Kentucky Hospitals Likely To Close And Counties Without A Hospital In That Event!

Over the last few weeks, we have all heard a lot in the news media about how TRAITOR Trump's "Big, Vicious, Ugly Bill" will do myriad kinds of harm to America, especially to rural America, the lower and middle classes, hospitals, education, health care in general, vaccines and vaccine production, Medicaid, Medicare, WIC, SNAP or Food Stamps, agriculture, food safety, airline safety, the arts and sciences, and several other critical aspects of life in America. It will also add about 4 TRILLION DOLLARS to the budget deficit, and all of this damage is being done to provide vast unnecessary tax cuts to the rich, super rich, and corporations. Every word you have heard about the upcoming damage is true! The damage is intentional, purposeful, and will cost thousands of lives across this country in addition to the vast economic damage it will do. But in this blog post, I just want to address one aspect of that damage, the damage to hospitals and health care in Kentucky. Every legitimate news agency and policy analysis corporation is telling us the same thing. If the proposed cuts to Medicaid are approved (and it appears they almost certainly will be approved) thousands of hospitals, especially rural hospitals will be forced to close due to lack of income. Hundreds of thousands of the poorest, and often sickest Americans will lose their access to health care, and thousands of those people will die along with the hospitals which have been serving them. According to the Kentucky Center For Economic Policy, there are 35 hospitals in Kentucky which are likely to close on that list of hospitals. Since I first heard that dire forecast, I have been studying the issue both on my own and in consulations with others who understand the issues and politics involved. Two of the people I have discussed this with in depth are a retired attorney who spent her career in Eastern Kentucky and comes from a very politically centered family, and a retired nurse who spent her career working in one of the poorest counties in the state which does not have a hospital at this time to lose. We all agree that there are a vast number of issues that would arise for Kentucky and the nation if this Big, Vicious, Ugly Bill" becomes law. My reading of the article which I supplied the link to above shows me that the majority of the 35 hospitals in Kentucky which can be expected to be starved out if Medicaid is cut are in Eastern Kentucky. Although I generally think of I-65 as being the border line between Eastern Kentucky and Western Kentucky, that is not absolutely accurate. We can also take the position that I-75 is the border between the two. But for the sake of somewhat original thinking on that issue, let's say that the border is an extension of the line created by the border between Ohio and Indiana. If we go to that point on the Kentucky border with Indiana and Ohio and draw a straight line from there due south to the Tennessee border, it is as good a candidate for the border between Eastern Kentucky and Western Kentucky as any other. The image below is of that map showing the locations of the endangered hospitals in Kentucky from the linked story by the Kentucky Center For Economic Policy. If you use that imaginary line from the KY/IN/OH intersection, you will find that only 12 of the endangered hospitals are west of that line. East of the line are the 23 remaining hospitals which are most likely to close due to the loss of Medicaid funding created by the "Big, Vicious, Ugly Bill". God Help Us In Eastern Kentucky If That Happens!

The counties in this list will all be without a hospital in the event Medicaid funding is cut as designed in the "Big Ugly, Vicious Bill" They are Letcher, Knott, Floyd, Martin, Lawrence, Elliott, Carter, Rowan, Greenup, Lewis, Breathitt, Jackson, Lee, Owsley, Rowan, Rockcastle, Montgomery, Powell, Clark, Clay Fleming, These counties are contiguous and constitute a vast block of real estate in Eastern Kentucky which would have no local hospital. Patients in these counties would have no readily available emergency rooms, ICU's, maternity wards, or other services which require a hospital setting. To illustrate just how bizarre this possibility is let's look at some geographic possibilities which would be created. It would be possible to travel by car from Jenkins on the Virginia border to Vanceburg on the Ohio border without ever driving through a county with a hospital. It would also be possible to drive by car from Mount Vernon in Rockcastle County to Greenup in Greenup County without passing through a county with a local hospital. In addition to the loss of these hospitals, the job losses would be catastrophic in a region which is already economically distressed. Nearly all the prescribing professionals (M.D.'s, APRN's, PA's) would be highly likely to leave the region, perhaps even the state. Additionally, thousands of licensed providers such as imaging professionals, Registered Nurses, Licensed Practical Nurses, Certified Nursing Assistants, and a few other professions would be forced to leave the region in order to find work. There would also be hundreds to several thousand unemployed food service workers, housekeeping workers, maintenance workers, clerks, bookkeepers, and security professionals. Yes, there are a couple of hospitals which might survive such as those in Pike and Perry Counties but those two counties are on the Virginia and West Virginia borders and the drive for many patients would be just too far, too expensive, too time consuming, and thousands of low income patients would be likely to not receive regular ongoing health care. One hospital not on the list in Johnson County would suddenly be the primary source of care for Lawrence, Martin, Floyd, Magoffin, and Elliott counties due to the closure of the one hospital in Lawrence County and all three in Floyd County. In legitimate emergencies and accidents, the concept of The Golden Hour for transport to an emergency room would no longer exist. Distances would be too great in many cases for an ambulance crew to assess, transport, and facilitate admission to a hospital for many critical patients in a timely, life saving manner. EMT's and other emergency responders would suddenly be traveling far from their primary service area and their numbers would, at present levels, be too small to provide both the added transport and provide the current level of services in their primary area of responsibility.

