Following The Right Kennedy
By
Leonard Zwelling
I consider myself very lucky to have been born when I was. It is not just that the conditions in the country were such that a middle-class Jewish kid from the south shore of Long Island could get to a great college, enter medical school, and have a career in academics—thinking for a living. It was being a Baby Boomer and being fifteen when the Beatles came to America. There really may not have been a more exciting time to be alive—peace, prosperity, and great music.
But before the Beatles got here, I also had the luck of living during President John F. Kennedy’s shortened administration. It is very hard to convey the electric excitement in the land that began with his inaugural address and ended with his assassination ten weeks before the Beatles got here. That short window spurred my whole generation to excel and serve and believe in America.
A mere five years later, in the ashes of Dallas, Mr. Kennedy’s brother Bobby sought the presidency. His main job, had he won, was to end the Vietnam War. Most of us who believed what he stood for, equality, justice, and peace, also believe he would have done just that. Might it have looked like Afghanistan under Biden? Maybe. But thousands of American young men would have been alive if Bobby Kennedy had not been assassinated in Los Angeles in June of 1968.
Thus, my generation has lived under the unfulfilled promise of two Kennedys. Three if you count Edward Kennedy. Teddy was not made of the right stuff to be President. He was a creature of the Senate and not fit for the While House.
Now we have a new Kennedy to ponder. Bobby Kennedy’s son Bobby Jr. is the Secretary of Health and Human Services designate. His focus is on public health—how to improve it and how to convince Americans that their current health care system is not working. I believe that many Americans agree with him that the health care system is not working for them, but how can the Secretary of HHS make a difference?
I personally do not believe that Bobby Kennedy Jr. will end vaccinations. I hope he does not end fluorinated water as the incidence of dental decay is likely to rise in children. But if he can get lead out of drinking water, speed up the approval of new, safe and effective drugs, prepare the country for the next pandemic by writing sane rules for masking and school attendance, and improve the system of research granting at the NIH, more power to him.
My worry about some of the people Mr. Trump is designating for Health care leadership roles is that they do not have experience running bureaucracies and the Musk theory of management (clean house and see what happens) will severely cripple vital services to Americans. In an effort to streamline the government, placing Medicare, Medicaid, the ACA, the NIH and the CDC in lock down mode will not fix anything.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Kennedy may be able to improve government services, but it will not be by taking a sledge hammer to the current system. It will need to thoughtful and methodical. If Mr. Kennedy can do that, perhaps he can fulfill some of the hopes and dreams of his father. Those of us who really believed in his father surely hope so.
