Route 6666

Many years ago, a good friend invited me to lunch with him and an older friend of his, someone he thought might want to hire me. My friend's friend was wealthy, polite and extremely well connected. He was also a dominant trustee of a prestigious local hospital. In talking about hospital problems, he dropped a bombshell about the cost of indigent care; he was opposed to it. "If they can't pay for services, they shouldn't get them. That's the way it should be, survival of the fittest, natural selection." I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Needless to say, the power broker and I never got together again.

That's good old 19th century conservatism, all right. Didn't one of Charles Dickens' beloved characters say "Are there no work houses" in speaking of the poor and hungry? This brand of conservatism dies hard and it is alive and well in the Republican Party today. Andre Bauer, Lt. Governor of the distinguished state of South Carolina spoke out on the subject of aid to Haiti recently along these lines. His grandmother had told him to stop feeding stray animals because they bred, especially those that didn't think too much farther than their next meal or breeding opportunity. Hard to believe in AD 2010. I wonder if she also might have said. The Haitians are nice people, but I hear (whispering now) some of them are Catholics.

In Hector Berlioz's beautiful opera, "The Damnation of Faust" there's a spot where the Devil himself is carrying Faust down to hell on horseback. The music vividly mimics the sound of horses' hooves and a male chorus sings meaningless words representing the chaos that is part of hell. I wonder if Mr. Bauer ever hears strange music or if he thinks beyond the next speech, or if he thinks at all?