Be Careful What You Say
We recently attended a 50th high school class reunion. I was probably way too young to be there. However, it was an interesting experience. A few people showed up who were dead, or at least we were told they were dead. A couple of others raised questions about the 2nd wife or 3rd husband, when the folks were never married. When people are this old and everyone changes, you chalk it up to age, the passage of time and related confusion. Thankfully it was fun and the Alzheimer’s has not set in yet for some of us.
Think before you speak
However, I recently had a slightly different encounter which could not be blamed on age. A friend of mine was talking about an incident involving parents and hospital care. The father was in for a treatment and was being sent home much too early according to the daughter. When she sort of complained to the nurse, the nurse replied that it was the result of “Obamacare”.
Being a healthcare ‘professional’, the nurse’s word was taken as gospel. The daughter reported this to a friend who repeated the story to me. This is a typical process of how information is often spread. If you add social media to the mix, everyone has a chance to hear this story inside of a few days.
The legislation of the Affordability Care Act has not put any provisions in place yet that would shorten a person’s stay in the hospital, but there are a number of people who now believe it will be undermining health care with no sound basis for forming that opinion.
However, I recently had a slightly different encounter which could not be blamed on age. A friend of mine was talking about an incident involving parents and hospital care. The father was in for a treatment and was being sent home much too early according to the daughter. When she sort of complained to the nurse, the nurse replied that it was the result of “Obamacare”.
Being a healthcare ‘professional’, the nurse’s word was taken as gospel. The daughter reported this to a friend who repeated the story to me. This is a typical process of how information is often spread. If you add social media to the mix, everyone has a chance to hear this story inside of a few days.
The legislation of the Affordability Care Act has not put any provisions in place yet that would shorten a person’s stay in the hospital, but there are a number of people who now believe it will be undermining health care with no sound basis for forming that opinion.
Check the facts!
We try to get the correct understanding when our politicians make speeches and the fact checkers try to sort things out. It seems that the politicians have very limited concerns about this anymore and say whatever they please. Now it appears that their practices are rubbing off on the general flow of events. Perhaps we need fact checkers in more places, or at least we need people who think before they speak. We shouldn’t forget that we have influence wherever we are, for good or bad. Why not be socially responsible instead of just being social.
We try to get the correct understanding when our politicians make speeches and the fact checkers try to sort things out. It seems that the politicians have very limited concerns about this anymore and say whatever they please. Now it appears that their practices are rubbing off on the general flow of events. Perhaps we need fact checkers in more places, or at least we need people who think before they speak. We shouldn’t forget that we have influence wherever we are, for good or bad. Why not be socially responsible instead of just being social.
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