Richard Carmona versus the Bush administration: A study in contrasts
By Max J. Castro
majcastro@gmail.com
One thing is clear upon reading the official biography of Dr. Richard H. Carmona, George W. Bush’s former Surgeon General (2002-2006) who blasted the administration in testimony before Congress last week for undermining his work and silencing his voice. Richard Carmona is everything Bush is not.
Unlike Bush, who was born to privilege, Richard Carmona is a self-made man. Of Puerto Rican descent, Carmona grew up in New York City’s tough Spanish Harlem. He dropped out of high school and enlisted in the Army at the height of the Vietnam War.
In contrast to Bush, who attended prep school, Carmona completed his secondary education in a less elitist institution. The future Surgeon General attained an Army General Equivalency Diploma while in the military.
Carmona did not attend Yale and Harvard, as did Bush. But he was a better student and made good use of the education he did receive. After leaving active duty, Carmona earned an associate of arts degree at Bronx Community College, of the City University of New York. In 1977, he went on to receive a bachelor of science from the University of California, San Francisco. Only two years later came his medical degree from the same institution.
By Max J. Castro Read spanish version
majcastro@gmail.com
One thing is clear upon reading the official biography of Dr. Richard H. Carmona, George W. Bush’s former Surgeon General (2002-2006) who blasted the administration in testimony before Congress last week for undermining his work and silencing his voice. Richard Carmona is everything Bush is not.
Unlike Bush, who was born to privilege, Richard Carmona is a self-made man. Of Puerto Rican descent, Carmona grew up in New York City’s tough Spanish Harlem. He dropped out of high school and enlisted in the Army at the height of the Vietnam War.
In contrast to Bush, who attended prep school, Carmona completed his secondary education in a less elitist institution. The future Surgeon General attained an Army General Equivalency Diploma while in the military.
Carmona did not attend Yale and Harvard, as did Bush. But he was a better student and made good use of the education he did receive. After leaving active duty, Carmona earned an associate of arts degree at Bronx Community College, of the City University of New York. In 1977, he went on to receive a bachelor of science from the University of California, San Francisco. Only two years later came his medical degree from the same institution. On that occasion, Carmona was awarded the gold headed cane as the top graduate in the class of 1979. Next he completed a residency in surgery. In 1998, he received a master’s of public health at the University of Arizona. Carmona is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons (FACS).
Unlike Bush, who talks tough, urged Iraqi insurgents to “bring it on,” and dressed up in an Air Force flight suit for a photo opportunity where he famously declared “Mission Accomplished” in Iraq, Carmona is the real thing. Bush, a fervent supporter of the Vietnam War, seems to have done anything possible to avoid ever being in harm’s way. Carmona is an authentic military hero and a genuine tough guy. He served in the Special Forces in Vietnam and earned two Purple Hearts. According to his biography, “he has also served as a medical director of police and fire departments and is a fully-qualified peace officer with expertise in special operations and emergency preparedness, including weapons of mass destruction.”
What is perhaps most important is that, unlike George W. Bush, Richard Carmona is a man who values science, knowledge, truth, and the health and well-being of the American people over religious zealotry, political ideology, partisan spin, and the interests of business and the rich.
It seems inevitable that someone with the qualities and background of Richard Carmona would have a hard time fitting in with this administration. And so he did, as revealed in stunning testimony before a Congressional committee last week.
Carmona told Congress how, among other things, the administration delayed a Surgeon General’s report on the dangers of second-hand smoking and torpedoed a study of the physical and mental health of the massive U.S. prison population.
But that’s not all. One would think that if someone had earned the right to speak and to receive due respect for his achievements and service to the nation, it would be Richard Carmona. But that is not the way it works in this administration.
Under Bush, the honorable and accomplished are overseen by right-wing political operatives. Thus, not only did the administration withhold vital health information from the American people, it also subjected the Surgeon General to the humiliation of having his speeches censored in order to prevent him from speaking the truth on subjects such as stem cell research and the ineffectiveness of the abstinence-only sex education programs favored by the Bush administration and its fanatical fundamentalist base. Political handlers went so far as telling Carmona that he should mention President Bush three times in every page of his speeches!
On the topic of stem cell research, the administration not only forbade Carmona from expressing his views; he was even prevented from speaking publicly about the science that underlies research on the subject in order to afford Americans a better understanding of a complex issue. "I was blocked at every turn. I was told the decision had already been made — stand down, don't talk about it," Carmona testified.
What it all adds up to, Carmona said, is that “anything that doesn't fit into the political appointees' ideological, theological or political agenda is ignored, marginalized or simply buried… The problem with this approach,” Carmona stated, “is that in public health, as in a democracy, there is nothing worse than ignoring science, or marginalizing the voice of science for reasons driven by changing political winds. The job of surgeon general is to be the doctor of the nation, not the doctor of a political party."
If the United States is a great civilization, as Samuel Huntington, among others asserts, then science is surely one of its hallmarks. American foreign policy today may be arrogant, imperialistic, and self-serving. The history of U.S. treatment of its minorities, from Native Americans to Blacks to Japanese Americans, is not a proud chapter in the nation’s history. Our current arrangements for caring for the most vulnerable in our society are the most miserly in the developed word. But who can argue that American achievements in science and medicine represent a signal contribution to the well-being of the human species?
It’s no wonder that this administration did everything in its power to neutralize and embarrass Richard Carmona. It is the genius of George W. Bush that he has subverted all that is great in this country, from science to public education to civil liberties to the independence of the judiciary, and promoted the most deplorable aspects of American civilization: imperial hubris, robber baron ideology, moralistic intolerance, and racial hierarchy.
