“This Is No Ordinary Time”, says Jesuit Magazine “America.”

Posted on | November 6, 2020 | 2 Comments

Mike Magee

“In ordinary times, the debate about presidential candidates can be a healthy and spirited exchange about how Catholics should approach their civic duties. But this is no ordinary time.” America

The Jesuit magazine, America, on September 20, 2020, broke its historic neutral tradition and supported Joe Biden for the Presidency. Their rationale was as much pro-America as pro-Catholic.

By this evening, all major networks will acknowledge, and most Americans will accept that President Donald Trump has lost his bid for a second term as President of the United States. This is the right decision for America, and more specifically for American Catholics.

In explaining their action, here (in part) is what the editors of America had to say:

“For our forebears, the U.S. Constitution was a vital bulwark against the kinds of political and economic oppression that prompted millions of them to flee their homelands. The liberty and protection that the Constitution guarantees are still a primary motivation for the majority of the nation’s immigrants…

“The Constitution itself is inspired by a theological worldview. Our founders believed that they were creating a form of government for a fallen world. Their true genius lay in how they accounted for the human predilection toward sin and division by creating a strict separation of powers that, paradoxically, would serve to unify the country and guard it against would-be tyrants and demagogues…

“In time, a system of extra-legal conventions took hold to further the founders’ vision, including respect for the rule of law, a vibrant, free press and civilian control of the military. Yet as important as those safeguards were and remain, the constitutional order is ultimately dependent on the character and judgment of our elected officials…

“The administration of Donald J. Trump has undermined the constitutional order to a degree unprecedented in modern American history, which prompts the editors of this review to register this unprecedented warning. The principal concern here is not with Mr. Trump’s positions on various public policies, some of which are right and some of which are wrong, but with the president’s disregard for the system of laws and customs that establish the necessary conditions for debate, decision-making and public accountability in this republic…

“Mr. Trump has subverted the rule of law …This pattern of presidential behavior is unique in American history.

“….In the election of 2020, however, Catholics face the unfortunate reality that the ostensibly pro-life presidential candidate also represents a proven threat to the constitutional order. That threat is real. As President Gerald R. Ford said upon assuming office during a moment of constitutional peril, ‘Our great republic is a government of laws and not of men.’ That means that the rule of law, the work of a vital free press, constitutional use of the military and a basic, operative respect for the separation of powers are not optional. For without those safeguards, this country will devolve into prolonged factional conflict—the outcome our founders feared most—which would mark the beginning of the end of a republican form of government.”

By tomorrow, our incoming President and Vice-President and their team will begin the hard work of preparing to address two confounding disasters – one health, the other economic. The challenges are monumental, but manageable. In addition to these, we must repair the damage to our government, rebuild trust, and rediscover our finer selves. “Liberty and protection that the Constitution guarantees are still a primary motivation“, says America Magazine. No truer words were ever spoken.

A Useful Distraction. An Hour With Gro Harlem Brundtland.

Posted on | November 5, 2020 | Comments Off on A Useful Distraction. An Hour With Gro Harlem Brundtland.

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Mike Magee

As each of us, in our own way, waits for the final results of the 2020 US Presidential contest, patience is demanded, and a useful distraction may be helpful. Let me recommend this 1 hour interview by UC Berkeley’s Harry Kreisler of one of my Public Health heroes, Gro Harlem Brundtland.

I have been following the former Prime Minister of Norway since 2000, when, as Director General of the World Health Organization (1998-2003), she defined health as “twofold – goodness and fairness; goodness being the best attainable average level; and fairness, the smallest feasible differences among individuals and groups.”

In this interview, she touches on social justice, income equality, maternal fetal health, the public duty to serve if called, the increasing leadership role of women in society, her 1st political role as Minister of the Environment (not Minister of Health), cross-disciplinary cooperation, consensus building, when to hold your ground, climate change, the European Union, the destructive health impact of advertising, and pandemic management.

