Trying Some Disney Attitude to Help Cure Walter Reed
by Steve Vogel
Fifty medical workers -- doctors, nurses, therapists and administrators among them -- sat in a room at Walter Reed Army Medical Center gazing at a slide of Donald Duck on a screen.
The oft-cranky Disney cartoon character, wearing his blue sailor jacket and cap, was in a palpable rage. His webbed feet had lifted off the ground, his beak was gaping, and his white-gloved hands were tightly clutching an old-fashioned two-piece telephone.
"We can clearly see he's frustrated," said Kris Lafferty, a trainer for the Disney Institute who was leading workers at the Northwest Washington hospital last week in a four-hour seminar on customer service. "Why do we think he's frustrated?"
I consider myself to be a true media hater of the highest order and for good reason, but when I read something extremely fair and balanced, well-written or otherwise exceptional in the media I tend to send an e-mail thanking the author for their work. I think that's a good thing, obviously.
I'm not in a position to blog about the specifics in this case at all. I do not have the knowledge to enter into or even moderate that discussion. I just wanted to write this piece because, well I'm not sure why exactly. It's a full moon, right? Must be.
This is what I wrote to Mr. Vogel at the Washington Post - or some close facsimile thereof.
Thank you for a beautifully written piece this morning in the paper. The first three paragraphs are some of the best satire I've read in a great while. As you well know, satire must be truthful to be effective.
Indeed, why not pay Disney to instruct professional health care providers working with limited, dilapidated or non-existent resources on how exactly to best put the care back into health care?
Overall, I'm glad that the Army has reached out to a sailor, even an "oft-cranky" one such as our beloved Donald, for his expertise on this issue. It's really important that our Armed Forces remember that only together can they truly be successful. That's a good thing.
Way to go Donald. Thank you for your service and the sacrifices that you and your Disney family have had to make for the betterment of our country because when you swore that oath to protect and defend our sacred constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic we as a nation and as a people swore an oath to you as well. And that's a very good thing to remember.
Daniel LeDuc, staff writer for the Washington Post, also contributed to the report.