Correspondence
CORRESPONDENCE The splendor of irony Newton Centre, Mass. To the Editors: As a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and a Master's student in the theology department of Boston College, I...
...Roller cites in Western New York state is unheard of in Canada...
...To the Editors: Christopher F. Roller's assessment of the outlook for health-care reform is an exercise in obfuscation, which is understandable from an HMO employee...
...A selection of letters will be published in the issue of March 11...
...MILTON GOLDIN The author replies: If Milton Goldin insists on (mis)reading my article as a plea for Jewish particularism, that is his right, even if its expression is a puzzlement...
...Detractors," he says, "raise the specter of socialized medicine...
...Next, he writes, "single-payer plans face...a public wary of government bureaucracy and any hint of limits to treatment options...
...It is about the consequences of violence, a very different matter—and, since we live in a time when violence is more American than apple pie ever was or will be, a matter about which we ought to feel bound to think...
...For the faithful remnant, try "Celestially solaced...
...Corbett, the single-payer system is fundamentally more just than anything the private sector could produce, assuring a more equitable distribution of valuable limited resources...
...In addition to the attributes listed by Mr...
...the financial sting of having to pay Professor Stephen Pope [Commonweal, March 12,1993] the spoils after giving him a thirty-point spread (yes, thirty...
...To the Editors: As a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and a Master's student in the theology department of Boston College, I welcomed your editorial concerning the recent motu proprio, Victoriae splendor ["Numero Uno," January 28...
...Thanks for providing 1,000 inspired, funny, and gentle words for poll-watchers and Pole-watchers alike...
...MARY LEE FREEMAN, ND '91 'Numero Uno' is lops Worcester, Mass...
...The profusion of high-tech gadgetry Mr...
...The great majority of Canadian hospitals are privately owned and contract with their governments for operating expenses...
...To the Editors: I was thoroughly delighted by your "Numero Uno" editorial—a real hoot...
...I shall simply reproduce the essay, with four words of direction added: Explain the satirical allusions...
...Universalism does...
...Goldin's letter...
...SCOTT APPLEBY Single-payer makes sense Hingham, Mass...
...It is well to keep in mind that "bureaucracy" is not synonymous with "govern(Continued on page 29) 2 (Continued from page 2) ment...
...But the organization belongs to its builders—the thirty-two people who sit on its board, its professional staff (headquartered in Los Angeles, across the continent from my home), and the 34,046 people who, in 1993, contributed to its work in combating hunger...
...The program's consideration of these consequences is wide-ranging and highly intelligent, and its two detectives, Kelly and Sipowitz, in their attempts to be good cops and good men as their working lives pit them against the violent, are persuasive and touching, both when they succeed and when they fail, whether the enemy be physically violent or violators of order and justice through misuse of the system or misuse Of words...
...The charge of "socialism" is a standard ploy of those who oppose change in the American health industry, but the label does not fit the Canadian system...
...For the third of our population now uninsured or underinsured, it is imperative that we move promptly to a recognition of that right for everybody on the same unquestioned level as education and police protection...
...However laudable or preferable the virtues of such a system, it remains politically untenable at the national legislative level...
...Thank you for the sensitive touch of that article...
...To the Editors: One phrase in your issue of January 14 was worth the price of admission: "Geriatrically enhanced," under "Etcetera," page4...
...Whether because of the numbing complexity of the issues, or because our public has a less-cultivated notion of the commonweal (one of several differences between Canadian and U.S...
...Come to think of it, the essay also serves as a neat introduction to the Weaver-Appleby project on "Mapping American Catholicism...
...As to my "type of confusion," I wasn't aware of being confused until after I read Mr...
...Politics, alas, remains the art of the possible...
...Geriatrically totaled...
...Alleged self-interest notwithstanding, were I the United States Health Care Engineer, a publicly financed, privately delivered health-care system along the lines of Canada's would also be my preference...
...For the author to claim that a single-payer plan would not work in the U.S...
...We need something trendy and free of any taint of religion...
...It goes to the very core of what Christmas is about...
...the despair of the first week of January in the face of the violence wrought by the nation's Mace-wielding sub-jectivists (with Patrick Jordan [November 5, 1993], Notre Dame alums somberly agree that mugging must surely be intrin-sece malum...
...Okay, but only if you get mashed by a semi while you're shuffling across the interstate...
...Yet the quality of health care is fully comparable to that available to the great majority of U.S...
...The prophets still speak Tarrytown, N.Y...
...not to mention the countless hours spent studying the ponderous prose of Veritatis splendor and ploughing through all the commentaries—all of these painful realities of the last semester were redeemed in one brilliant essay, and I thank you...
...I hope it can be a sign unto others that it's possible to be serious about Catholicism and still be funny, without being nasty...
...Getting closer, but not there yet...
...If only these sentiments were shared by all Christians, we would have a different world...
...We're Celebrating Christmas"] in the issue of December 17, 1993...
...Port Washington, N.Y...
...because Americans are different from Canadians is sheer nonsense...
...But employer-linked health insurance is an anachronism, a relic of World War II wage ceilings that not only puts brakes on worker mobility but adds appreciably to health-care costs...
...Death" and "dead" are so traditional, so simple, so short...
...citizens...
...No, "the narrow self-interest of the Jews" cannot point "plainly to the assiduous pursuit of the values of the Jews...
...but in this case I cannot resist...