The Big, Vicious, Ugly Bill is a disaster in the making for Kentucky and many other states where multiple hospitals will be lost. The damage of this bill is deliberately designed to minimize the poor of this region and several others, to deny them medical services as are customary in a real Democracy. It is intentional! It is criminal! It must not be allowed to take place. This bill must not be approved.

"The Diving Bell And The Butterfly" by Jean-Dominique Bauby

 

My wife Candice and I just finished reading this fine little book by Jean-Dominique Bauby in the manner in which we have been reading books regularly for several years now.  While Candice washes our breakfast dishes, I read aloud from whatever book we are reading at the time.  When she finishes washing the dishes, I stop reading and rinse them.  I put them away later.  We alternate who chooses the next book we read, and this one was her choice.  Our previous book which I chose was "Band Of Angels", a novel by Robert Penn Warren which I wrote about at this link.  For us, this book is personal.  Bauby was the editor of "Elle", the French fashion magazine, when he suddenly, and apparently without any warning, suffered a severe stroke in his early forties which left him with "Locked In Syndrome".  Locked In Syndrome is a condition due to a stroke or other form of brain damage which leaves the patient completely paralyzed, unable to move or speak, and without any realistic hope of recovery.  Usually, the patients mind is working perfectly well inside a completely dysfunctional body.  Sometimes, as in Bauby's case, the patient is able to blink one or both eyes which is utilized to facilitate a form of communication.  Bauby, his friends, family, and providers were trained to use an alphabet system with the letters of the alphabet arranged in order according to their frequency of use in French, his native language.  The person communicating with such a patient is required to read the letters one at a time, wait until the patient blinks in response to a letter, write that letter down, and repeat the process until a word is spelled.  Then a sentence, and thus a conversation.  Bauby and a young female employee of his publisher utilized the system for him to write this book which is, understandably, only 132 short pages of about 175 words each for a total of approximately 23,000 words. Admittedly, that is a small word total for most adult non-fiction books.  But for a book which was produced using the method described above, it is a phenomenal piece of work for both Bauby and his publisher's employee.  

 

For my wife and I, the book is a personal matter for two reasons: 1) my wife has been in a wheelchair for about 26 years, and in a power chair for about 5 years due to a rare genetic disorder; 2) when I was an undergraduate at Morehead State University, I had a professor whose husband, a retired psychiatrist, suffered a massive stroke which left him with "Locked In Syndrome".  On one occasion, my former professor told me the story of her husband's stroke and eventual death.  They utilized some such system of eye blinking to discuss his condition, absolutely devastating prognosis, and their possible options in the matter.  Admittedly, they were a couple who were unusually prepared by their professional lives to deal with such an issue in their private lives.  Her husband was a retired medical doctor and psychiatrist who had run a large state operated mental health treatment system.  His wife was a doctoral level professor of social work who had also worked in mental health setting in the past.  But, as she told me the story, it was obvious that she was still totally devastated by the decision they had reached in his case.  They had discussed their problem and their options, as I described above, and her husband chose to be disconnected from life support and to die rather than to linger for whatever time the health care system could have kept him alive.  Admittedly, my wife and I have a very unique perspective from which to assess Bauby's incredible little book.  

