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OPINION
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State moves in wrong direction on health card
BY J.D. HAYWORTH Glendale Star Columnist
When Dwight David Eisenhower said farewell to public life in January 1961, he noted the rise of the “conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry.”
Eisenhower warned the American people that “we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted infl uence, whether sought or unsought” by what he labeled “the military-industrial complex.”
While Ike’s historic description and warning endures, his farewell address sounded an additional cautionary note about another worrisome faction. Six decades later, that less-heralded admonition has proven remarkably prophetic.
“We must also be alert,” President Eisenhower said, to the “danger that public policy itself could become the captive of a scientifi c-technological elite.”
Two years after Dr. Anthony Fauci persuaded President Trump that our nation faced the prospect of a dangerous pandemic from COVID-19, it is painfully obvious that Ike’s concern of six decades ago became our own bitter reality. What began as “15 days to slow the spread” morphed into a much longer and sustained effort to establish “Fauci-ism.” As our nation’s highest-paid bureaucrat, with a salary of $417,608 in 2019, Fauci obviously believes that he should have power equaling the status of his paycheck. After all, he makes more than the president!
Outpacing that generous sum from the taxpayers is Dr. Fauci’s oversized ego, demonstrating the “fi ne for me but not for thee” inclinations of the Washington elite.
When challenged on his policies by other health experts, the frustrated Fauci channeled French King Louis XIV, attempting to shut down the essence of scientifi c inquiry, by claiming that “his” science alone was valid. “I represent science,” he boasted. (“L’Etat c’est moi,” anyone?)
Even before Dr. Fauci’s veracity began to unravel, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis cast a wide net in seeking advice on the public health measures that should be taken in his state.
Eisenhower’s assertion was the catalyst that prompted DeSantis to prioritize vaccinations and care for seniors, embrace innovative treatments such as the use of monoclonal antibodies, and reopen Florida for business and travel as well as public education. “The job of the statesman is not to subcontract out your policy to help bureaucrats,” he said. “The job of the statesman is to lead. … So many governors over the last two years would simply defer to help bureaucrats because it was a safe thing to do politically.”
Gov. Doug Ducey hasn’t always done the wise thing politically when it comes to combating COVID, and it appears he’s now poised to take the Grand Canyon State over the edge when it comes to individual rights and health records.
The business magazine “Forbes” recently featured this headline: “A National Vaccine Pass Has Quietly Rolled Out — And Red States Are Getting On Board.”
Arizona is among 21 states, along with D.C. and Puerto Rico, that offer the SMART Health Card, a verifi able digital proof of vaccination.
“Forbes” reports that “having digital access to personal health records empowers the individual,” and that’s why Arizona wants its residents to “get SMART.”
But instead of empowering individuals, the so-called SMART card puts more power in the hands of government, because it would allow government to control—and in some cases, deny— the freedom of travel to its citizens.
A “pass?” No.
In reality, a national vaccine passport.
Of course, Florida is not among the 21 states who want to use “SMART cards.”
Ducey, the Legislature, and other Arizona leaders should follow Florida’s example.
SMART cards are not “what the doctor ordered.”
Well, maybe one certain doctor.
J.D. Hayworth worked as a sportscaster at Channel 10, Phoenix, from 1987 until 1994 and represented Arizona in Congress from 1995-2007.
Neighbor’s suicide leaves regret, questions in its wake
BY DAVID LEIBOWITZ Glendale Star Columnist
The white house sits across the street from the window fronting my desk. Not much distinguishes the place from the rest of the block where I moved two weeks ago. Four orange trees, their trunks painted white, line the east edge of the driveway.
The side gate has a sign that reads “Beware of the Dog” in faded orange letters. On the porch sits a white pot sprouting a metal replica of a sunfl ower. The fl ower’s bright yellow adds a little cheer to the scene, but this is not that kind of story. I met the woman who owned the house once, a few days after I moved in. I was unloading the last of my boxes. She walked over from across the street and introduced herself as Linda. She looked to be approaching 80, and blunt in the way people of a certain age can pull off.
“It’s a nice street,” she assured me, with a hard glance that seemed to suggest I had better keep it that way. I learned Linda had lived in the small white house for decades, beside Carolyn, her best friend and forever neighbor. There was rarely traffi c on the block. Dogs barked on occasion. I told her my name. Then my phone rang. It was a work call I needed to take.
