A Very Rewarding Visit With My Surgeon!

In previous posts (post #2) over the last few years, I have discussed a couple of visits (post #1) I have had with two of my doctors, a surgeon (post #3) and a cardiologist.  About six years ago, I discovered that I had a life threatening blockage of one of my carotid arteries and a surgical procedure was recommended which I finally accepted about four years after the original diagnosis.  During that four years, I engaged in a serious regimen of exercise, mild medication treatment, and a stringent change to my diet, all of which resulted in serious reductions in my blood pressure, weight, overall health risks, and even my opthalmic pressures in both eyes.  I had the surgery roughly two years ago and have been fine ever since.  Immediately after my original diagnosis by a local general practitioner who is friend of mine, I began to see these two specialist and have done so ever since.  About three months after the surgery, I was put on a program of one year follow up visits with both doctors and see each of them once a year and once a year only unless some future serious change in my health requires closer treatment.  

 

When I have any serious appointment for any reason, and especially for medical visits, I always carry whatever book I am reading to the visit since waiting room and even examination room waits can be longer than  just a few minutes.  I always read during those waits unless I sometimes become engaged in a positive conversation with another patient.  As I had said in two of the blog posts linked above, during those particular visits both of these doctors noticed what I was reading and engaged me in conversations about the books at those times.  This is not a very common practice among doctors and, right or wrong, I have always considered the fact that they did so to be a compliment to the quality of my reading material.  I never read what I call "light reading" or "drug store fiction", and neither do most doctors.  They are universally too busy.  But I learned long ago that nearly all doctors have been engaged, like me, in a lifetime habit of reading or most of them would never have become doctors in the first place.  This past Friday, September 13, 2024, I had my regular annual visit with my surgeon and went to the visit reading "The Road To Unfreedom" by Timothy Snyder whose works I have written about on more than one occasion on this blog, and about which I will most certainly write more in the future.  Snyder is one of the best historians, authors, and political thinkers in America today.  He is a professor of history at Yale University and holds an endowed chair there where such a guaranteed lifetime position would be one of the most competitive jobs in education in the world.  Snyder writes in about a half dozen languages, reads in about four or five more, is an incredibly diligent researcher, and an author any high level reader has to respect.  This particular book is the third of his works which I have read and I will write about it in the near future when I finish it.  

As my surgeon entered the examination room, he glanced at my book, asked me "what are you reading today?" and turned to my wife Candice to say, "he never lets me down when he recommends me books".  The first ten minutes or so of our conversation were about Timothy Snyder, his work, politics, and books in general.  Then for about two minutes, he said, "your ultrasounds are great. You're perfect.  Your arteries are perfect."  and we returned to our conversation about politics, literature, and travel since I had told him I had bought "Black Earth: The Holocaust As History And Warning" by Snyder at the El Paso Holocaust Museum in 2017.  When we finished our conversation and he was ready to move on to his next patient, he actually walked with me to the front desk to tell the staff when I needed to return and we ended our conversation there.  I won't see him for another year unless some catastrophe strikes and I need his medical expertise on short notice.  But I know in advance that I will carry whatever book I am reading then, hopefully a biography of Kamala Harrris, President of the United States, and we will discuss it and whatever we both have been reading shortly before the visit.  And he will continue to provide me the same excellent, potentially life saving medical expertise he always has.  Then both of us will go out to order whatever book the other has recommended.  That is the kind of doctor I wish all of you could benefit from on a regular basis.  

Since originally completing and posting this blog post, I have become engaged in a long and rewarding messaging exchange with one of my former high school teacher whom I have been in regular contact with over the last several years.  Our exchange this time was prompted by this blog post and she said during that exchange that We need you to stay around and get our country back on track.Those kinds of compliments about my writings on politics are what keep me writing on this blog and in other venues,  both because I know that if we don't save democracy in this election we may well lose it forever, and because I know that I am correct about this situation in America today and my writing just might change a few minds in the right direction. 

"On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons From The Twentieth Century" by Timothy Snyder--Reflections On A Book And Current Events

This little masterpiece is a book every American should read as soon as possible and take everything it says seriously to heart.  Timothy Snyder is one of the best non-fiction authors, researchers, and history professors working in America today.  He is the Levin Professor of History at Yale University, one of the most prolific authors of non-fiction in the country, and, arguably, the most important expert on the Holocaust alive today.  I have previously written about Snyder's masterpiece "Black Earth: The Holocaust As History and Warning" which I consider to be the best book I have ever read about the Holocaust.  I had read the book in discussion today several months ago and never got around to writing about it on this blog when I have actually always intended to try to write about each of the twenty chapters.  Each of those chapters is a lesson which every American should strive to learn and to live by.  

Although this book never mentions the TRAITOR Donald Trump by name, he and his many crimes are the primary motivation for the book.  The fact that it doesn't mention him by name is my primary beef with the book.   I believe we should always call a spade a spade, a shovel a shovel, and a TRAITOR just that, a TRAITOR.  And that is what brings us to current events. As I said in a brief post last night, I firmly believe that history will prove that March 30, 2023, will come to be remembered as one of the most important days in American History, the day when the process began to hold TRAITOR Trump legally responsible for his many crimes against the people and the government of the United States.  The New York indictments are only the beginning of that legal process.  The New York case and each of the other state and federal indictments into the the crimes of TRAITOR Trump must be carried out to their full logical and legal culminations and those culminations must result in his conviction, sentencing, and imprisonment for the many crimes he has committed at least since June 16, 2015, the day he made the asinine assumption  that he was fit to be the leader of the free world.  