 

The book is written in very short chapters, very little pages, and is an incredible read both for its brevity and its breadth in how much information it contains.  Bauby says little until almost the end of the book about the actual event of his stroke.  It moves from short segments about his life in a state government operated system for very difficult neurological cases in France to segments about his life before his stroke to other segments about how he spends his time when he is alone in his hospital bed.  He discusses his creation of fantasies about what had previously been his goals and dreams, his life with his young children and wife, and his professional life as the editor of a major French fashion magazine.  This is a book which a good reader can finish in a single sitting.  But it is also a book which can require some time between sittings for the reader to absorb and process the information it contains.  This is an incredible book and well worth reading by every reader  

Me And My Shirt Take Another Trip To The Big City!

 

On Thursday, October 3, 2024, my wife Candice and I took another trip to Lexington, Kentucky, for medical appointments and left early so we could eat at one of our favorite places and I could hike for an hour at the Lexington Arboretum which is one of my favorite places to get some exercise when I'm in the city.  It is also a place where Candice can find a nice shady spot to read while I put in my hiking time.  It is usually heavily used but has enough acreage that you never feel crowded by too many people since it is roughly 100 acres with some woodland, several miles of trails and one of the widest collections of plants in Kentucky.  It's also a nice place to passively advertise my politics by wearing a political shirt when I'm there.  Candice usually sets herself up in one of her favorite reading spots and I hit the trails.  

 

Thursday was a bit quieter in terms of how many notices I got about my Harris shirt.  One man who was either listening to some book or having a conversation on his cell phone simply passed me and gave me a thumbs up with a point to my shirt, patted himself on the chest, and gave me a thumbs up. Then we moved to the Kentucky Clinic where we had our appointments with my regular cardiologist.  As we were traveling from our parking space to the section of the hospital where our doctor's office is, a woman passed us and gave us a similar signal of approval to the one I had received at the Arboretum.  I have known my cardiologist about six years and he and I always have some brief conversation about politics and books.  Since he was seeing both of us at the same time, I knew we had to keep moving and had no intentions of trying to distract him with politics or literature.  But as our visit was ending, he brought up politics and referred to his children who are young adults and said "I think this time the young people are going to save us" in the election.  

 

Then as we headed toward an elevator to our parking spot, we entered the elevator at the same time as a man about fifty who instantly said, "I really like those shirts!" and then went into a rapid discussion of his opinion that the Democratic party has made a major mistake by allowing TRAITOR Trump to go unconfronted about his basic and total lack of qualifications to be a candidate for president due to his long history of criminal acts, criminal convictions, nearly one hundred felony indictments, more than 25 accusations of rape and sexual assault, and his connections to Putin and Russia.  I told the man that I agree with him totally about TRAITOR Trump's total lack of legitimacy as a candidate for any position of public trust, he got out of the elevator, and we all went our separate ways.  Then we drove to our favorite place for chicken wings, hit the drive through and got one more pleasant surprise.  When we got to the window for payment and food pick up, the man working that location was a former client from almost twenty-five years ago who told me his story of recent personal success after having been homeless, showed me his pickup truck in the parking lot, and assured me he was doing fine.  Now all we have to do is win this election for the next president of the United States, Kamala Harris.  Then we hit the Mountain Parkway toward home eating chicken wings and throwing bones out the window. 

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. 

My Baseball Cap & I Took My Wife On A Birthday Trip

 

Yesterday, March 27, was my wife's birthday and I also had an appointment for an annual follow up with a dermatologist in Lexington so we got up early; drove to Lexington; stopped for breakfast at McDonald's in Stanton, Kentucky, as we often do; went to my medical appointment; and then went to Richmond, Kentucky, for lunch at one of our favorite restaurants, Masala; and, then came back home by about 6pm.  To say the least, it was a long and interesting day.  When we got to McDonald's in Stanton, Candice waited in the van while I went inside to order our food and use the restroom as she usually does when we are on the road to further away.  My order took longer than usual and I struck up a conversation with a man who it happened was passing through on his way to Virginia from Michigan.  He was a self-employed African American man driving a truck and trailer doing contract hauling after having had an injury which now prevents him from doing self-employed lawn and tree work as he had previously.  I would say he was about 30-40, neatly dressed, clearly intelligent, and highly verbal.  We talked at first about our travels around North America and happened to leave the restaurant in the same direction across the parking lot.  During our walk, the subject of the recent accident at the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore came up and I said it appeared to me that the ship captain had done literally everything he could to mitigate the effects of the disaster.  At this point, my new acquaintance went into a repetition of some conspiracy theory he must have heard on a right wing radical "news" source that the captain was from outside the USA and the accident was terrorism.  I reminded him that the police agencies involved in the investigation had stated they had no reason to believe it was anything other than an accident.  Then as he was walking to his truck away from me in an adjacent parking lot, he informed me that he intended to vote for TRAITOR Trump and I said "I think you ought to go home and look in the mirror and ask yourself why you want to do that".  He replied "because I'm a Christian and I don't like homosexuals".  I suggested to him, as I always do to such people, that he follow a little reading assignment for self-professed "Christians" which I have written about on this blog previously.  We were both getting in our vehicles to leave and I never got to carry the conversation on any further.  But I did manage to suggest that he take out his Bible and a "Strong's Exhaustive Concordance" and read Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts followed by the first 12-14 chapters of Revelation and every time he encountered one of the directives for Christians in those books to ask himself if TRAITOR Trump had ever done any of those things which is the gist of the reading assignment.   I never got his name and he never got mine but if he actually follows that reading assignment I believe he would realize he is dead wrong to support TRAITOR Trump. 

