Diversity legislation will upend medical profession
A wave of anti-Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) legislation in several states around the country endangers the diverse medical workforce that provides quality care to all patients, including those from under-served communities.
DEI programs that successfully provide mentorship, academic support, and scholarship for minority students have proven effective in increasing diversity in medical education and healthcare delivery.
Medical education on implicit bias and minority health is critical in training healthcare workers to address the unique needs of diverse patient populations. For example, students undergoing DEI training are more likely to care for minority and non-English speaking patients.
These legislative bills would discourage minorities from training and employment in states that adopt these measures, worsening physician shortages, decreasing cultural competency and healthcare outcomes.
Additionally, the bills would hinder access to a trusted physician, increase misdiagnoses, and create disparities in care.
As healthcare workers, we must educate elected officials, advocate for policies, build coalitions, and pursue litigation strategies to protect DEI initiatives, programming, and funding.
We urge the public to join us in calling state elected officials, volunteering in DEI-affirming advocacy organizations,
– Franklyn Rocha-Cabrero, neurologist/clinical neurophysiologist, Long Beach, CA
MOM’S DAY
Strength, resilience, love. These are words we recognize or often hear about our mothers. As we celebrate another Mother’s Day, it is important to recognize the invaluable role they play in their children’s growth and development.
A mother’s love is like a lighthouse near the ocean, guiding her children to the knowledge and wisdom that will enable them to make not only good decisions, but the best decisions in life. This is especially true during the early years of a child’s life, when the mother plays a critical role in their education and overall development. In addition to becoming great readers, this is also when they
Opinion content from syndicated sources may be trimmed from the original length to fit available space. learn essential life skills, such as communication, problem-solving and decision-making.
Gordon B. Hinckley, author of “Way to Be!” concluded: “Women who make a house a home make a far greater contribution to society than those who command large armies or stand at the head of impressive corporations.”
“Who can put a price tag on the influence a mother has on her children, a grandmother on her posterity, or aunts and sisters on their extended family?”
WORDS OF WARNING
“Those who burn books will eventually burn people” is a sentence from an 1821 play “Almansor,” written by German poet and author Heinrich Heiner. The reasons for censoring books at that time, are being used today without regard for the consequences. That the actual burning of people would have been a possibility more than 100 years later
BOB MCFARLIN
– Reed Markham,
Sorrento is an unlikely thought that anyone could have had at that time.
I doubt if people who are banning books today, in our state’s public schools and universities, have thought about these possibilities.
Yet, it happened before, and history does tend to repeat itself.
Beware, book burners.
– Bill Silver, Coral Gables
IMMIGRATION REFORM
All I’ve recently heard from elected state and federal officials is rhetoric, blaming the Biden administration for ending Title 42, a previously obscure public health law from 1944 that was used to temporarily stop the “introduction of communicable diseases.” Title 42 was re-instituted in 2020 as an emergency action to stop the spread of COVID-19; however, it was never intended to be permanent.
We’ve also heard for years that our immigration laws are broken. A wall or barriers to prevent immigrants from entering
ALEX MENA
the country seem counterproductive, as they have previously entered through tunnels.
Have members of the U.S. Congress forgotten that it is their job to propose bills to fix these problems, rather than just point fingers at the executive branch? Shouldn’t Congress have started working on updated comprehensive immigration laws years ago?
Our federal and state representatives have politicized every issue and refused to work across party lines.
I just hope voters remember this and get rid of those who continue to do this on every problem about which they repeatedly complain.
– Rose Hobbs,
Davie
LOOSE CANNON
A big round of applause for Herald columnist Fabiola Santiago and her May 10 opinion, “When Florida Sen. Rick Scott dons his Navy cap for street cred, lies surely follow.” I am an unfortunate recipient of Scott’s
DANA BANKER
newsletter of invented predictions of disasters.
Any minute now, I expect him to announce, with a look of doom on his face, that the recent disastrous flooding in Broward County is the fault of those terrible communist Democrats.
How anyone can take him seriously is beyond me. And yet, we elected him twice to be our governor and then senator. Go figure.
– Ashby Cathey,
Miami
USUAL POLITICS
The standards by which we judge our leaders have deteriorated; we have become inured to the monetary benefits, lies and failure to accept responsibility for their actions, typified by Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas, former President Donald Trump and U.S. Rep. George Santos.
Explosive revelations about these individuals demand public outrage, yet their behaviors are accepted as politics as usual. Mere decades ago, they would have been stripped of their positions or treated as pariahs if they didn’t step down from their public roles.
Yet, the Supreme Court won’t devise a standard of ethics for its justices.
Trump is still the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican nomination for president, despite a guilty verdict for sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll and the cases confronting him for falsifying business records, attempting to overturn the 2020 election results and mishandling classified documents.
Santos’ trail of lies about his heritage, education, employment history and campaign funding, among other fabrications, earned him a seat in the House of Representatives — and an indictment of 13 felonies in federal court.
If we continue to accept these outrageous behaviors, we have only ourselves to blame.
– Sheila Gewirtzman,
Plantation