Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site decwrl.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-amber!chabot From: chabot@amber.DEC (Chevrolet Chabot) Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: Re: Vagueness, ERA, and the Constitution Message-ID: <3792@decwrl.UUCP> Date: Mon, 1-Oct-84 10:37:04 EDT Article-I.D.: decwrl.3792 Posted: Mon Oct 1 10:37:04 1984 Date-Received: Tue, 2-Oct-84 06:30:14 EDT Sender: daemon@decwrl.UUCP Organization: DEC Engineering Network Lines: 50 About bigotry: Tom Craver's > For example, I would not want to force an anti-black bigot to go to a black > doctor, but I would want to force him to refrain from assaulting that doctor. As a side point, this unfortunately reminds me of the question: would you want to force an anti-black bigot doctor from treating a black patient? An interesting question! The physician who introduced blood transfusions died because the hospital nearest the scene of his unnecessarily fatal accident refused to admit him, because he was black. He bled to death. Assault is an action, and yes, preventing bigots from performing actions endangering the lives of the objects of their hatred does sound like something worthy of "forcing". But if medical treatment is an action, then not-treatment is not an action, and if we were to force bigots to treat the undesirable patients...gee, well mightn't it be in the patient's best interests to find an unbigoted doctor whose unprejudiced nature would allow better medical care? (Hard to do when you're expiring.) Of course, this is a moral matter: people are entitled to medical care (?) and doctors should not be prejudiced. (!!) At least, they're entitled to medical care if they can pay: in my home town of Lancaster CA there is a large hospital which will not admit emergency patients who do not show evidence of having medical insurance, but will tell them to high-tail it to the V A hospital (a mere 75 miles away) [we've known this for years, but they also tried it on my sister]; sometimes if you wave dollars at them and insist you've got a steady job you might be able to convince them to treat your broken loved-one. (Hard to do when you're the one expiring.) The two cases, black and poor, are not unrelated: they're both examples of bigotry, which is a double bind if you're black since they'll assume you're poor (or at least shiftless) in many, many neighborhoods. And the poor are assumed to be without dignity: without the dignity to appreciate good medical care, and without the dignity to even want to pay their incurred debts. But you're right, things are better in some neighborhoods. Vagueness won't force bigots to do much at all. On the other hand, vagueness allows us generality to grow into--someday. We can hope the bigots will be gradually loosed by the gentleness of the vagueness from their tight iron band(s) around their skulls, and can then think and see the freedom around them. It's hard to convince old dogs to like the new tricks you've forced them to learn. L S Chabot UUCP: ...decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-amber!chabot ARPA: ...chabot%amber.DEC@decwrl.ARPA USFail: DEC, MR03-1/K20, 2 Iron Way, Marlborough, MA 01752