Do people really think this way? ... Really? 

I’ve told you before how much I enjoy the letters-to-the-editor of The Naples Daily News.  I truly sit there some days and say to myself “No way.  This had to be made up.  Nobody really thinks this way.” 

But apparently some do.  Though I was still out of town I was reading last Friday’s letters on line … and came upon some real gems.  I knew I would just have to share them with you.  Here … I’ve provided a link.  You can read them for yourself in these  letters to the editor of the Naples Daily News. 

This first letter was from a Naples area physician.  I don’t want to name him.  He could be the attending physician if I’m ever hauled into the ER because some 85 year-old bluehair turns left in front of my motorcycle.  If it means that much to you his name is attached to his letter on line.   I’ll just call him Dr. Who. 

This doctor wrote a letter complaining about the amount of money the CEO of the American Red Cross makes.  I suppose if Dr. Who is upset about Gail McGovern’s salary, he can just decline to make any contributions to the Red Cross.   Everyone in the giving mood can visit Charity Navigator to review the numbers of most major charities and make their own philanthropic decisions. 

Here, though, is something in Dr. Who’s letter that threw me for a loop.  I had to read it and read it again to see if this doctor really wrote what I thought he wrote.  Yup!  Apparently he did.  Here are two sentences from his letter – a letter from a physician, mind you -- to the Naples Daily News: 

However, a person of comparable importance, who supervises the lives of 312,095,503 persons and receives an annual salary of $400,000, certainly deserves comment. Of course, I am referring to our president. His efforts are certainly as time-consuming as those of CEO McGovern.

Did you catch it?  Read it twice and it literally jumps off the screen and slaps you about the head and shoulders.  This physician – this man with somewhere around seven or eight years of education after getting his undergraduate degree – this man thinks that it is the job of the president of the United State to SUPERVISE our lives!  Now I could address this doctor’s suggestion that pay ought to be based on the amount of time your job consumes; and then I could ask him if he pays a nurse who spends as much time on the job as he does a commensurate salary.  He might then start sputtering about job skills and ability, at which point I would point out to him that the CEO of the American Red Cross certainly had more job experience to qualify her for that job than our community organizer had to qualify for his. 

But why waste time on such obvious logical fallacies in his letter.  It’s the SUPERVISE word we should be paying attention to.  This learned man (and he might well be a very good doctor indeed) actually believes that all 312,095,503 of us ought to or already have turned the supervision of our lives over to Barack Obama!  Over to the government!  Is it any wonder that our country is in decline?

A question for the good doctor:  Would you turn the supervision of your medical practice over to Obama?  No?  You wouldn’t?  Well that’s would be a good decision, doctor.  Lord knows I wouldn’t want to go to a doctor who has turned his practice over to Obama.  So tell me, why would you then allow this incompetent to supervise your very life?  I wouldn’t let Obama supervise someone washing my car.  Really, Doctor; have you instructed your children to turn supervisory control of their lives over to our Dear Ruler? 

But wait! (As they say) There’s more!

Later in his letter Dr. Who suggests that maybe the Red Cross CEO should just work for free:  “I would hold the Red Cross CEO in higher esteem if he/she would emulate Fresno (Calif.) County School Superintendent Larry Powell, who is giving back $800,000 in salary which he would have received over the next three years.”  Well Isn’t that special.  Work for free and you’re a worthy American, deserving of Doctor Who’s esteem.  Get paid what very well may be market value for your abilities and you are to be an object of derision.  Frankly I would have more respect for this doctor if he would stop charging his patients for his medical services.  Then we could just call him Dr. Esteem. 

My God, man!  I surely hope you put more thought into medical diagnosis than you do to writing a letter to your local newspaper.