 

 

 

 

I always carry a book with me when I am headed into situations where I am likely to need to wait for any serious time length and I happened to be reading "Enough" by Cassidy Hutchinson and wearing the baseball cap in the photo at the top of this blog post which I have written about previously on this blog.  As I usually do in a medical exam room, I placed my book with the spine turned toward the area the doctor will occupy and, in this case, I also placed my baseball cap on top of the book.  On at least two other such occasions, I have gotten into some very positive conversations with a surgeon and a cardiologist whom I also see once a year.  In those two instances, I was reading "The Room Where It Happened" by John Bolton just prior to the 2020 presidential election.  Yesterday, when the doctor came into the room, she noticed the cap and book and said, "Making America Great Again reminds me of Trump.  Who is Jack Smith?"  I said, "Special Prosecutor" and she actually asked "Is he on Trump's side?" and I explained who Jack Smith is and went on to say, as I often do to supporters of TRAITOR Trump that "If he doesn't die in a federal prison cell, it will be the greatest miscarriage of justice in the history of the world."  She seemed a bit surprised by that statement and, in the interest of keeping the conversation brief in support of her busy schedule I just went on to say, "Trump's a TRAITOR.  When you step into public beside Putin and deny evidence from all 17 US intelligence agencies, you are a TRAITOR."  I don't think any of it did a thing to change her mind and I firmly believe she is a TRAITOR Trump supporter.  What is sad about that is that this woman is a doctor who spent her internship at the Mayo Clinic, owns a fairly large private practice, and was forced to relocate that practice to a less expensive setting during the Covid pandemic.  I did not attempt to take the time to ask her anything about her opinion of the unmitigated disaster which TRAITOR Trump created by denying the seriousness of Covid and doing nothing about it in early 2020 after he was told by the US intelligence and scientific communities that Covid was coming and could destroy the country.  I also have never told her that I have spent many days at the National Institutes of Health during the 1990's and am not naive about science or medicine.  I am not scheduled to see her again for two years but I suspect I will have that conversation with her the next time I see her no matter when it is and no matter what the further outcomes of TRAITOR Trump's TREASON prove to be.  I sincerely hope by the next time I see this woman that he is actually in federal prison on his well deserved life sentence and I can look at her and say "I told you so!"  

 

 

We left the medical appointment and drove to Masala in Richmond which is a fine Indian Restaurant and celebrated Candice's birthday.  She created her own version of an Indian buffet at our table by ordering several of her favorite items from their menu.  Then we left the restaurant and drove to Natural Bridge State Park where I hiked for an hour before coming the rest of the way home.  I have also written about several state parks on this blog in the past but somehow have neglected writing about Natural Bridge and one of my favorite hiking trails.  

 

 

 

My final thoughts about yesterdays trip are 1) that I will always continue to confront the ignorance in anyone which allows them to support TRAITOR Trump despite his obvious damage to this country; 2) I will always attempt to engage medical providers and other educated people in political conversations; 3) it is the most important election in American History this year and President Biden must be reelected if Democracy is to survive in America;  4) TRAITOR Trump must be convicted in his criminal trials and must be sentenced to life in federal prison for his TREASON.  

