Dr. Rosen:      We have a new government that will take effect this month. What will that mean for physicians and healthcare?

Dr. Edwards:  There is a lot of smoke but I don’t see any fire that can be put out.

Dr. Milton:      There will be the usual and continued push to make our profession the peons of the state.

Dr. Ruth:        I think you’re right but I don’t think Congress sees it that way.

Dr. Edwards:  Is it Congress that we have to worry about? Looks like the socialists have taken over our state and Medicare. Both appear to be party planks. 

Dr. Michelle:   It’s not in the plank for the entire socialist party—but only in those who are trying to hoodwink us by adding “democratic” to their socialism. Socialism has gotten so many meanings now it’s hard to keep up with what they mean.

Dr. Yancy:      Don’t you think that is their main objective? Isn’t it easier to hoodwink people when they are confused as to the meaning?

Dr. Rosen:      That is certainly true. I have personal experience when friends say that they want the government to take over healthcare, education, childcare and a never-ending program of socialism. But when you pin them down, “Do you want more taxes or more freedom to determine your own way of living,” they seem to wake up as to the consequences of government control.

Dr. Milton:      I see it as a continuing battle. There are more forces for teaching the public about the realities of what they are saying. Hillsdale and a few other colleges have taken up the challenge and are giving free online courses in Government, Constitution, and Civics to give people the more objective information which they no longer get in the classroom.

Dr. Rosen:      I’ve recently received an invitation from Peter Wood to join the National Assn of Scholars which is dedicated to restoring Freedom of Speech in Academia as well as in our country. I’m looking forward to going to their conference the third weekend of January in Orange, California.

Dr. Milton:      That sounds not only interesting, but extremely important. I’ll be looking forward to your report next month and maybe I’ll be joining also.

Dr. Rosen:      I formerly was a member of the Lutheran Academy for Scholarship. This was open to Lutherans with advanced degrees. It was a very cerebral experience. It stopped when Dr. Sharlemann, the Concordia Seminary professor who founded it, died in the 1970s.

Dr. Milton:      They seem to be focusing on very important subjects that go far beyond academia.

Dr. Rosen:      I not only saw problems with Freedom of Speech in the Service, but also in the VA where I worked part time for eleven years in the early part of the twenty-first century. There was also a problem in the military the past eight years during the Obama administration not only in Freedom of Speech, but also Freedom of Religion. There are chaplains and even enlisted men who were demoted for their religious witness.

Dr. Dave:        I’m just as concerned about many aspects of our democracy. I also have friends who talk freely about being socialist. I agree that this has to be handled on a one-to-one situation in addition to the public education which may take a generation to turn it around.

Dr. Kaleb:       It looks like we’ve been asleep far too long. We all have to become more active in saving our country.

Dr. Sam:         Look what’s happening in South America, especially Venezuela. Look at the natural resources they have. I understand they have the largest oil reserves in the world. They should be competing with us and the Saudis with potential wealth. Yet they’re going broke.

Dr. Patricia:   The world in breaking down our borders to experience our freedom. Why do we have people in our country that want to give up our freedom but don’t seem to recognize it as a loss?

Dr. Joseph, Ret:         There was a time when we could count on all physicians and surgeons to be conservative and religious. It seems that both are disappearing.

Dr. Rosen:      Even at the University grand rounds there are physicians who openly mention their Democratic party membership. That would never have happened in the community in which I was raised. Everyone was a constitutional conservative—even our Democratic neighbors. We all spoke the same language.

Dr. Joseph, Ret:         Did you all go to the same church?

Dr. Rosen:                  No, we didn’t and we communicated well with one another.

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