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September 11, 2009

Health-care debate undoes classroom lessons

By JERRY McGOVERN, School Ties

Whatever we're teaching students about ethical communication is undermined by the health-care debate.

One objective of a course I teach at Plattsburgh State is for students to "develop an understanding of and appreciation for the ethical implications associated with public speaking." It's a basic objective of any communication course: Teach students to use their speaking and writing skills effectively AND ethically.

But when they pay attention to the health-care controversy, they don't see ethics.

In August, President Barack Obama presented a foggy solution to a problem he didn't clarify. Having campaigned on health-care reform, he assumed, I guess, that most people agreed with him that a major overhaul was necessary.

But health care/insurance is one of the two hottest buttons in American politics (Social Security is the other). When the government talks about change, Americans worry that what we'll get will be worse than what we already have and it will cost more.

Since about 85 percent of Americans already have some form of health insurance, when Obama spoke of a solution, many said, "I got insurance. What's the problem?"

If the president wanted us to take his medicine, he should have diagnosed the illness more clearly.

Finally, on Wednesday night, he did make clear how big the problem is, how it impacts everyone in America, even those who are well insured, and how seriously we need a solution.

But how many students sat through the 45-minute speech punctuated by self-serving standing ovations?

They'll more likely remember what Sarah Palin said about 'death panels': "The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil."

Oh, the students might learn that the former governor of Alaska was talking through her tuque when she said that, but first they'll see she got a lot of attention. And Palin is such a gifted speaker, they might want to be like her.

Then Jim Towey wrote an Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal, headlined "The Death Book for Veterans." He complained about "Your Life, Your Choices," a booklet intended for veterans that deals with end-of-life issues.

Towey said that if President Obama read this booklet, he would "quickly discover how government bureaucrats are greasing the slippery slope that can start with cost containment but quickly become a systematic denial of care."

Echoing Palin, Towey wrote, "When the government can steer vulnerable individuals to conclude for themselves that life is not worth living, who needs a death panel? One can only imagine a soldier surviving the war in Iraq and returning without all of his limbs only to encounter a veterans health-care system that seems intent on his surrender."

Suddenly, critics claimed "The Death Book for Veterans" was another reason to oppose health-care reform.

Towey is the president of St. Vincent College in Pennsylvania and was director of President Bush's Faith-Based and Community Initiative. In addition, the essay appeared in The Wall Street Journal, not some blog on the fringe. So I took him and his book seriously.

Then I actually read the 52-page booklet, available on the Internet.

Try it. See if you think it steers veterans to choose death instead of life. I thought it was practical, sensitive and effective.

It also reminded me that some public figures don't demonstrate the honesty we demand from students. Their ethics are on life-support.


Jerry McGovern, the Press-Republican's coordinator of Newspapers-in-Education, taught in New York state's public schools, and now teaches in the Communication Department of Plattsburgh State. He can be reached at gmcgovern@pressrepublican.com or 565-4126. This column is the opinion of the writer and not necessarily of this newspaper.

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