Wednesday, November 08, 2006

When An Emergency Arises

We had preliminary training at work today about ERI - Epedemic Respiratory Infection - and what would be happening in the coming months for our hospital to prepare for a possible Avian Flu, pertussis, or other contagious emergency.

The MD running this for NH is Jose Montero of Dartmouth Hitchcock; there were two clearly oriental names in the list of who's on the Big Committee. But you know, there was no multicultural nonsense about having to spend time with Hispanics talking about their families before you got to the important part, or respecting Thai folk medicine, or cautioning honkies that black people might not trust authority figures.

Because lives are at stake, and everyone knows it, and in the face of our common need to keep each other alive in the face of a disaster, reality blows all that away like smoke. There will be no one complaining about how they were handed their Koran then, nor any white people afraid of Puerto Rican EMT's.

And that's what we should be aiming for in all of life, but multiculturalism makes it worse.

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