...Geriatrically finalized...
...29 It is just Fein's type of confusion that has turned away tens of thousands of American Jews from the profound meaning of charity in traditional Jewish terms...
...To the Editors: Leonard Fein begins "Mending the World" [January 14] with two staggering assertions: First, that "[t]here is no authoritative Jewish statement on economic justice," and second, that "we [the Jews] do not care for authoritative statements...
...Self-centeredness hardly ever inspires anyone...
...EDWARD M. CORBETT The author replies: I believe the correspondents mistake analysis for advocacy...
...citizenry), grassroots support is not strong enough to overcome institutions resistant to the signal changes a single-payer system would represent...
...Realism on priesthood Heidelberg, Germany To the Editors: Regarding the open letter from Father Joseph Breen ["Dear Bishops: Face Facts," Correspondence, December 3, 1993], the pastor's remarks are astonishingly realistic, and they do not apply only in the United States...
...TOM SHANNON Prof, steals exam...
...But he downplays the alternative—first by damning it with faint praise, and then by attacking it with innuendo...
...Anyone who watches the program, rather than harking only to its pre-perfor-mance hype—both in its behalf and in opposition to it—will be aware that it is not about violence...
...Of course the old bromides—"gone to meet his maker," "crossed over Jordan," "in Abraham's bosom"—have to be junked, since they reflect outworn superstitions that must be rejected in this age of science and sophistication...
...Too bureacratic...
...And consider that 500 words later he speaks of the prophets' concern with Hillel's "second question—'If I am only for myself, what am I?'" Of course, the prophets never issued a document called Economic Justice for All, as did the National Conference of Catholic Bishops in 1986...
...To the Editors: Since Frank McConnell is still being taken to task in your letters columns for liking "NYPD Blue," I'd like to enter the fray...
...Against all hope, let us hope...
...Are we who take seriously the teachings of prophetic Judaism rejecting authority...
...REV...
...ERIC R. BUERMANN, O.S.B...
...To the Editors: I rarely—in fact, never— find the time to write letters to the editor, 'Disputed Question' The five articles on aspects of homosexuality published in the issue of January 28 have drawn an unusual number of responses from readers...
...Roller also cites "detractors" who question employers' role in financing health care...
...We need something polysyllabic, with the right touch of with-it pomposity...
...If he takes the words of the prophets as revelation, assumes that the prophetic tradition is more authoritative than all the competing visions and versions of Judaism (not less "revealed," if that's the issue), imagines that "taking [the prophets] seriously" is syn-onomous with taking them authoritatively, so be it...
...To the Editors: Christopher Roller's "Health Care Reform: Good Plan, Major Flaw" [January 14] doesn't deal with the overriding problem of the Clinton plan, which is the enormous waste of money from duplicate administrative costs in the private health-care insurance industry...
...2. It provided the text of the final exam for my Notre Dame undergraduate course in "Contemporary American Catholicism...
...Christopher f. roller Christmas revisited Humacao, P.R...
...Canadian doctors are not state employees but private entrepreneurs who bill their provincial governments for their services...
...Market bureaucracies Commerce, Tex...
...Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Massachusetts has a larger staff to service 2.5 million subscribers than Canada employs for its 27 million residents...
...LEONARD FEIN Elementally rearranged...
...Canada provides quality healm care for all at two-thirds of our costs...
...ALFONS BEIL McConnell & 'NYPD Blue' New York, N.Y...
...The author is on target, however, when he stresses the concept of health care as a right...
...The humiliation of having to endure the 41-39 loss to BC while living in the midst of the Eagle faithful...
...MARIAN BURKHART 30...
...Notre Dame, Ind...
...Canadian residents are free to choose among them, without even the slight limitations Mr...
...Numero Uno" was so cleverly rendered, insightful, and wry that the essay accomplished two things for me: 1. It caused me to laugh out loud several times, an exercise I should perform daily rather than monthly (if that...
...Are contributors to Fein's organization, Mazon, mistaken in considering Fein an authority on philanthropic issues...
...Are bishops more authoritative than the prophets...
...BENEDICT J. DUFFY, M.D...
...Roller acknowledges that the clearest alternative is the Canadian system of direct state financing, and that it has strong support in Congess...
...Geriatrically perfected...
...To the Editors: I hope it is not too late to comment on John Whitman's "story" ["Go Away...
...On the other hand, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel concern themselves with man's relationship to man, the greed of people, the needs of the poor and oppressed, and social reform (which includes economics) as revelation...
...But the central problem is our very kind, yet extremely autocratic pope...
...A major reason is emphasis on cooperation rather than competition...
...Although he dismisses President Bill Clinton's proposal as dead on arrival, he expects that some variant of "managed competition" will eventually emerge...
...The idea for Mazon was mine, and I am happy, even proud, of what has been built on that idea...
...Truly beautiful...
...LORING W. BATTEN From the Editors: One suggestion is in the headline...
...But no, I am not and do not pretend to be "an authority on philanthropic issues," nor is Mazon in any respect "Fein's organization...
...If they renamed the "Resources for the Aging" program at my parish "Fun and Games for the Geriatrically Enhanced," I just might go—even though, in truth, I'm just an old man...
...Now, what do we use for the end of geriatric enhancement...
...Roller finds acceptable in the expanded HMO system he favors...
...See what you can do...
Vol. 121 • February 1994 • No. 4
