Ken Dodd Vinyl Love, An Ivory Man, Thee and Thus Pronouns, Beautiful Parker City

“As women gain rights, families flourish, and so do societies. That connection is built on a simple truth: Whenever you include a group that’s been excluded, you benefit everyone. And when you’re working globally to include women and girls, who are half of every population, you’re working to benefit all members of every community. Gender equity lifts everyone. Women’s rights and society’s health and wealth rise together.”
— Melinda French Gates

Good morning, afternoon, evening, or whenever you are finding these words.  It’s 7:00 a.m. here; my coffee has been made, my pup is outside, I hydrated with some liquid I.V. and am ready to throw down some disparate thoughts and ideas.  Today my color identity will be ivory, my pronouns thee and thus.

I listened to a podcast on my way to have lunch with a long-time client and friend, more about that later.  I had a copy of my book and, of course, some vinyl love.  More about the podcast later, I’m starting to see a slight trend in my writing. First, I share my day and then a little about what’s grinding my gears. After that, it seems like it flows; for now, this will be how I spin a tale.

I met with Phil at the new Puerto Vallarta restaurant on Broadway in Muncie.  I had a Ken Dodd album; not a big fan of Ken, so I thought Phil might be a fan. So we sat down; it’s a brand new spot, charming, and our server, her color was honey, was a riot.  Instead of giving Ken Dodd to Phil, I gave the album to the server, and she asked, “what is this?” I said it’s an album?  She left a little confused and returned and shared she had no way to play the album, so I said, “Well, then, it’s now art!”  Before we left, she brought the album back with a sharpie and asked I sign it; I signed it “Ken Dodd.”

I left there and met with another friend; Jim built quite a campus for his company; as I drove in, I couldn’t help think back 25 years ago when I first started doing business with him, he has succeeded in building a thriving business, and I’m proud of him.  Our careers tracked well, we both are in a good position; it’s nice to have long, positive, and profitable relationships.  I gave some vinyl love to the staff and headed to Beautiful Parker City.

I stopped by Reflections Hair salon, spoke with my friend Melissa and her client Michelle.  I left a book and some vinyl love before heading to my office and working with my team a little.  They had some ideas we discussed; I’ll put them in my mind’s easy bake oven and see what comes out. Next, I stopped by my parents but caught them at nap time, so I left there and headed home to spend some time with the most beautiful woman in the world.

The podcast I mentioned earlier was about the AMA’s new guide to the language, and it’s the politically correct bullshit that drives me crazy. So if you are a pc warrior, I would stop reading and save yourself some heartache.  I found an article about the topic in the Washington Examiner, written by Conn Carrol; I think it does a great job of summarizing the issue.  So here you go.

Suppose you were hoping that your doctor’s office would remain one of the few remaining places free of the politically correct police. In that case, we have some bad news for you: The American Medical Association has gone woke.

In conjunction with the Association of American Medical Colleges Center for Health Justice, the AMA recently released a document titled Advancing Health Equity: A Guide to Language, Narrative, and Concepts.

The “toolkit” is designed to help physicians and healthcare workers achieve “health equity,” which strives to correct gaps in health outcomes that are “unjust, avoidable, unnecessary, and unfair.”

The elimination of personal responsibility and accountability are critical to this “health equity” effort. “Inequities cannot be understood or adequately addressed if we focus only on individuals, their behavior, or their biology,” the guide reads. Instead, “health equity work requires” the identification and disruption of “dominant narratives” that “limit our understanding of the root causes of health inequities.”

“Narratives grounded in white supremacy and sustaining structural racism, for example, perpetuate cumulative disadvantage for some populations and cumulative advantage for white people, especially white men,” the guide explains. “Narratives that uncritically center meritocracy and individualism render invisible the genuine constraints generated and reinforced by poverty, discrimination, and ultimately exclusion.”

Turning to how doctors should disrupt dominant narratives when talking to patients, the guide laments “the overwhelming focus on changing individual behavior to improve health, mostly avoiding the social and economic conditions which generate poor health outcomes.” Instead, when some patients fail to follow through with a health plan advised by their doctor, which the guide identifies as a dominant “non-compliance” narrative, doctors should consider “the significant barriers faced by the patients in their lives, from not having enough money to pay for their medications, or not having the capability to take time off work, or not being able to secure affordable childcare to participate in an activity.”

So, the next time you see the doctor, and he starts to rant you about exercising more and eating well, be sure to point out you would have exercised more and eaten more veggies, but the big, evil corporations are just making it too hard.  Unless you are a white male, of course, in which case everything wrong in the world is your fault, and you probably deserve to be sick anyway.

There you have it; my favorite line in the article is “The elimination of personal responsibility and accountability are critical to this “health equity” effort.”  When you remove personal responsibility from the equation, the solution becomes unsolvable.  To have a functioning society, we have to take responsibility for their actions, choices, and plight.  Thank God I’m a man of color and not one of those white males; I’m starting to feel sorry for those chaps; it seems like society discriminates against that class of people?

“As women gain rights, families flourish, and so do societies. That connection is built on a simple truth: Whenever you include a group that’s been excluded, you benefit everyone. And when you’re working globally to include women and girls, who are half of every population, you’re working to benefit all members of every community. Gender equity lifts everyone. Women’s rights and society’s health and wealth rise together.”
— Melinda French Gates