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October 16, 2003
Cold blooded!
A sinister specter has joined the Romney administration.
Public policy issues with a strong moral underpinning are in the
process of being trampled.
Massachusetts is one of 10 states that have no death penalty.
Governor Romney wants to change that. He has appointed a commission
to determine whether there is a foolproof way to be certain that
the one facing death is irrefutably guilty of the crime for which
he has been convicted.
Romney is concerned that no innocent person should suffer execution.
Given the extraordinary number of individuals on death row who
have been released from prison when DNA evidence established their
innocence, Romney should be concerned about the state butchering
the innocent.
However, there is a more profound issue that seems to elude the
governor. Is it moral for the state to use its enormous power
to take the lives of even the guilty, when life imprisonment both
punishes the miscreants and protects the public? Most industrial
nations have disavowed capital punishment as immoral and favor
extended imprisonment.
The Romney administration seems to have a callous attitude toward
the value of human life. Massachusetts has prided itself on the
government’s willingness to provide medical care for everyone.
Hospitals that do not have the burden of caring for the indigent
were required to contribute to a free care pool. The funds made
it possible for the Boston City Hospital (now the Boston Medical
Center), and the Cambridge City Hospital to provide medical care
for everyone, regardless of their ability to pay.
With the crisis in medical care in America in recent years, the
hospitals that treat only paying patients have balked at the amount
of their contributions to the free care pool. The Romney administration
is all too willing to help the hospitals for the well-to-do at
the expense of those who are uninsured and unable to pay the high
cost of medical care.
In the best of times the BMC received from the free care pool
the reimbursement of only 93 percent of the cost of that care.
It was expected that this rate would be cut to 85 percent of the
cost of care because of state budget cuts. However, Ron Preston,
Governor Romney’s secretary of health and human services,
has decided, presumably with the governor’s consent, on
a cut to only 73 percent of projected costs. This would result
in an operating loss of $25 to $30 million per year for the BMC.
That is unacceptable! There are ominous and cold winds of change
blowing on Beacon Hill.
The power of the dollar
There is a beneficial and unintended consequence
from John Dennis’ racial snafu on WEEI. Blue Cross &
Blue Shield has withdrawn $27,000 of advertising from WEEI and
donated the funds to METCO. This extraordinary act has served
notice that there must be a price to pay for those radio stations
that promote racial divisiveness.
African-Americans and Latinos should also note the
impact of “selective buying.” Blue Cross & Blue
Shield did not want to do business with a bigoted radio station.
Blacks and Latinos ought not spend their hard earned money with
stores and companies that disrespect them. It is time to reconsider
the boycotts that were mobilized
during the civil rights movement.
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