Get to know Gro! She will reassure you, whatever your point of view, that humans are capable of self-governance, even in a country so painfully divided as our own.

Category: Uncategorized
Tags: divided government > gro Brundtland > Harry Kreisler > heroes in public health > leadership > self-governance > UC Berkeley

My Father – Doctor, Republican, and Catholic – would never vote for Trump in 2020!

Posted on | November 1, 2020 | 8 Comments

Mike Magee

“You know, our doctors get more money if someone dies from COVID. You know that, right?” Trump asked the crowd in Michigan last Friday, October 30, as he laid the blame for nearly a quarter million Covid deaths at the feet of our nation’s health professionals.

Susan Bailey, president of the AMA, in a same day reply, was pretty direct. “The suggestion that doctors — in the midst of a public health crisis — are overcounting COVID-19 patients or lying to line their pockets is a malicious, outrageous, and completely misguided charge.”

Trump has not only insulted my father, he has insulted my mother and their children, and our entire family. We buried my father on September 21, 1998. My sister, Sue, delivered the Eulogy, which two decades later speaks loudly in his absense, and draws a stark contrast with his modern-day critic.

Sue said:

“One time before Mom and Dad were sick with their dreadful diseases, I was visiting Steve and we were talking about heroes. Steve said his hero was Dad. I asked him why. He said, “Think about it. Dad went to work every day, was out of the house early and went till late in the evening, often got called to the hospital in the middle of the night and always made rounds on the weekend…but, never complained. You never heard Daddy complain about how hard he worked.”

Dad was a man of compassion. We were all frustrated at times when we would come home from school with a story about some annoying little classmate and Dad would feel compelled to insist that we think about what that child might be living with that would make him react the way he had. Dad always thought of the other side of an issue. When I was younger I thought he did it just to tease me (he was a masterful teaser after all) but as I got older, and, certainly now, I am convinced it was because that is how he saw the world and the people in it. And, it was his compassion that helped people, and healed those who were losing their spirit for life.

All of us, while we were growing up, were stopped by people in Fort Lee who felt compelled to tell us how wonderful our father was. For me, at the time, it was an uncomfortable situation—I didn’t know them and they would be pinching my cheek and filled with emotion would say, ‘Your father is a great doctor and a great man.’ Today I would have to say I agree—He certainly was.

He was hard working. He was a man with heart. He was a gentleman. He was a busy man who did not ask much for himself. His pleasure and the only thing he really seemed to need in life was Mom. And we all knew it. His busy life, the responsibility of raising 12 children and his love for Mom meant that none of us have memories of Dad dawdling away a day with us alone, but what we do have, straight to our very core, is what it means to be devoted to someone and what it means to love someone—and we know that because of Dad and Mom. We know that when you love someone you give everything you have, and you don’t measure how much you’ve given, and you don’t measure how much you receive. Although Dad didn’t spend a lot of individual time with us, he shaped our world quietly and powerfully.

...He taught us honesty. I was a little girl when Dad first impressed upon me the importance of honesty. He related a story to me about his own childhood. He had gone to the store and when he paid the shopkeeper there was some question about the amount of change he was due. He said more, the shopkeeper was uncertain but took Dad’s word because he said, “He had never known Bill Magee to tell a lie.” He finished that story by saying to me, “There is nothing more important than honesty. People may not always like what you have to say, but if they can believe you then they will always trust you.” That was a lesson Dad taught over and over again. His personal honesty and his integrity were beyond reproach.

Dad’s final lesson for me was one that taught bravery and humility, again through his example. When Dad was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease, Mom already had Cancer. Throughout the years to come I do not remember Dad talking about his disease. He must have been worried about what the future would hold. He must have been frustrated by his loss of ability. Long before he reached the stage of being unaware of his surroundings …Long before Alzheimer’s robbed him of his memories and his abilities completely, he was losing small things. He lost the ability to drive. He lost the ability to read. He couldn’t remember his children’s faces. He couldn’t participate in conversations appropriately. He couldn’t follow conversations. He couldn’t tell time. He didn’t recognize his friends. He couldn’t order food in a restaurant because he couldn’t remember what different types of food were called. He needed help in the bathroom. He couldn’t remember how to tie his shoes…All this, yet he was still aware enough to know that this was happening to him. And through it all, Dad talked about Mom, her care, her treatment, and about other things in life.