Some Appalachian Wisdom About Health Care

When I was growing up on Right Beaver Creek in Knott County Kentucky, there were two relatively easy options for my parents when simple childhood illnesses were involved.  There were two doctors in private practice a few miles away in Floyd County just down Beaver Creek.  One of those doctors was Mark Dempsey, M.D. who practiced until he was nearly ninety and died on June 5, 1966, in my teenage years.  Most children hated to go to see him but I am sure his medicine was just as effective and safe as that being practiced by anyone else in the area at the time.  But his manner was brusque and abrupt.  He was still using reusable syringes and needles which he sterilized in an autoclave. We children often accused him of "not sharpening his needles".  His wife, Lilly Elswick Dempsey, was his assistant although I have never been told that she was a nurse.  He had begun his practice in Floyd County as a company doctor for the Elkhorn Coal Company after moving from his native Logan County West Virginia, and was a cousin of the prize fighter, Jack Dempsey, although he never made any effort to gain advantages from the relationship.  He was in all ways a native Appalachian male who had grown up relatively poor and done well based on hard work.  His office was in an old building between the railroad and creek in Garrett, KY, a typical Eastern Kentucky coal mine town. His office also served as his home and after his death it lived a second life as a produce market.  The office area was cluttered, cramped, and loaded from wall to wall, corner to corner, and floor to ceiling with pill bottles, medical instruments, log books, medical books, and all the tools of a country doctor's trade along with some odds and ends of his every day life. 

Dr. Mark Dempsey at work.  Photo by The Floyd News

Recently, Dr. Dempsey crossed my mind and I did a Google Search of his name and found a most interesting and timely newspaper article about him from about 1964 shortly before his death.  I was astounded at what I learned about the old country doctor I had never wanted to visit when I was a sick child.  After reading the article, originally published in a now defunct newspaper called The Floyd News, I found myself wishing I had been smart enough to learn at his feet while he was alive and working.  The article listed a few examples of the medical, social, and political philosophies of Dr. Dempsey which are just as worthwhile and necessary today as they were in the late 1960's when he was originally interviewed. The most timely and pertinent of the remarks from Dr. Dempsey was the following:

1) "All people should have free health care." This remark should be ringing from the mouths of every  health care provider and politician in our country today at this time when the TRAITOR Donald Trump is attempting to destroy the best health care coverage plan ever concocted in an industrialized nation.  Dr. Dempsey's name should be lauded in every public health care forum in Appalachia and the entire country today. Dr. Mark Dempsey should become one of the faces of the ongoing battle to save American health care for all future generations.  The Dempsey newspaper article was written when future American President Barack Obama was about five years old and I am certain that it contained nothing that Dr. Mark Dempsey had not been telling his patients, friends, and professional associates for forty years before that date. The words "all people should have free health care" are just as relevant today as they were when Dr. Mark Dempsey was born on the banks of the Guyandotte River more than a hundred years ago.

 2) "Every man, regardless of who he is, should be trained to do skilled work." In light of the refusals by the Right Wing Radical Repugnican Party to support free associate degrees for all citizens except in the state of Tennessee, as espoused by Hillary Clinton, this idea should also be a key plank in the basic political platform of the country.  Nearly every other so-called civilized country in the world has advanced ahead of the United States in the percentages of high school graduates, college graduates, and recipients of advanced degrees of all kinds.  We are rapidly deteriorating into a Third World Country educationally and the TRAITOR Donald Trump has placed a billionaire idiot whose family constructed the largest pyramid scheme in the history of the country, in charge of the US Department of Education in an attempt to destroy public education and divert federal funds from the Department of Education into right wing radically oriented charter schools, most of which would have a religious bent, in a clear violation of the separation of church and state. This brief piece of wisdom from Dr. Mark Dempsey could go a long way toward rescuing America from our slow slide into international mediocrity.  If every American citizen with sufficient intelligence to pass the educational or training program of their desires could be guaranteed a vocational or college degree, we would soon be a stronger, better country with a vastly improved national gross product, national domestic product, higher median income, a larger and stronger national tax base, lower unemployment rates, and a much solider place in international competitions of productivity.  Dr. Mark Dempsey had grown up in Logan County West Virginia as the coal boom was transforming Appalachia and the Logan County Mine Wars, the Battle Of Blair Mountain, and the murder of dozens of union members, union organizers, and suspected union sympathizers were being carried out on the orders of the murderous sheriff Don Chafin and the Logan County Coal operators.  Dr. Dempsey had seen just how cheaply American corporations in the early twentieth century valued their employees.  During his childhood in Logan County, Dr. Mark Dempsey was exposed to a world in which a bank mule was considered more valuable than a man.  Logan County coal operators were notorious for saying that "you have to buy a mule but you can always hire another man".  Living in this environment, as a child with enough intelligence to complete medical school, there can be little doubt that Dr. Mark Dempsey realized many truths about the strained relationship between industry and labor and came to believe as he did that men should be trained to work to the best of their ability for the greater good of the country. 

