Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 5A
Sunday, October 19, 2014
Ebola, ideology,
common sense
Growing up in Washington in
the 1930 s and *4os, our-home
was, several times, put under
quarantine. A poster would be
tacked on the door indicating the
presence within of a contagious
disease — measles, mumps,
chicken pox, scarlet fever. —
None of us believed we were
victims of some sort of invidious
discrimination against large
Catholic families. It was a given
that public health authorities
were trying to contain the spread
of a disease threatening the health
of children.
Out came the Monopoly board.
Polio, or infantile paralysis,
was the most fearsome of those
diseases. The first two national
Boy Scout jamborees, which
were to be held in Washington in
1935 and ’36, were canceled by
Presidential Proclamation
because of an outbreak of polio
in the city. i
Franklin Roosevelt, who had
apparently contracted polioin
1921, never to walk again, appre
ciated the danger. In the 19305,
*4os and early 'sos, there were
outbreaks of polio in D.C.
Swimming pools were shut
down. :
The Greatest Generation pos
sessed a common sense that
seems lacking today.
We read that five new Ebola
cases occur every hour in Liberia,
Guinea and Sierra Leone, that
thousands are dead and thousands
more are dying, that, by
December, there may be 10,000
new cases a week of this dreadful
and deadly disease.
Yet calls for the cancellation of
commercial airline travel from
the affected nations to the United
States are being decried as racist,
an abandonment of America’s
responsibilities to Africa, a threat
to the economies of the poorest
continent on earth.
How could we consider such a
thing!
Where once we suffered from
infantile paralysis, now we suffer
from ideological paralysis. And
there appears to be no Salk or
Sabin vaccine to cure our condi
tion.
Exhibit A in the befuddled
response of some in public ser
vice is the case of Amber Joy
Vinson.
Nurse Vinson was among 75
health care providers who treated
Thomas Eric Duncan, the
Liberian who brought Ebola into
the United States. At the Texas
Health Presbyterian Hospital
where Duncan was treated,
Vinson had been among those in
closest contact with the patient. -
Two days after Duncan'’s death,
Vinson was allowed to fly to
Cleveland to visit relatives. She
then prepared to fly back to
Dallas. .
Before boarding, she called the
Center for Disease Control, and
said she was running a fever of
99.5. Yet she was given clearance
to fly commercial back to Dallas,
where she was admitted to the
hospital with symptoms of the
disease. She is the second nurse
at that hospital to come down
with Ebola.
Politicians need to focus on what’s really important
JULIANNE BOLING
Columnist
We can start the count
down. No, I do not mean
the ones for
Thanksgiving, Christmas,
birthdays and etc. | mean
the one for the political
ads and the accusations
flying in every direction
to end. I mean the count
down to stop all the false
advertisements about
what and whatever candi
dates have done in the
past and promise to never
do again.
All of those ads have
caused me to ask more
than once, “What should
concern us most?”
Should we concern our
selves solely about educa
tion when many systems
are excelling? Children
today are given breakfast
lunch, book bags, sum
mer meals and after
school care. They are
required to pass a test
once a year and teachers
are being harshly judged
because all students can
not excel.
Should we be con
cerned about the elderly
and veteran care in
America?
Should it concern us
that Medicare does not
Send a letter to the editor to PO, Box 210 Cumming, GA 30028; fax it to (770) 889-6017; or fiwfiwmm
hOpinion
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PATRICK BUCHANAN
Columnist
According to CBS Medical
Correspondent John LaPook,
“Nurse Vinson did in fact call the
CDC several times before taking
that flight and said she had a tem
perature, a fever of 99.5, and the
person at the CDC looked at a
chart and because her tempera
ture wasn’t 100.4 or higher she
didn’t officially fall into the cate
gory of high risk.”
Would not common sense have
told that CDC apparatchik to tell
Vinson not to fly at all, but
remain in Cleveland, stay in
touch with CDC, and monitor
any symptoms to be sure she was
not coming down with the dis
ease that just killed her patient?
