Wednesday, July 6, 2022

Dumbest Headline of the ... Oh, Nevermind

In a time when at least once a week I say out loud, "what planet is this and how did we get here?" it's hard to say a headline is the dumbest ever, the dumbest of the week, or even the dumbest of the day.  I saw this one yesterday, but there was actually an important story yesterday, so I let this one sit.  Since the important story today is that yesterday's important story is resolved, I'll go back to the dumb shit headline.  

'Urgency is a White Supremacy Value' Says Oregon Health Bureaucrat 

from PJ Media, a story based on coverage from Reason.  A health bureaucrat, as in a state health department officer?  To be as exact in the quote as I can get:

...the Oregon Health Authority’s office for equity and inclusion delayed a meeting with a partner agency on the grounds that “urgency is a white supremacy value.”

Say that again: a HEALTH Authority person thinks urgency is just something those evil, white-privileged people care about?  I can tell at a glance that anybody in healthcare who thinks urgency is some sort of value reserved for white people is not someone actually working with patients at all, and most especially not working in an Emergency Room.  Which is to say they're not healthcare workers and never have been; they're simply bureaucrats.  Furthermore, they've lived such a blessed life that they've never been in a situation where they or a loved one was in need of urgent care in an ER or hospital.

In an email obtained by Reason, Regional Health Equity Coalition Program Manager Danielle Droppers informed the community that a scheduled conversation between OHA officials and relevant members of the public would not take place as planned.

"Thank you for your interest in attending the community conversation between Regional Health Equity Coalitions (RHECs) and Community Advisory Councils (CACs) to discuss the Community Investment Collaboratives (CICs)," wrote Droppers. "We recognize that urgency is a white supremacy value that can get in the way of more intentional and thoughtful work, and we want to attend to this dynamic. Therefore, we will reach out at a later date to reschedule."

Tell you what, Ms. Droppers, I propose an experiment.  I'll put duct tape over your mouth and caulk in your nose to get an airtight seal and see if you feel any urgency about being able to breathe within about, say, 15 seconds.  Or maybe we can induce a heart attack?  Not a cardiac arrest where it's just "lights out" and (if you're lucky) you barely even feel pain, but a racked with chest pain, desperately gasping for air, heart attack.  Think you'll feel any urgency to get help Right Frickin' Now?   

In my book, urgency is appropriate when the situations are urgent, like these two hypothetical conditions.  Urgency can be appropriate at other times, such as in the work world when missing deadlines has serious implications.  Droppers' derogatory use of the word urgency for putting off yet another meeting between bureaucrats is a crock.  Blaming it on white supremacy may agree with some book, but it's still brain dead.  

Image source on Twitter, linked by PJMedia.  



10 comments:

  1. Bureaucrats rarely feel a sense of urgency because they rarely face consequences for their incompetence, sloth, greed and laziness. Once elected....or installed.bureacrats are almost impossible to fire and receive lifetime financial stability. That insulators reality means "urgency" means nothing to them.

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  2. At an international conference, an Irishman asked a Mexican about the word 'Manana'. "Oh it means ;tomorrow, maybe, or when we get around to it', 'Ah' says the Irishman, "we got a word like that, but without the desperate sense of urgency'.

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    1. I would have thought that it would have been a Bahamian or a Jamaican, rather than an Irishman, though the general levels of sobriety are comparable. :-)
      John in Indy

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    2. Ever encountered Paki time?

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  3. There is something called "black time." What it means is that blacks deliberately show up late for meetings in order to demonstrate their independence and power. Jesse Jackson was a famous practitioner.

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  4. Whites who don't object enough to that slide's story have gotten on the boxcar; that presentation room is the boxcar. Such a large signal makes triage simpler.

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  5. Just before I saw your post, I watched an excellent Gutfeld clip talking about this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AgwnPjaDq0

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  6. We as a country are in deep $hit. Every institution of industry, government, arts, media, science and medicine, education, and now the military have fallen to Communist control. I have no hope for a free and democratic future for America. None. We are the sons and daughters of the “Greatest Generation” and it was on our watch the Communists consolodated power, manipulated a presdential election, destroyed the military by CRS and Wokeness, and tore down the nations border defenses. The current and future leaders of America are Woke Communists that are working overtime to destroy our lives, jobs, family, and wealth.

    At what point do the Communists cross your personal line in the sand ?

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  7. Doctor! Why haven’t you started CPR yet? Well, for your information urgency has been deemed a white supremacy value and I do not want to be labeled as racists.

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  8. If you read carefully the meeting was between bureaucrats in two "Equity and Inclusion" groups, not actual health care providers. Their paychecks depend on NEVER solving the problem, so urgency is NOT a value for them. I' quite happy to have them all sit in their offices and do nothing instead of actively interfering with health care delivery.

    But, it is Oregon, so not my problem.

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