The young men and women serving in Iraq.
These Americans are true heroes.
It's one thing to serve in the armed forces, if there is a hero also serving in the White House. But imagine serving in the United States armed forces during the regime of a coward and liar like Mr. Bush. For young Americans, "voluntary" service under this unqualified, unelected, uncaring and incompetent president is a true and inspiring act of courage.
My friend, the surgeon and oncologist.
I understand surgeons who operate on patients infected with the HIV virus, take precautions--double gloves during surgery, I am told, but still they are on the front lines.
The other day my friend told me during an early morning conversation, that his day was going to be especially difficult. I asked him why. He said he'd be "up to his elbows" in HIV infected blood most of the day.
He's a hero.
The healthcare wars in the United States are being fought on many levels. There is tons of money changing hands. Contrary to what some of you believe, most of the men and women on the front lines of this war--the doctors, nurses, technicians aren't the ones getting rich. The money is going to the insurance companies, the pharmaceutical industry and healthcare lobbyists.
But the real heroes, selfless saints like my friend, for whom the true spirit of Christmas resonates year-round, are just like the grunts in Iraq--they keep going back and back and back. They ask for so little--only after it's too late do we recognize all that they have sacrificed--for us.
Then when the cold lingers, the cough just won't go away, this fine doctor laughs, he jokes. "Must be, nah. Don't worry about me, just too much stress."
Justen Deal, the Kaiser Permanente whistleblower is another possible hero.
Most of you probably don't know who he is. He worked for Kaiser Permanente, he saw stuff that was no good and he blew the whistle. Life can be tough for whistleblowers.
Justen Deal, the Southern California Permanente Medical Group employee who sent a mass e-mail calling attention to Kaiser Permanente's $3.2 billion information technology rollout, was put on unpaid administrative leave Tuesday.
Deal, who posted a statement on his blog this week, has been on paid administrative leave since Nov. 6 pending the completion of an internal investigation. Deal said he was told the investigation would be a review of the "Kaiser Permanente Electronics Assets Policy," but a statement from Southern California Permanente Medical Group on Tuesday said it was related to his use of "computers, systems, and servers owned by Kaiser Permanente."
http://sacramento.bizjournals.com/...
[From another article]
Halvorson [the Kaiser Permenente CEO] recently acknowledged that Kaiser may face gigantic financial challenges in coming years, and might have faced losses of as much as $7 billion over the next two years if it hadn't taken prompt action to change course. Halvorson also was accused in a widely circulated internal memo by two-year Kaiser employee Justen Deal of various alleged conflicts of interest pertaining to the selection of an IT vendor for its $3.2 billion electronic medical record system, now being installed. (Deal is now on administrative leave.)
http://www.bizjournals.com/...
Justen Deal has been in touch with me, and I'm hoping to do a longer diary about him and the life of a whistleblower in the near future.
Let me leave you with this, George Halvorson, the CEO of Kaiser Permanente is on the Board of AHIP. Nothing wrong here, just another fact--for ahipfactchecker.
Returning to my original question.
Do you have any heroes? You know some of mine.