December 2020

It is everything. Trust.

In the first of the two attached opinion pieces, the 100-year old former Republican Cabinet member George Shultz lists ten instances from his life where important trust was established between him and others—from his parents to President Nixon to President Reagan—that led to successful relationships and progress at times of difficulty.

It has recently been made public that there has been a huge breach in cyber security and many parts of the federal government have had their secrets exposed, supposedly to the Russians. Let’s say for a minute that all this media hype is true and the confidential information of federal agencies and private companies have been made available to our foreign adversaries in the Kremlin through the actions of those adversaries. Why isn’t this an act of war?

I have always viewed Christmas as an outsider. Since my earliest memories of being one of the only Jewish children in a public school in Stratford, Connecticut, Christmas has been a holiday for others. My mother indoctrinated us about Christmas not being our holiday.

Let’s ignore for a moment the rants of the current occupant of the Oval Office that somehow he was cheated out of an election victory despite the fact that he lost the popular vote (again) by 7 million ballots (this time, 3 million last time). At this point in time, some 28 days from the end of the Trump Presidency, I really don’t care what he says or does.

This New York Times article from December 11 is about forgiveness by the federal government for the debt acquired by millions to pay for their college educational expenses. It could be about any program in the federal government that transfers funds from the government (acquired through taxes on Americans and companies) to individual other Americans.

That’s pretty lame for a host of reasons, not the least of which is that the GOP had a great night on November 3. Republicans will probably hold the Senate. They have made inroads in the House. They were very successful on the state level. The only real loss was for president. This time they had the bad candidate—or at least the worse one.

Donald Trump loves the full-throated autocracy of his pardon power. He has used it before and will undoubtedly use it again. However, it is one thing to pardon Michael Flynn for crimes he has admitted to committing. It is quite another to pre-emptively pardon his friends, his family and himself. Here’s the risk to him.

There was so much that was wonderful about MD Anderson in 1984 when we got here.

The collegiality among the faculty was unbelievable. We were helped so much by all those around us from Josh Fidler to Norman Jaffe to Mike Siciliano and Walter Hittleman.

Now, as the attached story relates, Dr. Hahn is under renewed pressure from the White House to approve the use of coronavirus vaccines as soon as possible. Well, that’s just what he’s doing. He can’t really go any faster.

That’s right. I am willingly admitting that I was an administrator, that hated group of functionaries who push paper and write regulations that make the lives of faculty and staff alike a living hell. Not only was this my job, I liked it.