Burgess Town Hall August 17, 2009
I imagine myself sitting in front of Dr. Burgess as his patient, nervously awaiting the results of a biopsy from a lump in my breast. He has the answer in his hands. The results clearly show it is benign, that I do not have breast cancer. He has the power to immediately offer me relief from my anxiety and fear, but instead of answering directly when I ask if I have cancer, he says, "Well, the language is complicated..." and proceeds to orate at length using medical jargon he knows I don't understand. Somewhere in his answer he acknowledges that I don't have cancer, but he purposely makes that unclear to me and leaves me with the lingering threat that I could have it. Would he do this as a doctor? I highly doubt it. I assume he would be eager to provide comfort to his patients with his knowledge of good news. So why wouldn't he do the same as our representative?
On August 17th 2009, I watched the Congressman, Dr. Burgess, abdicate his responsibility to provide clear and intellectually honest information to his constituents, specifically to a wounded, scared soldier seeking comfort in truth from his representative. The veteran, who had just returned from combat where he watched fellow soldiers die, was pleading with Dr. Burgess to answer directly whether there had been and/or still are provisions in HR 3200 for government-led "death panels." He said that he feared for his own life; that he feared the government might deem his existence unworthy and too expensive because of his lifetime need for medication. He was begging for the truth, and instead of a simple, firm "no," that is the truth, Dr. Burgess proceeded to obfuscate for over four minutes. He began with "It was very very very poor wording and the, where I think the difficulty arose..." setting the tone of uncertainty and perpetuating the soldier's and hundreds of other constituents' misguided fears based on blatant lies and propaganda. Why? Why would anyone with the power to alleviate fear with the truth decide to avoid it and instead use disingenuous language to muddy the answer and fuel terror in his community?
It seems Dr. Burgess has chosen a sense of power over his moral obligation to his fellow human beings. By leaving even a hint of a possibility in people's minds that death panels may exist, Dr. Burgess holds the power to be a hero by defeating the imaginary dragon of big government out to burn the village to the ground. He believes that his political success depends upon their fear, and sadly, it probably does. Even sadder, the fear comes from false rumors and lies that he has the power to dispel.
Dr. Burgess had the chance not only to tell the truth, but even more importantly to set a young man free with it. He chose not to. It was astonishing and heartbreaking to watch him commit such a moral trespass against those he claims to so fervently support. I hope for the sake of his patients in the past that he revered his Hippocratic Oath more than he has his current oath of office.