get in touch with Common Cause [617-426-9600;  http://www.commoncause.org/site/pp.asp?c=dkLNK1MQIwG&b=192849} and they will get you a petition in time for you to return it to the office by November 19th. And if you would like to gather additional signatures from your neighbors, that would be even better!
Time Sensitive. Must appear on or before Saturday, November, 19th. 2005.