Volunteers, Samaritans, Philanderers

THUMBS UP TO:
The volunteers at the RAM clinic

Nothing truly is free – not even the health care provided to thousands in Wise County today as part of the Remote Area Medical Clinic. The chief cost of this massive community-service effort is the blood, sweat and, yes, sometimes even tears, of hundreds of volunteers and from those who are turned away. Second to that is the thousands of dollars worth of medical and dental supplies, food and water, and even books and school supplies donated to those seeking care at the annual three-day event. In 2008, the clinic served 2,670 people through the efforts of 1,584 volunteers, providing more than $1.7 million worth of care without charge to the patients.

Both supplies and volunteers arrive from a broad spectrum of places and organizations that mobilize on a scale similar to relief efforts dispatched for natural disasters.

Mobilizing for the social calamity that is so many without access to basic health care is no less a herculean feat – and the men and women who make it happen – from the volunteers filling water cups to the physicians excising infected wounds and prescribing cancer treatments – deserve unyielding thanks and praise.

A pair of brotherswho put others first

They were off the clock, but not off duty.

Brothers and firefighters John and Joel Rechlitz received national attention this week for saving a 4-year-old Kingsport boy after his family’s car burst into flames in a Milwaukee neighborhood. Both of the firefighters suffered burns themselves, but without their selfless actions, the Harper family of four would be mourning a loss rather than son D.J.’s injuries. Despite serious burns, the toddler is expected to recover with extended treatment.

Because two men put their own safety at risk, that little boy will be smiling at his mother for years to come.

Granted, John and Joel Rechlitz have been trained to act just as they did when their wives told them a young boy was trapped in a burning car. Yet it takes an enormity of human spirit and courage – something not all of us possess – to walk into the flames.

THUMBS DOWN TO:
Politicians who fail in marital commitments

Tennesseans quite unfortunately have joined a growing list of political constituencies shaking their collective heads over the extra-marital affairs of men they’ve chosen to represent them.

State Sen. Paul Stanley, R-Germantown, did the right thing by reporting to authorities a would-be extortionist regarding his personal indiscretion. The man wanted $10,000 in exchange for a computer disk of explicit photos of Stanley with a legislative intern. But the undeniable heart of the matter lies in Stanley’s own personal failure – just as it has for dozens of politicians before him.

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, former Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and yes, even former President Bill Clinton at one point or another have admitted – or been forced to admit – to extra-marital affairs.

Argue the semantics of cheating if you want, or even what marriage means in a modern world. Those arguments tarnish quickly against the simple fact that those politicians reneged on the one promise that should never have been broken.