Len Zwelling

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.

If Mr. Trump had lost the election and all follow-up elections were complete, it might not matter that he spend so much time denigrating our electoral process. But there are still two key Senate run-offs in Georgia and the results in this newly designated swing state will determine who holds sway in the upper house of Congress.

My conservative readers are already outraged. The very mention of reparations drives them into a frenzy.

A couple of my conservative readers are arguing that President Trump is well within his rights to protest the election results, ask for recounts, and not concede. After all, the post election period without a concession in 2000 was almost 5 weeks in length and that one had to go all the way to the Supreme Court to settle.

It is said that the only person who likes change is an infant with a wet diaper. Yet change is inevitable. Even had Mr. Trump won the 2020 presidential race, it was likely that many people in leadership roles in his Cabinet and throughout the executive branch would turnover. It happens every four years.

We are not in December yet, but most of us wish 2020 would end early. Whether it does or not (unlikely), it is time to start thinking about year-end awards and the People of the Year seem pretty clear to me.

The election of 2020 tested our democracy like little else has. We passed. With a D. We will not make the honor roll of democratic countries with a performance like that.

“The old liberal left paid attention to complexity, ambiguity, the gray areas. A sense of complexity induced a measure of doubt, including self-doubt. The new left typically seeks to reduce things to elements such as race, class and gender, in ways that erase ambiguity and doubt. The new left is a factory of certitudes.”