In dealing with contagious and
deadly diseases, common sense
says to err on the side of safety.
Public safety must come before
political correctness. Community
and country come ahead of any
obligation to the people of West
Africa.
Indeed, is not the first duty of
the government of the United
States to protect the lives, liberty
and property of the citizens of the
United States?
Traveling to Africa decades
ago, Americans were given a
series of shots to avoid contract
ing indigenous diseases.
Travelers to the United States
were questioned about diseases to
which they may have been
exposed in third world countries.
Now we have a government
that considers it discriminatory to
put troops on our frontiers to halt
the invading millions from across
the Mexican border, and the mark
of a cruel and cold people to send
back lawbreakers who have bro
ken into our country.
The two nurses who came down
with this disease after close con
tract with Duncan are being cared
for in quarantine, as is the NBC
crew, one of whom contracted the
disease. And rightly so.
As for U.S, aid workers in
Africa, they are heroic. But before
bringing these good and brave
people home, we ought to be sure
they are not bringing back with
them the Ebola they have been
fighting.
If that means quarantining them
for 21 days, so be-it. If that means
no commercial fights to the
United States from the three most
affected countries of West Africa,
and no admission to the USA of
any travelers whose visas show
they have been in those countries
in recent days, then it ought to be
done.
Else political correctness is
going to end up killing a lot of
us.
Patrick J. Buchanan is the author of
the new book “The Greatest
Comeback: How Richard Nixon Rose
From Defeat to Create the New
Maijority.”
increase and the cost of
living does?
Should we question
why the government bor
rows from the system that
is funded by the working
public and given to those
who won't work?
Should we concern our
selves that the elderly
have no help getting
glasses, hearing aids or
teeth fixed?
Are we going to ignore
our concerns for the safe
ty of our population by
allowing borders to be
open to illegals? Then,
we turn around and
require those who come
in legally to go through a
long process of becoming
citizens.
"I guess they're trying to build up their image.”
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! Jim Powell for the Forsyth County News
LETTERSTOTHE EDITOR
Thank you to
helpful stranger
I don’t know what is
important in today’s world as
far as we exist, but there are
angels among us.
My hero is almost 75 years
old who got the pleasure of
visiting Vietnam in the "60s.
Well, this visit caused him
to be a host to Parkinson’s
disease. None of this is
important, but we were
blessed to meet a true angel
at the performance of The
Charlie Daniel’s Band on
Oct. 9 at the Cumming
Fairgrounds.
My Jerry enjoyed the per
formance and when it was
time to leave, his silly legs
did not want to cooperate. As
I struggled to assist him, a
young man with a military
haircut stepped forward and
asked if he could help me.
He lifted Jerry out of his sit
ting position and said he
would help, and if necessary,
mow a path for him to the
car.
We laughed as we knew
this was not necessary, but he
helped me get my husband
down the stairs and even
offered to assist us to the car,
which I declined.
As we drove to our little
home, my husband asked me
“who was that nice man?”
I told him, must be a sol
dier. He smiled and said, no.
Just an angel.
All I can say is God bless
America and our heroes,
those we see and those who
smile and stay in the back
ground.
We were blessed on Oct. 9
to meet an angel.
Whoever this young man’s
mama is, she should be
proud. I know Jerry and I are
proud of him.
Katherine Coleman
Cumming
Letter policy
Letters must be signed and include
full address and a daytime and evening
phone number for verification.
Letters should be limitedto 350 words
and may be edited or condensed.The
same writer or group may only submit
one letter per month for consideration.
Letters must be submitted by noon
Wednesday for Sunday publication. We
Does it concern us that
while other countries
secure their borders and
protect their people our
government allows terror
ists to enter and set up
shop to lure citizens into
their groups?
Should the politicians
running for many offices
start speaking about the
police brutality, shootings
by officers and beating of
people already in hand
cuffs?