Dad was a brave man and with every personal loss he suffered he did it silently. He did it humbly. He did it with a firm faith in God and that faith shaped his life and gave him the strength to live it so well.

‘This too will pass honey,’ it was a favorite saying of Dad’s, and it often came with a gentle smile.

Were my father alive today, he would never vote for Trump. He is the antithesis of all that my parents valued – honesty, hard work, compassion, integrity, humility, gentleness, kindness, respect and love for others. Trump has none of these.

My parents were life long Republicans, Catholics, conservatives. But they were wise enough to know that no policy gain – on federal funding of private schools, or limits on abortion and contraception, or lower taxes, or conservative Supreme Court Justices – would ever be enough of a rationalization to signal to an evil man like Trump that the traits he embodies are acceptable for America.

They would never vote for Trump – Never, Never, Never!

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Could Bezos and Amazon Help America Build An Accessible, Affordable and Effective National Health Care System.

Posted on | October 29, 2020 | Comments Off on Could Bezos and Amazon Help America Build An Accessible, Affordable and Effective National Health Care System.

Mike Magee

This past week I spent an hour with THCB’s Matthew Holt and Jessica DaMassa discussing everything CODE BLUE – how and why it came to be, and where it directs us as Covid-19, global warming, and rising income inequality bear down on our nation.

In the final ten minutes of the THCB Book Club interview, Jess asks me if a company like Amazon, under Jeff Bezos, could play a role in creating a long overdo high quality, affordable, and universal National Health Care system.

To be clear, we’re not talking a splintered elite solution with Jeff, and his buddies, Jamie Dimond and Warren Buffett, arms linked (and Atul Gawande “brain-childing” the affair). We’re talking a national health care system that is publicly offered, accessible to all, strategic and visionary, and governed in a manner that is not rife with conflicts of interest.

Is it possible that an uber-private entrepreneur could respond to a nation’s call-to-service and help us correct a seven decade old misconstruction? For an answer to this and other questions, check out the interview above – especially the final 10 minutes.

Category: Uncategorized
Tags: amazon > Atul Gawande > Code Blue > jamie dimond > jeff bezos > jessica damassa > matthew holt > THCB > warren buffett

We’ve Built National Health Care Systems Before.

Posted on | October 27, 2020 | 3 Comments

Mike Magee

Health care reform in America is now the path we must travel to uncover our own “exceptionalism.” It won’t be easy, but we’ve been there before.

Health care, fundamental to rebuilding a nation and its culture from scrap, was what drove the military’s decision under the Marshall Plan in 1947. In the re-build of Germany and Japan, we elected to start with a health plan – in part because we recognized it as the fundamental underpinning of all other social determinants (housing, nutrition, education, clean air and water, safety and security) necessary for stable democracies.

This is essentially the same challenge we as a country (having wandered so far off course as to elect Trump) are faced with today. Changing culture, as health professionals know, is a tall order. It is about compassion, understanding and partnerships. It is about healing, providing health, and keeping individuals, families and communities whole. And – most importantly – it is about managing population-wide fear, worry and anxiety.

Things evolve, and difficult things take time. But delays and incrementalism carry risks as well – for example if global warming reaches a point of no return or a pandemic spirals out of control.

In the case of health reform, this is the argument for provision of a public plan (similar to Medicare) as a voluntary option that is available to all comers. A huge response to such an offering could be determinative.

