1994_12 The Daily Collegian December 1994

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OPINION
Friday, December 2, 1994
'        •'
AS I SEE IT
fi*
Republicans
should be
Statesman
Almost a month has now
passed since the Nov. 8 elections
and the dust isbeginning to settle.
The new Senators and Congress¬
men, the vast majority of whom
v, are Republican, have come from
the far reaches of this great re¬
public and have relocate^ in
Washington D.C.
It has been noted that there has
not been a Republican rnajority
inboth houses of Congress since
PresidentHarry S. Truman occu¬
pied the White House more than
40 years ago.
Because of this, the Republi¬
cans are going to have to learn
not just to be good politicians,-
but good
statesman
as well.
Why? Be¬
cause they
hataMttoved from playing the op¬
position minority tobeingthepower
majority. They have to remember
that the words they speak, espe-
cially the committee chairman, carry
a great deal more weight now than
before.
Jessie Helms is an example of
this. While his remarks concerning
old Bill were not a wise thing to say,
heshouldnotbekeptfrom thechair-
manship of the Foreign Relations
Committee.
By Tim Springer
How¬
ever, he
does need
to ' learn
how to be a
good
statesman
by measur¬
ing the
words he
uses on
and off the
record.
The Re-
publicans
have the opportunity to effectively
change government for the better, if
they're willing to bite the bullet by
cutting the size of their own salaries,
office budgets and staff sizes along
with any other cuts they make in
other government expenditure?*
such as social spending and "pork
barreling." The mark of a wise states¬
man is that he's willing to and does
include himself under the laws he
passes for the nation he governs.
As a conservative (in the Arthur
Vandenberg vein) this colum¬
nist will be watching closely the
proposals and progress that the
Republicans make toward ful¬
filling th6ir campaign promises
and the "Contract With
America."
The single most important
thing they muist do is lead. They
must take up the initiative, chart
a clear course and not get too
bogged down in the tangent is- ,
sues that are present in Wash¬
ington D.C, such as White Wa¬
ter or Cartlegate. >..
The people of this country
have indicated that they want a
change in the way government
works and does business. No
more "business as usual."
It seems that the Republicans
have rolled up their sleeves and
are off to a good start. The main
thing now is to keep the momen¬
tum going and at the same time
be quick studies on the'art of
being good statesmen and good
leaders.
'
-LETTERS TO THE EDITOR-
Dear Editor:
I would like thank President
Clinton for being so decisive and
quick to react to the situation in
Haiti, but I can't. For the past few
months, Mr. Clinton has success¬
fully shown the American public
just how indecisive and shaky of
a leader he truly is. Going into the
Presidential race, Clinton was al¬
ready weak when it came to for¬
eign policy because he lacked ex¬
perience. His indecision with the
Haiti situation has only cemented
this criticism, instead of shacking
it.
Why he decided to go into
Haiti, nobody knows for sure.
According to the New York Times
• (9-l7), PresidentClinton couldn't
comeiup with a "compelling rea¬
son why a tiny nation whose
economy is in shambles and
whose military is far inferior of
our own," posed any risk to our
national security. Instead/-Mr.
Clinton f ocused on the inhumane
treatment of Haitians. The same
treatment people in Bosnia and
Rwanda are facing at this very
i moment But, you don't see the
U.S. intervening over there.
The New York Times (9-19),
also stated that the only reason
President Clinton could think of,
was "to secure our borders." In
other words, to stop the flow of
poor, sick and uneducated people
into America. However, if that
were the case, American troops
would have been sent into Mexico
v a long time ago to stop the flow of
illegal immigrants.
The more I look at President
Clinton's actions, the more I won¬
der about his decision making
skills. By stretching out this Whole
Haitian ordeal over a year with
ultimatums, along with not let¬
ting the American public know
why we are involved, has only
hurt Mr. Clinton's character.
Despite these criticisms of the
President, I do believe what Mr.
Clinton did in Haiti was worth¬
while: for the mere fact that he
was able to restore democracy,
and-to ensure the basic human
right of freedom. However, I sin¬
cerely hope that the next time a
person's freedoms are being
taken away or challenged, the
President will intervene with
more decisiveness. Maybe then,
Mr. Clinton won't be portrayed
as a floating waffle.
SinceretyYoufs,
Caleb Randal/V
Dear Editor,
The AIDS epidemic has ere-'
ated such a scare in the commu¬
nity that many people are con¬
sidering making testing for the
virus mandatory in the health
professions. Since a Florida den¬
tist infected five of his parents
with the HIV virus last year, medi¬
cal experts have intensely debated
the need for practice restrictions
on HIV-infected surgeons. This
debate is for a very good reason:
the danger is that "health work¬
ers" are infecting their patients.
As of Dec. 1,1990, there h#'e
been 40 documented cases of
health care workers infected with
AIDS (Modern Health Care. 10-
91). But what about the health
care workers who fail to docu¬
ment their condition, like the
Florida dentist? What we are deal¬
ing with is millions of patients'
innocent lives. We, the patients,
have the right to know if our
doctors and nurses have the AIDS
virus. How ironic it would be if
we were to turn to our doctors or
dentists for help, only to realize
they were doing just die oppo¬
site: putting our lives in jeop¬
ardy.
Everyone in the health profes-
yr*.
♦
sion should be tested for the HIV
virus, not only for their own good,
but for innocent patients who are
depending on them* We should
be able to trust our health care
workers. Some say that there are
always two sides to an issue. In
this case, it would be the doctors'
right to privacy. However, I feel
that on this issue, a patient's right
to know outweighs the doctor's
privacy.
The main argument that I
would like to address is that pa¬
tients have rights. By law, every
health professional is required to
take care of his or her patients. As
Judge Phillip Carehman stated in
Vic American Journal of Nursing,
"Patient's rights must prevail." If
they don't, "the risk to the pa¬
tients is so absolute, so devastat¬
ing, that it is untenable to argue
against informed consent com¬
bined with a restriction on proce¬
dures which present 'any risk' to
the patient." Every patient has
the right to be given good care;
and the right to know if their
health professionals are infected
with HIV or not falls under that
right.
My second argument is that,
in the long run, both the health
care worker and the patient
would benefit from it. If AIDS
testing was mandatory in health
professions, it would weed out
all the health care workers who
are carrying the disease, there¬
fore providing no threat vto pa¬
tients' lives. It would also benefit
thfe health care worker by en¬
abling him or her to know of their
condition, and begin treatment
fis soon as possible. '    *    -
I fully believe that mandatory
"AIDS testing would give a pa¬
tient comfort of mind, and put
the meaning of trust back in the
health care profession.
Sincerely,
CalebRandallV  \
C
JLn The
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