Should they address the
facts that neighborhoods
lack police protection
because gangs and crimi
nals control the streets?
Maybe someone should
speak about crowded
prisons and the release of
This is a page of opinion — ours, yours and
others. Signed columns and cartoons are the
opinions of the writers and artists, and they
may not refiect our views.
Veterans appreciate
the community
On behalf of the men and
women of Cumming Chapter
1030 of the Vietnam Veterans
of America, | want to take
this opportunity to express
our gratitude to the residents
and visitors who attended the
2014 Cumming Country Fair
& Festival for your support
of our chapter and its annual
raffle.
With the proceeds, our
organization will be able to
continue its work on behalf
of the military, veterans and
youngsters afflicted with
childhood cancer.
We congratulate the winner
of the raffle and the 9mm
handgun, Danny McLaughlin
of Dahlonega Highway, on
his good fortune.
I would be remiss if I did
not also say thank you to
those individuals who made
a donation without entering
the raffle. A special shout
out to Cumming Mayor H.
Ford Gravitt, who made a
point to stop by and make a
sizeable donation to our
organization and support
our work.
Again, we thank everyone
for their support.
Billy Darby
President
Now it's the CDC
From the start of the
Ebola crisis, the president
and the CDC assured us,
promised us that we had
nothing to worry about.
Ebola will not reach
America.
There is no need to ban or
restrict commercial flights
to and from Western Africa.
Ebola has now reached our
country.
Well, no worry. The CDC
do not publish poetry or blanket letters
and generally do not publish letters con
cerning consumer complaints. Unsigned
or incorrectly identified letters will be
withheld.
Mail letters to the Forsyth County
News, PO. Box 210, Cumming, GA
30028, hand deliver to 302 Veterans
Memorial Blvd., fax to (770) 889-6017 or
e-mail to editor@forsythnews.com.
terrorists so they can
rejoin their hate groups.
Maybe the politicians
could talk about how they
plan to decrease unem
ployment. Perhaps they
can explain why big cor
porations are given tax
breaks that destroy small
businesses. Maybe on
their agenda they might
address the drug cultures
and medical marijuana,
and mental health care
could sure use some
attention.
They seem to concern
themselves with global
warming that is beyond
their control. They con
cemn themselves with
what bring more traffic to
little neighborhoods with-
is now taking the tempera
ture of all passengers arriv
ing here from Western
Africa. Any “sick” passen
ger is then given additional
test and possible quarantine.
Feel safe now? N 0...
Ebola virus takes up to 21
days before the infected
person shows symptoms.
Twenty-one days for that
person go out in the public,
possibly exposing others
while having flu symptoms.
The CDC is now attempt
ing to contact 132 passen
gers on a Frontier Airline
the second nurse was on the
day before she went to the
hospital with a confirmed
case of Ebola.
While all this is going on,
do you realize that our
country does not have a-
Surgeon General for over a
year now? Would this crisis
have gone this far if we had
one?
Apparently, President
Obama was been too busy
with fundraising, taking
selfies, playing golf and
worrying to be concerned
with this latest crisis.
The Democrats are now
trying to blame the Ebola
crisis on the Republicans,
claiming the Republication
budget cuts created this cri
sis. Let's be very clear here.
The budget cuts occurred
during the sequestration
cuts proposed by President
Obama and signed by
President Obama.
The CDC budget actually
increased 35 percent over the
past 10 years. There is
approximately $3 billion in
the CDC budget. Only 6 per
cent of that budget has been
allocated to fight Ebola. Our
country is in trouble from
within.
Rob Murdock
Cumming
out planning ahead. We
complain about the
weather, traffic, religious
rights, freedom of speech,
but our complaints do lit
tle to get attention from
the powers that be.
You are expected to
vote on candidates who
have been talking for
months and months about
the faults of their oppo
nents, but have they con
vinced voters that they
can make a difference?
Well, time's up to do so.
Julianne Boling's column
appears each Sunday in the
Forsyth County News.