THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 28, 1996 TAG: 9601280148
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: PAUL SOUTH
LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines
It's 4:15 Wednesday morning in America.
And in the emergency room at Chesapeake General Hospital, partisan politics and government gridlock seem out of place, like ice cream in a microwave.
As doctors and nurses, paramedics and physician's assistants rush about in purposeful efficiency, they say little.
``What about the lady from the nursing home who came in?'' a physician's assistant asks.
The doctor responds crisply, ``She died.''
Life and death, sickness and wellness swirl about, unseen in the sickly white light of the room.
And the lady from the nursing home is forgotten.
Meanwhile, down a hallway, an elevated television in a corner features Newt Gingrich. A few seconds later, Bill Clinton. Talk. Talk. Talk.
And in a faraway hospital in Birmingham, Ala., a 32-year-old man is dying of AIDS.
You may wonder what hospitals, politicians, and life and death have to do with one another. After all, this Washington gridlock thing is just politics, right? And old people die every day, right? And you know, even some televangelists and U.S. senators say AIDS is a plague visited on folks by the Almighty himself, right?
Wrong.
What's going on in Washington, and how the old and the young are treated in their last days, say much about what we've become as a nation in the past 30 years.
If I could believe for one minute that the reason for all this political wrangling is to make this nation better for our children, and for their children, instead of for the politicians, I could accept this budget mess.
If I could believe that this stuff is solely the product of people who sincerely believe that this country needs a major change in the way it does business, and not a hidden agenda, I could accept it.
And if I could believe that our elected leadership has the best interest of the people at heart, and not the polls, I could accept it.
But the fact is, it's too much about politics, and money and power.
And as a result, the costs of health care spiral out of control. Elderly people who worked hard and paid taxes all their lives may never receive all the benefits promised to them by their government in return for paying those taxes.
And there's a need for money for research and development that could help find ways to enable folks to live longer, more productive lives, help save premature babies and find a cure for AIDS.
Issues like these should be settled on the battleground on Capitol Hill.
There is a fine line to walk between the eloquence of democracy and the sordid sounds of demagoguery. But Washington is the wrong place to walk that line.
Newt Gingrich and Bill Clinton should travel to Birmingham to help our family friend Theron Lawson bury his last living child, who died last week of AIDS.
And they should spend some time in an emergency room, at 4:15 a.m. in America.
Then maybe they would understand.
It's not a matter of getting the other side to give in.
It's a matter of life and death. by CNB