Deeper Worries in America

I worry about the coronavirus. It’s already killed more than 100,000 Americans. The recent protests have created a nerve-wracking public-health situation for the next weeks. I really worry about racism. Not only racism in police systems but more systemic racism in our culture. My friend Dr. Andrew Foy sent me this slide and post showing the large disparity in black and hispanic representation in medical education. There can be no rest so long as a man like Dr. Otis Brawley, a distinguished professor of medicine, “can get thrown to the ground, handcuffed and questioned at gunpoint for looking suspicious in a nice part of Montgomery County. That would be yours truly a few years ago. My real offense: standing in the garage of my own home.” **** But I think there may be another great threat to this country. Last night I read a story describing a situation in which the writer Andrew Sullivan would not be allowed to publish his column on the protests in the New York Magazine. Sullivan is not just forbidden from writing for the New York magazine about the riots; his contract means he cannot write on the topic for another publication. From Wikipedia: Andrew Sullivan is an openly gay Roman Catholic conservative intellectual. He has voted for Bill Clinton, and endorsed Barak Obama. And in 2006, Sullivan was named as an LGBT History Month icon. The reason I am writing here is that my colleague in cardiology Usman Qayyum asked &...
Source: Dr John M - Category: Cardiology Authors: Source Type: blogs