Two New Saints, Boko Haram, Don Sterling, Healthcare Thoughts and that Car Insurance Commercial

Two New Roman Catholic Saints

The following “Point of View” article written by West Palm Beach Rabbi Gilbert S. Rosenthal appeared in the Palm Beach Post last week, pointing out why the canonizations of Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul ll are of particular significance to the Jewish people as well as to Roman Catholics.

The canonization of Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II is of significance not just for Roman Catholics but for Jews as well. Those popes did more to affect a reconciliation with Jews and turn a new page in Catholic-Jewish relations than all their predecessors.

Recently Canonized Popes John XXIII and John Paul II 

John XXIII, early in his papacy, met with a Jewish delegation and cited a verse from Genesis 45:4: “I am Joseph your brother” (his middle name was Giuseppe). He summoned the second Vatican Ecumenical Council in 1962, and charged Cardinal Bea with producing a document that would fashion a new relationship with Judaism and the Jewish people. The result was Nostra Aetate, “In Our Time,” which represents a Copernican revolution in Catholic-Jewish relations. It declares that Jesus and his disciples were all Jews, acknowledging the Jewish roots of Christianity; it reaffirms that God’s covenant with Israel is still valid; it deplores anti-Semitism; it states that not all Jews then alive or living are to be held guilty for the death of Jesus; it urges teachers and preachers not to give rise to anti-Judaism in their sermons and teachings; and it calls for fraternal dialogue between the two faiths.

Pope John Paul II (whom I was privileged to meet in an intimate gathering in the office of the late Cardinal John O’Connor of New York in 1995) visited the synagogue in Rome in 1986, chatted amiably with Chief Rabbi Toaf and described Jews as “our elder brothers in faith.” He went to Auschwitz and prayed for the victims, visited Israel in 2000 and placed a remarkable prayer in a crevice in the Western Wall begging forgiveness for what Christians had done to Jews through the ages and especially in the Holocaust in Europe. He proclaimed anti-Semitism a sin against God and humanity, and opened diplomatic relations with the state of Israel in December 1993. No pope in history did more to improve relations between Roman Catholics and Jews.

For all of these reasons and others, too, the Jewish people rejoice that both popes are elevated to well-deserved sainthood.

Palm Beach Post Editor’s note: Rabbi Gilbert S. Rosenthal is director of the National Council of Synagogues, and author of the forthcoming volume, “A Jubilee for All Time: 50 Years After Nostra Aetate.”

Jack Lippman

                                           
                                                        

Who's Responsible for Cleaning Up Boko Haram?

When terrible acts are committed by supposedly devout people in the name of God and their religion, it is up to others within that religion to step in and clean up the mess.  

It is up to Roman Catholics to clean up and eliminate the bad things within their religion done in the name of God (the Inquisition and some priestly excesses have been denounced).  It is up to Jews to clean up and eliminate bad things within their religion (Animal sacrifices and stoning to death, for example, were eliminated centuries ago).  It is up to Muslims to clean up and eliminate bad things within their religion, and there are many in existence right now.  The killing of non-believers, the issuance of death-decreeing "fatwahs," the oppression of women, suicide bombing and other extremist acts are carried out daily by Muslims in the name of Allah.  But such acts are perpetrated by a tiny minority of Muslims, usually with political motivation since the line between religion and politics in Islam is non-existent.  It is up to the rest of the Islamic community to step up and clean up their act.  If they do not, they are inviting non-Muslims to do the job, and that would amount to a holy war.  

  Boko Haram Terrorists in Nigeria

 

The Boko Haram Islamic terrorists in Nigeria who have kidnapped and are selling schoolgirls in the name of Allah should be denounced by every legitimate Imam in every mosque in the world.  If they fail to do so, and fail to follow up their words with concrete actions, the hatred that these degenerate extremist Muslims have engendered toward themselves will spread to all of that faith, and all of Islam will suffer terribly.

If the Nigerian government cannot by itself destroy the Boko Haram terrorists in their country, other nations should assist them.  But because this is an Islamic problem, those forces and resources involved should be those of Islamic countries.   This is not a job for Western non-Islamic nations to do.  The Saudis and the Gulf states, among others, have the resources to do this.  If they are not willing to do so in an uncompromising manner, they are no better than the terrorists, and deserve the world's condemnation. 

 JL

                                                               

Looking More Deeply into Don Sterling's Beliefs

The important thing about the Don Sterling incident is that it is not about the LA Clippers, the NBA nor about the sport of basketball.  It is about you and me.