If we choose to go this route however, the trial must be given a fair chance. The essentials? The public plan must be open to all. Insurance must be a requirement and mandated as such with penalties. Medicaid expansion (in combination with the new public offering) must be required in all states without exception (including the 12 current hold-outs). And a complete benefit package as delineated in the ACA must be required (no skimpy substitutes). In other words, the public offering must be muscular, nationwide, and easily accessible to all comers.

At the same time, we must disabuse ourselves of any notion that a cultural shift with health care as the leading edge will be simple or easy. We need only recall those post-WWII Marshall Plan years to remember that, as we were building out national health systems for our vanquished enemies, the AMA, Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association, and allies simultaneously branded Truman a “socialist” and dispatched his plan for national health care as “socialized medicine.” It took nearly two more decades to move the dial on Medicare and Medicaid.

But putting that aside, it is useful to acknowledge what our former military leaders stated as Germany and Japan sought to rise from the ashes after WW II. “We start with health care because it is an anecdote to fear, worry, and hatred.”

Using the same logic, our distressed American culture will benefit greatly from universal health care.

Category: Uncategorized
Tags: aca > biden health care > Marshall Plan > National Health Care > Obamacare

“We Give People Light, and They Will Find The Way.”

Posted on | October 26, 2020 | Comments Off on “We Give People Light, and They Will Find The Way.”

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Mike Magee

In the Jennifer Hudson/Black Eyed Peas campaign video remixing “Where is the Love?”, Joe Biden mirrors the famous words of Civil Rights legend Ella Baker, “Give people light and they will find the way.” Health care reform in America is now the path we must travel to uncover our own “exceptionalism.” And Biden asks aloud, “Are we ready?”

Health care, fundamental to rebuilding a nation and its culture from scrap, was what drove the military’s decision under the Marshall Plan. In the re-build of Germany and Japan, we elected to start with a health plan – in part because we recognized that all other social determinants – housing, nutrition, education, clean air and water, safety and security – would be enhanced in the process leading to a tradition that could support stable democracies.

What we are asking of the people, and the people caring for the people, is to change their historic culture (one built on self-interest, hyper-competitiveness, and distrust of good government). This is a tall order – something that parents, pastors, politicians and physicians equally recognize. Things evolve, and difficult things take time. But what happens if you run out of time, if the threats of delay or incrementalism create risks that outweigh or negate rewards. If global warming reaches a point of no return or a pandemic spirals out of control? What then?

“What then” usually involves some middle path, one that emphasizes self-determination but not self-destruction. In the case of health reform, this is the argument for provision of a public plan (similar to Medicare) as a voluntary option that is available to all comers. In the response will be revealed next steps in health reform.

If we choose to go this route however, the mischief makers who spent a decade undermining the Affordable Care Act must be effectively sidelined from the start. The essentials? The public plan must be open to all. Insurance must be a requirement and mandated as such with penalties. Medicaid expansion (in combination with the new public offering) must be required in all states without exception (including the 12 current hold-outs). And a complete benefit package as delineated in the ACA must be required (no skimpy substitutes). In other words, the public offering must be muscular, nationwide, and easily accessible to all comers.

At the same time, we must disabuse ourselves of any notion that a cultural shift with health care as the leading edge will be simple or easy. We need only recall those post-WWII Marshall Plan years to remember that, as we were building out national health systems for our vanquished enemies, the AMA, Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association, and allies simultaneously branded Truman a “socialist” and dispatched his plan for national health care as “socialized medicine.” Power, profit, and persistence prevailed. It took nearly two more decades to move the dial on Medicare and Medicaid.

What we witnessed this past week during the final debate, the “60 Minute” Leslie Stahl interview, and Jake Tapper’s skillful extraction from Mark Meadows that “We are not going to control the pandemic”, was a grim reminder of how far protectors of the status quo are willing to go. All this while the Covid-19 infected camps of Trump and Pence continued to unleash fear and worry, and fuel hatred and resentment. It is not a pretty picture.