3) "He is an avowed enemy of totalitarianism of communism, Hitlerism or any enforced subjugation of individual rights-but he can point out inequalities existing  in our system of government which might be corrected, he has said  through courageous and  honest  leadership"  Even though Dr. Mark Dempsey gave the Floyd News that interview more than fifty years ago, these words of his ring just as true today as they did then.  TRAITOR Trump, in subjugation to and cooperation with Vladimir Putin, has placed the United States in the greatest peril it has ever faced.  TRAITOR Trump seeks to inflict "subjugation of individual rights" on nearly every citizen of the country by virtue of destroying every public service program and agency instituted over the last seventy years. TRAITOR Trump has illegally and unconstitutionally authorized the arrest of the free press on several occasions in his ongoing effort to destroy the free press which exposes his crimes.  TRAITOR Trump has spoken out against having numerous services available to citizens such as National Public Radio and Public Television, the National Endowment For The Arts, the National Endowment For The Humanities, all of which lead to a better educated, more intelligent, more literate, and more verbal populace.  Dr. Mark Dempsey was a prescient and clairvoyant man in the late 1960's. Every citizen of America should be reading, defending, repeating, and supporting his ideas today all across Appalachia and America.  Every citizen should be standing up, in honor of Dr. Mark Dempsey, to defend the sacred values, Constitution, and Bill Of Rights of the United States.

Dr. Mark Dempsey & Mrs. Lilly Elswick Dempsey--Photo by the Dempsey Family

Later in the article from the Floyd News, Dr. Dempsey and the writer, Qaentin Allen, wrap up much of the doctor's  belief structure in the following quote:

"When you meet [him] the man  is ready to talk of the people's  need to. become whole and become as citizens of this country. The doctor fears that his views may be misinterpreted. He is an avowed enemy of totalitarianism of communism, Hitlerism or any enforced subjugation of individual rights-but he can point out inequalities existing  in our system of government which might be corrected, he has said  through courageous and  honest  leadership. All classes of people regardless of who they are, should be trained to do skilled work and be disease free. Our government seems to to take the attitude that, If you can't do something for yourself then it won't be done. One man can't shoot a rocket to the moon. It takes the experts, the specialists. It takes the collective effort on the part of the people through the government.
One person can't give an education to eliminate the illiteracy and the disease of our people. Only the government and the scientists and the experts can do this."
"I have practiced medicine in more rich and poor homes than any other doctor in Eastern Kentucky. I have practiced among the Negro, the Jew, the Italian, the Indian. They are all the same. The Negroes treated me better than anyone has ever treated me. The people in the lower economic class are being neglected. "The experts should treat them. They should be free of disease, should have free medical service as they do in Great Britain or Russia."
"No. I am not a Communist." But how do we hope to compete with Russia? How do we compete with Russia when we have much ignorance and illiteracy? You find ignorance worse in the city than you do in the country."

Dr. Mark Dempsey Photo By Floyd News

That quotation about "courageous leadership" is just as relevant today as any word that Dr. Mark Dempsey ever spoke in his life of nearly a hundred years in the coal fields of Appalachia.  A lack of courageous leadership in most of the elected offices in this country has allowed a Russian TRAITOR and idiot to assume illegal control of the White House with the assistance of Vladimir Putin.  Dr. Mark Dempsey must be spinning in his grave today if he is cognizant of the political terrorism which is being forced on the American citizenry, the free press, the education system, the social welfare system, and environmental protections. The greatest public health insurance system ever devised in an industrialized nation is under attack from TRAITORS, criminals, corporations, and idiots in order to save billions of dollars for American corporations.  Every voter in America should be speaking up, speaking out, and defending the real American values which are being destroyed every time a baby is born dead because of lack of prenatal care, every time a bright student drops out of school because of a lack of funding, every time an elderly person fails to seek treatment because they are afraid of not having enough money, every time another environmental disaster takes place without repercussions, and every time a TRAITOR illegally occupies the White House and pretends to be qualified to do the job of the President Of The United States because the President Of Russia stole an American election.

Dr. Mark Dempsey with a child

Dr. Mark Dempsey In His Office--Photo by The Floyd County Times, Jan. 9,1966

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