The other night, ABC’s late night talk show host, Jimmy Kimmel,  
went to a barber shop in Los Angeles for more than just to get a haircut.  All of the barbers and customers in the place were Afro-Americans, and Jimmy asked them what they thought of how the NBA was dealing with Sterling.  In such places, conversation is part of the ritual of getting haircuts.  One of the questions Kimmel specifically asked of the barbers and customers there was what percentage of whites did they think privately harbored feelings similar to those which got the Clippers’ owner into trouble.  The answers ranged from 50% to 90%. Check out a video excerpt from his program of this barbershop visit by copying and pasting the following URL on your browser line:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=f9Tl0bnsYMg 

Think about what you see and hear for a moment, and apply it to older white people of Don Sterling's generation, which incidentally comprises a significant portion of the followers of this blog.  That’s you and me they’re talking about.  Would you hesitate to go to the kind of barber shop (or hairdresser for that matter) that Jimmy went to and ask these kinds of questions?  If so, why?

I recall hearing the late Milton Berle back in the 1970’s being asked in a semi-serious manner what he thought of Alex Haley’s TV series, “Roots,” which chronicled the history of an Afro-American family all the way from Africa, through slavery to the present day.  Berle replied that he changed the channel after watching a few minutes since “Nobody was scoring any baskets.”   How many Americans were raised in an environment where Afro-Americans, particularly domestic help, were privately referred to in a derogatory manner using the “N” word or its Yiddish “S” word or its Italian “M” word equivalents?  Bearing this in mind, Don Sterling’s racism, while still inexcusable, is more understandable.  His racism, which he apparently continued to choose to nurture throughout his life, is a product of his environment and upbringing.  Sterling was was unable to, or unwilling to, escape from it.

All of us have private thoughts.  Nowadays, however, keeping them private is becoming more and more difficult.  With that in mind, here is a portion of a column on this subject written last week by Washington Post writer, 

Kathleen Parker.     It is worth reading a few times.

“If you don’t want your words broadcast in the public square, don’t say them. The Orwellian taint to this advice is not meant to be harsh but is offered in recognition of the world in which we live. We’re not so much a global village as a small town of gossips.

On a higher note, such potential exposure forces us to more carefully select our words and edit our thoughts. This isn’t only a matter of survival but is essential to civilization. Speaking one’s mind isn’t really all it’s cracked up to be, as any well-balanced person reading the comments section quickly concludes.

Ever wonder who those people are? (Ms. Parker is apparently referring to contributors of some of the “comments” in the “comments section” appended to articles appearing on the Internet.)  I have some thoughts but my finely tuned self-editing skills prevent my sharing. Instead, I offer a refrigerator quote I’ve always liked. It’s often attributed to

Mahatma Gandhi but possibly may have tumbled from the lips of a new-age guru. Regardless of the source, it fits the occasion:

‘Your beliefs become your thoughts, your thoughts become your words, your words become your actions, your actions become your habits, your habits become your values, your values become your destiny.’ 

Whence our beliefs, it seems, is the crucial challenge. Alas, bigots by definition are not inclined toward self-awareness.”   

JL

                                                                   

 

Some thoughts on Healthcare

(Some people out there are still referring to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 as "Obamacare."  This is an intentional gambit by its opponents to make people think it is a government provided health care program such as Medicare or Medicaid.  It is not.  No "care" is provided by the Act, which is (1) aimed at correcting some historic excesses which insurance companies have practiced in dealing with policyholders and (2) to encourage and make it easy for individuals to purchase health insurance from private, non-government run, insurance companies.  So don't be misled by the charlatans who insist on referring to the ACA as "Obamacare" and who scream "socialism.")

When satisfying a particular part of a society’s needs becomes prohibitively expensive, it usually falls upon a government to bear the cost, and pay for it with taxes.  For example, our interstate highway system could never have been built by a private entity.  That’s why it was built with state and federal funding.  Credit or blame President Eisenhower for that.  Similarly, those big dams out west had to be built by the government.  Back in the 1930's, only the government could have built the Hoover Dam, named after President Hoover.  The same goes for the Tennessee Valley Authority. Similarly, our armed forces (despite those who feel we can depend on private local militias for national defense) can only be a function of the federal government.  Their operation is too large for it to be any other way.

    
Hoover Dam and the US. Army

Is health care in that category?