This little book by Timothy Snyder provides a perfectly rational and logical blueprint for the country and each of its citizens to work diligently for all time to prevent the possibility that such a criminal and TRAITOR can ever again manage to be placed in a TREASONOUSLY obtained position of power in this country.  Chapter One, entitled "Do Not Obey In Advance" carries a warning rooted both in the Holocaust and rise of the Nazi party in Germany and in the proliferation of TRAITOR TRUMP and his cult.  The two movements are nearly identical in their lust for undeserved power and their willingness to destroy the countries in which they arose. The willingness of his cult of followers to "obey in advance" led to the insurrection and domestic terrorism of January 6th. The opening sentence in the book states that "Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given."  That sentence is absolutely true and also absolutely true of how Adolph Hitler rose to power and was nearly able to destroy the world. It is also true in a slightly less universal way of how the TRAITOR  Trump rose to power. His cult of followers freely followed him and his lies.  The US justice system initially ignored the many obvious signs that foreign meddling in the 2016 election led to the razor thin leads the votes showed in Michigan, Illinois, and Pennsylvania and that system freely allowed him to be installed in the White House despite those signs of vast criminal activity in the electoral process.  The Right Wing Radical Repugnicans nationwide freely allowed him to escape not one but two clearly justified impeachments.  And for eight years, a majority of the people of the United States have freely allowed him to escape criminal prosecution.  Those times ended on the day TRAITOR Trump was indicted in New York. Further indictments will come in the other cases. No longer must the people of the United States "freely" allow this TRAITOR to escape punishment. However, in America a majority of those who voted in both the 2016 and 2020 elections knew him for what he was, voted against him, fought him and his TREASONOUS ambitions diligently and tirelessly during the entire time he was able to live illegally in the White House based on his TREASON with Russia and Vladimir Putin's ability to steal an American election in the states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.  Without that diligent and tireless resistance, this country would have become another example of just how easy it is for a would be despot to seize power, overcome a resistant populace, and destroy a country.  

Timothy Snyder's little masterpiece of a book contains 19 other statements on which each chapter is based which are just as accurate about the rise of tyranny in susceptible populaces and destroy the nations in which they arise.  Buy "On Tyranny..." by Timothy Snyder!  Read and memorize all of its 126 incredibly important pages!  Live by the truths contained in those pages!  Do not stop fighting tirelessly to demand and ensure that TRAITOR Trump is held responsible for all his crimes against this country and its people!  Do not relax about the danger he presents until he dies in the federal prison cell which he has so richly deserved for his entire adult life!  

 

"Black Earth The Holocaust As History And Warning" by Timothy Snyder---Book Review

Ever since its release date of September 8, 2015, I had been seeing this book quoted in all sorts of legitimate writing both in the public media and in more academic articles about World War II, the Holocaust, genocide, and totalitarian governments.  I am always involved in reading, research, and writing about liberal issues, dystopian governments, totalitarian governments, etc. and became particularly involved in these issues with the tragic rise to prominence of the TRAITOR & International Terrorist Trump.  But I never ordered the book because my to be read list is always too long.  Then in October 2017 my wife, Candice, and I took a long vacation in the Desert Southwest.  On October 6, 2017, we happened to visit the El Paso Holocaust Museum which will receive a much deserved post on this blog sometime soon. When we completed out tour and went into the gift shop, the first thing to catch my eye was a copy of this book which I immediately bought.  I finally finished reading it a few weeks ago and should have done so before October 2017 had passed.  

Photo Of Timothy Snyder by The Book Haven

"Black Earth..." is a wonderful piece of historical writing by one of the true experts on the subjects of the Holocaust, World War II, and Eastern Europe.  Timothy Snyder has written a dozen or so books on a wide ranging list of subjects in at least four languages.  It is reported in the latest issue of "The Nation" that he has just released his latest book, "The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America". Mr. Snyder is a professor of history at Yale University and is said to be able to do research in at least eight languages.  To say the least, he is a prolific author, highly acclaimed professor, and prodigious researcher.  The worst thing I can say about "Black Earth..." or Mr. Snyder is that he writes like a Yale professor of history.  By that I mean that this is a complex, well researched, lengthy, and studious book.  But do not let that keep you from reading it.  The broad ranging analysis and statistical examination of the Holocaust, Hitler's ideas, and the execution of the war across all of Europe is highly educational and worthy of your time.  The last three chapters and the conclusion are the least amount of this book that anyone should allow themselves to skip by with reading.  On page 320 in the conclusion, Snyder writes "There is little reason to think that we are ethically superior to the Europeans of the 1930's and 1940's, or for that matter less vulnerable to the kind of ideas that Hitler so successfully promulgated and realized."  That statement is absolutely true about America today.  

We are seeing a time in our country where a usurper, TRAITOR, international terrorist, racist,  demagogue, and would be dictator has been allowed to conspire and commit TREASON with an enemy of America and is still tolerated by a significant portion of America and allowed to live inside the White House with the assistance of a Russian Owned Criminal Syndicate.  In early May, TRAITOR and international terrorist Trump stated that immigrants "...aren't people. These are animals."  Those very same words were spoken by his hero, Adolph Hitler about Jews before and during the Holocaust.  On several other occasions, TRAITOR and international terrorist Trump has used words written and spoken by Adolph Hitler.  His followers, just as Hitler's followers did, cheer him on during these occasions, defend his use of them afterwards, and base their own hate filled actions on such quotes and actions.  Timothy Snyder is dead center on target when he says that "...there is little reason to think we are ethically superior...".  It is my sincere hope and heartfelt suggestion that each of you who reads this book review will also read "Black Earth...", take the information and ideas it contains to heart, and take future actions to prevent the possibility that another Holocaust directed Muslims, Hispanics, immigrants, the poor, the elderly, and the young can arise in America.