The oft-heard advice to “stick to your knitting” has always struck me as wise counsel. I know enough about advertising to be useful on occasion. Other things that interest me–politics, economics, brain science–are probably best left to experts in those fields. But every once and a while something comes along that I just can’t resist commenting on, and this is one of those “somethings.”
I don’t know if this story ever appeared in the mass media. If it did, I missed it. Oddly enough, where I caught it was in Robert H. Frank’s regular Thursday column, “Economic Scene” in The New York Times. He was inspired to write it because another economist had used this story as the basis for a paper on cost-benefit analysis. Happily, Mr. Frank ripped this economist a new you-know-what. Unhappily, there’s still the story behind it.
A West African woman and legal immigrant was dying of cancer at Baylor Regional Medical Center in Plano, Texas. How close to dying the article didn’t say, but since she was on a ventilator, I don’t think she was buying a whole lot of 10-year T-bills. But she was conscious, reponsive and waiting with her brother at her bedside for her mother to arrive presumably from Africa.
However, due to a 1999 Texas law it was necessary for her to pay for her care, including the ventilator, because it was determined that her treatment was medically “inappropriate.” She had no money, nor insurance, so on December 12th, Baylor personnel did the unthinkable, they disconnected her ventilator. Now, I’ve never seen a person suffocate to death and the article was sparing in gory details. But it did mention an “agonizing spectacle” that took 16 minutes. The first several of which I imagine involved no small amount of writhing, clutching of bedsheets and finally wide-eyed terror before the poor woman lost consciousness.
And who do you suppose signed this law? Our very own former Governor of Texas and now President of the United States, George W. Bush. The same President Bush who had Congress rushing back into session, the Supreme Court involved and was pretty much prepared to call out the National Guard to prevent the removal of the feeding tube from a totally unresponsive woman who’d been in a persistent vegatative state for years, Terri Schiavo.
The suffering this woman experienced would not be deemed tolerable in the capital punishment of a mass murderer, but then-Governor Bush thought it was acceptable in the context of protecting the financial interests of giant medical institutions. This to me is very scary. When an individual loses his or her moral compass, there is some risk. When that person occupies the world stage, there’s no telling what havoc may be wrought. Actually, we can tell, we just don’t know the full extent of it yet. And while this column doesn’t have the circulation to muster much universal revulsion to this story, maybe some reader will get it to one that can.
Mark,
I haven’t seen this story- maybe it’s a little slow at making the rounds- it sometimes takes time for these “seemingly insignificant” things to make it to the top of the news. (Look how long it took the Lewinsky blow job to materialize).
This really is about advertising- the American people bought (sadly 2x) a product (a “C” student president) based on false advertising. Somehow, esp. against Kerry- many of them voted for “the more moral man” (I unfortunately live in Ohio- the state that sealed our fate this time) who in fact was anything but moral- as this story points out.
The “Cluetrain Manifesto” says “There are no secrets. The networked market knows more than companies do about their own products. And whether the news is good or bad, they tell everyone.” but somehow, in this instance- we failed.
The damning information- the whole story was there- we just didn’t put it together in time to make a difference.
I applaude you for posting this- even though you thought it was outside your area of expertise (even though it really isn’t)- because frankly, and I’m not an alarmist, I’m not sure we aren’t that far away from having stormtroopers rounding up dissidents and sending them to “reprogramming” camps. Between wiretaps, the arrests of “terrorists” who have been held without due process and our imperial actions of invading Iraq without true cause or a plan for what to do once we’ve killed at least 10x more innocents than were killed in 9/11 in the name of “freedom”- (I’ve derailed this train of thought) we’re one step away from living under a delusional monarch.
Thank you once again for showcasing that the king has no clothes- and that we’ve all been sold a lame excuse of a man to lead us.
Who says advertising doesn’t work?
(and I’m sure we will both get flamed for this).
David
David, I agree with most of what you wrote. But one note of difference: John Kerry was also a C student (C-, actually). As a longtime resident of Boston, I can tell you first hand that his intelligence and “gravitas” was highly overrated during the campaign. I guess what I’m trying to say is, both candidates were/are intellectual lightweights.
Bob-
It’s sad we went from a Rhodes scholar to nit wits.
But- as long as we continue to have the best politicians money can buy- we’re screwed.