“Folks, we have a moral responsibility to get taxes down.” When did you last hear that kind of clarity? Of course giving people back real control over their own lives is a moral issue. If people want to know why Bret Schundler won the Republican primary for New Jersey governor last night, that sentence will tell them a lot. So too will these from his victory speech: “I want there to be a day when African- American children in the lowest-income sections of this state don’t feel that there is a wall separating them from the opportunities other children have. I want senior citizens to know that they will not have to worry about paying their taxes or feeding themselves or losing their homes. And I want each one of you to know that New Jersey will not become one great L.A. sprawl out to every corner and paving over every green space.” It’s a good conservative combo: school vouchers, social security privatization, environmental concern. President Bush placed a congratulatory call to Schundler last night. I hoped he stayed on the line a while to take some advice.
THE HEALTH POLICE STATE: When it was revealed by Daniel Forbes in Salon that the White House Anti-Drug Office had been quietly insinuating government propaganda into network television, there was a justifiable hue and cry over excessive government power. The program was subsequently aborted. But now it turns out, according to the New York Times, that the Centers for Disease Control have been proudly doing the same thing. A recent episode of Beverly Hills 90210 was doctored to put across the correct message about using sunscreen to head off skin cancer. The Times reports that “In addition to providing “tips for scripts,” in the C.D.C.’s lexicon, on topics that include things like chlamydia and secondhand smoke, the agency is offering its experts as unpaid short-term technical advisers to help television writers get accurate information. Last week, Dr. Jeffrey P. Koplan, director of the disease control centers, visited the Warner Brothers studios to kick around health topics with the writers and producers of “E.R.” and “The West Wing.”” Am I the only one to be disturbed by this? In recent years, legitimate efforts to improve public health, by the provision of good information and monitoring of diseases have been supplemented by a creeping authoritarianism. Whether it’s peddling bogus claims about second-hand smoke or censoring ads for anti-HIV drugs, government is gradually increasing its power to tell us how to live our lives under the rubric of ‘health.’ I don’t mind too much when it’s private entities peddling their nostrums – as long as there is full disclosure. What I do mind is tax-payers dollars going to bossy health propagandists – especially since health is now understood to include not just disease prevention but a whole range of prevention measures that add up to spectrum of lifestyle choices.
THEY ALSO SERVED: Here’s an email I just received that says more than I ever could about the injustice of our current military policy toward homosexuals. I think it speaks for itself. I have changed some details to protect privacy and anonymity: “About six years ago, I met a man who became a very good friend of mine. We were both volunteers for a local charity. He was out, very social and had many stories to share about his life. He shared stories about what it was like to be gay in the 1930s up until the 1970s. He met Presidents, celebrities, entertainers, and he also served in WWll. His military experience involved serving in the infantry in Europe right after D-Day and he fought in the Battle of the Bulge. He told stories to me of the freezing cold, going two months without changing clothes, of his foxhole buddy dying from shrapnel through his helmet right next to him. All of these stories were told matter-of-factly, as just a part of his life. He also keeps in touch with the members of his division and they have one or two reunions every year. If someone doesn’t show up, the others find out why and what is going on. Whole families attend these reunions, also widows and children. Well, last reunion my friend didn’t show up. He had an illness, and is still in recovery. He received many cards and calls from his concerned war buddies, which thrilled and I believe strengthened him. One phone message I heard when I was visiting him in which his buddy sent his “love” made him laugh with joy. As the case may be, my friend is not out to his military buddies. He is a product of his era, and also of the military and he is still not being asked and he is not telling. This doesn’t diminish the love and affection all of these men have for each other, but I still feel it is wrong. I am not passing judgment on my friend for not telling, nor on his friends for not asking. What I think is wrong is that this man fought for his country, in one of the most horrendous battles in one of the most grueling wars of this country’s history. What I feel is wrong is that today, my friend would not have had the opportunity to fight for his country, and I feel that his actions in the military in the past are going completely and disgracefully unacknowledged. This is not a sitcom, this is someone’s life. I have never written anything like this before, but I love, admire and respect my friend, and I think that the stories of our gay military heroes should and must be told.” Amen, soldier. Amen.
BEGALA AWARD NOMINEE: “Like the proponents of apartheid before them, these [pharmaceutical] companies acted to maintain the rules of a system that denies the value of black lives in favor of minority privilege. The result in Africa has been murder by patent.” – Salih Booker and William Minter, in an article obscenely titled “Global Apartheid,” in – where else? – The Nation.
The Dish 