But putting that aside, it is useful to acknowledge what our former military leaders stated as Germany and Japan sought to rise from the ashes in 1945. “We start with health care because it is an anecdote to fear, worry, and hatred.” Using the same logic, our distressed American culture will benefit greatly from universal health care. We start anew. And given a bit of patience, and some wiggle room to choose a better future, we might be surprised to learn that we are a bit more “exceptional” than we might at first appear.

Category: Uncategorized
Tags: 60 Minutes > american exceptionalism > Jake Tapper > Leslie Stahl > the Marshall Plan > trump and Pence > universal health care

Catholic Leaders – Can We All Agree On This?

Posted on | October 22, 2020 | 1 Comment

Mike Magee

My college roomate wrote me yesterday. We graduated from LeMoyne College, a Jesuit run institution in Syracuse, NY in 1969. Our four years together during the height of the Vietnam war were consumed with issues of social justice led by LeMoyne faculty including Daniel Berrigan, S.J..

My roomate wrote, “It breaks my heart to keep hearing about the hundreds of children being kept in cages by our government. And now we are informed that there are more than 500 who can’t be returned to their parents because the government did not keep good records. So what can we do?”

This issue is especially disturbing as our Presidential election arrives with a Catholic candidate on the ballot, and the assured Supreme Court confirmation of conservative Catholic Amy Conan Barrett just days away.

Last month, NPR’s Labor and Education reporter Tom Gjelten wrote: “If Amy Coney Barrett is confirmed as the new Supreme Court justice, she will be one of six Catholics on the bench. She would be joined by an Episcopalian who was raised as a Catholic. and two Jewish justices…Never before has the Court been so dominated by one religious denomination…Whether such a concern will be discussed, however, is another matter entirely… Not all Catholic justices think alike. Sonia Sotomayor and Clarence Thomas, both Catholic, are ideological opposites.”

Jesuit senior analyst for Religion News Services, Thomas Reese, S.J., noted at the time that “Catholics tend to pick and choose which parts of Catholic teaching have an impact on their political views.” And this is true. But on some things, we should all agree – including the protection of children.

For health professionals, committed to healing, providing health, and keeping families and communities whole, the many actions of President Trump are deeply offensive on multiple levels – but none more than the deliberate separation of immigrant children from their parents.

Chicago’s Catholic Bishop Cardinal Bernardin addressed a gathering of AMA members shortly before he died in 1996 and made the case that health was integral to human potential and that doctors and nurses and all health professionals played a pivotal role in assuring the survival of a caring society.

Bernardin’s guiding philosophy was a “consistent ethic of life.” In addressing health leaders, he said, “To defend human life is to protect the human person … the core reality in Catholic moral thought…Attitude is the place to root an ethic of life…We cannot urge a compassionate society and vigorous public policy to protect the rights of the unborn and then argue that compassion and significant public programs on behalf of the needy undermine the moral fiber of the society or are beyond the proper scope of governmental responsibility.”

The images of children, forcibly separated from their desperate parents, would have been unthinkable to the Cardinal as he approached his death in Chicago two decades ago. “The dignity and value of human persons is a basic value …. [L]et it be said that the energizing vision of healthcare must be this commitment to the dignity of human persons.” Those were his words then.

“How will each of us bear witness now?” That is what my roomate was asking this week. His suggestion was to use the agency of Catholic churches in the Americas to identify parents of these children and then connect them to the 500 plus children that Trump kidnapped from their parents.

“ I have written to the Pope and asked him to have the churches in Latin America ask that any person whose child is being held here contact the church and then they can send the info to American bishops who can then get the information to the many volunteer lawyers who are trying to get these kids back home. If you think this is a viable idea please join me and send his Holiness a message.”

Pope Francis has no personal email address but does have a Twitter account @Pontifex. You can also write him a letter today at:

His Holiness, Pope Francis
Apostolic Palace
00120 Vatican City

His Holiness, Pope Francis
Saint Martha House
00120 Città del Vaticano, Vatican City

In both cases, be sure to have the correct postage.

Thanks!