  

Before we consider going that route, let’s list what has been tried, and what may be tried in the future.  The chronology is as follows.

1. Private hospitals and doctors in private practice, both of which were paid for by the patients.  This is the way things were done about 75 years ago.
2. Private hospitals and doctors in private practice, but with some of the charges being paid for by insurance which was purchased by the patient or obtained through the patient’s employer.  This is the way things were done until about 50 years ago.
3. Private hospitals and doctors in private practice, but with some of the charges being paid for by insurance which was purchased by the patient or obtained through the patient’s employer, except for senior citizens who now had Medicare coverage almost completely paid for by the government, funded mostly from taxes, and supplemented by private insurance to fill in the gaps, if they chose to buy it.  Tax supported health care became available for poor people too young for Medicare through Medicaid programs which vary by state.   This was the way things were done from about 1966 until the present.
4. Which brings us up to today, where the conditions described in #3 above still prevail.  Now, however, except for those eligible for Medicare or Medicaid (which varies by State), all others now had the ability, or their employers had the ability, to purchase private health care insurance from private companies which sell policies meeting the strict parameters established by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010.  Individuals who cannot afford to purchase such coverage can qualify for government subsidies to do so, and to assure a broad mix of insureds, tax penalties are prescribed for those who choose not to be insured.

As the government became more and more involved in health care through Medicare and Medicaid in the 1960’s, it became more and more concerned as to what health care costs were.  Since tax dollars where being spend on these two programs, and since the 2010 Affordable Care Act involved government subsidies, what doctors, hospitals and other health care providers charged for their services became of great importance.  The goal was to provide health care as efficiently as possible so health care costs have become a ripe area for the development of government regulations.  The Affordable Care Act also regulated the practices of insurance companies with the aim of patient protection.

 

Will what we now have work permanently?  As pointed out, paying for health care has been an evolutionary process over the years.  There is no reason to believe it will not continue to evolve and change.

One sore spot is the cost of drugs and medical technology.  Pharmaceutical manufacturers are in business to make money.  As publicly owned companies, they try to maximize their profits.  This is also the case with the developers of advanced medical technology such as the tools of robotic surgery or elaborate imaging devices.

Because the source of their profits is the health care of the nation, should such companies be allowed to make money in the same manner as a company which makes automobiles or breakfast cereal?  Are such profits, in a sense, “blood money”?  Should the profits of drug companies be regulated in order to keep health care costs down?    While many hospitals in this country barely survive, some do rather nicely, operating as part of nationwide “for-profit” hospital chains.  Should their profits, derived from health care, be similarly limited?  Finally, does this also apply to physicians?  While they should be well compensated, should some doctors be earning annual incomes in the millions, particularly since the government and taxpayers are paying part of it?

   
Hospitals and Pharmaceutical Manufacturing and Development are costly

These are all crucial questions. Unless insurance companies, doctors, hospitals, other health care providers, drug and technology manufacturers all put the humanitarian nature of health care ahead of the profit motive, what we have today will not work.  And then we will have to look further down the evolutionary road of health care development.

5. The next step might be a “single payor” system, where insurance companies are absent from the equation and the government becomes the universal insurer.  This would amount to Medicare for everybody.  Of course, this would mean more taxes and more regulation, directed primarily at health care costs, including drug costs.   As providing health care becomes less profitable because of government cost constraints,  motivation on the part of the providers to do a good job and develop new products and approaches will lessen, and the quality of health care could go down.
6. Should a “single payor” system not work, it would appear that solving the health care problem might require the same approach as we use in maintaining our armed forces: a total government takeover.  This might involve the government running all medical schools, hospitals and all health care providers being government employees, including physicians.  The government would regulate the manufacturing of drugs and since it would be the pharmaceutical companies’ only customer, these companies would adhere to the old dictum that “the customer is always right” in pricing their products.  Needless to say, they would have less money for developing new drugs. I don’t think most Americans would like this approach.  Therefore, it is important that everyone in this country do their best to make the system we have today, however imperfect it might be, work successfully.  The alternatives are not pleasant.  JL

                                                  


                                                      

Whose Car Insurance Commercial?

For those of you who took the “quiz” two postings back regarding the insurer whose TV ads show strange and unexpected things happening to automobiles, one third of those who submitted answers to the blog correctly identified the company airing the commercials as Liberty Mutual and the other two thirds thought the advertisements were for  other automobile insurance companies.   

JL

  

                                                          

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