We said goodbyes and I thought nothing more of it for a few days, when I came home to a street full of police cars and an ambulance. The low white house had police crime scene tape blocking the driveway. Offi cers milled about. Carolyn, the forever neighbor, sat on her porch talking into her phone. I could see her shoulders heaving.
The sergeant running the scene met me in the street. He had little to say except there had been a death. Now a death investigation was happening. I asked whether there had been a crime. He said he didn’t think so, that it looked like an older woman, the home’s only occupant, had taken her own life. No, not with a gun. It appeared she had hanged herself.
“That’s sad,” was the best I could do. “Very sad,” he agreed. A thought oc-
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AROUND THE BLUHMIN’ TOWN Golden ideas on how to avoid the gas crisis
BY JUDY BLUHM Glendale Star Columnist
Have you been taking many road trips lately? Hmm. Maybe not. Now that gasoline is around $4 a gallon, it appears we’re all trying to fi nd ways to drive less.
Some gloomy TV news commentator had the nerve to suggest that we’ll be paying $5 a gallon by summer! I’m sick of hearing how the price of petro in Europe is expensive, but no one seems to complain like us Americans. We don’t live in little villages with trains running through town. Some of us drive in one year what a person in Europe will drive in their lifetime! We live in sprawling communities and have many places to go. Our lives take us down many roads (literally) and we seem to need at least two vehicles per family. Now we’re rethinking our overpriced gas-guzzling trucks and SUVs.
Yes, it’s the perfect time for drivers to think small, compact and maybe electric. I drove a Volkswagen Beetle when I was in my 20s, and I think I’d faint if I had to get behind the wheel of such a little car. Going back to “tiny” is a pretty hard stretch. Besides, we love carrying “out stuff” around in our vehicles. Tools, folders, fi les, boxes, sporting equipment, doggy cushions, child seats, are only a few of “things” that we love to keep in our cars — not to mention the kids and pets!
I heard a politician point a fi nger into a news camera and say, “Americans should just be happy.” Hey, I take issue with that statement. How could anyone be happy when you know that today, tomorrow or the day after you’re going to get robbed at the gasoline pumps! If you are ever bored, dear readers, go to any gas station and look at the facial expressions of the poor, hapless, folks as they swipe their credit cards and watch, with glassy-eyed horror as the numbers keep rising. It’s pretty interesting (sad) to see how people are coping.
My grandson pays about $120 to fi ll up his truck. This is not a “happy” situation. I did notice that he purchased a bicycle a few weeks ago, which he claims is part of a fi tness program and has nothing to do with a gas-hog of a truck. I expect I’ll be riding my horses to a few more places. Perhaps we need to install some hitching posts at our local shops and restaurants.
But why get in a bad mood about gas prices? It’s obviously out of our control. I try to put everything into perspective. The value of our homes has skyrocketed, jobs are plentiful, incomes have increased, and people are out and about post-COVID-19, spending money and enjoying life. It’s all good! But then I fi ll up my SUV and head to the grocery store and my mood begins to shift. I have started drinking a high-octane beverage, which is the only high octane I can afford.
On a positive note, there is a jeweler in Phoenix that is exchanging gold jewelry for gasoline cards. Gold for gas? Sounds like a “golden” idea.
Judy Bluhm is a writer and a local Realtor. Have a comment or a story? Email her at judy@judybluhm.com.
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LEIBOWITZ FROM PAGE 8 curred to me: “I guess she might have been lonely.”
A couple of visitors have come and gone from the house since that afternoon, and I have looked for excuses to bump into Carolyn from the house next door, to ask if there’s anything I can do. Each morning, I glance through the obituaries, to see if there might be more to Linda’s life — loved ones left behind, a memorial service scheduled, a charity where one might pay tribute.
Possibly, that’s the reporter in me, wanting to know “the rest of the story,” as Paul Harvey used to say. But more likely, it’s the human being in me, the new neighbor who wishes he hadn’t answered his phone, who regrets not being warmer, who wonders how he might have made some small difference.
This is magical thinking, I suppose. The world may feel small today, with everyone in each other’s business on Facebook, on Twitter, online, but the truth is, we have never been more isolated.
Buried under the outward self we show the world, the #blessings and proclamations of gratitude, each of us has endless hidden nuances, stories we take pains to keep locked away.
Now I write a story about a neighbor no longer here to read it, while I stare at the house she left vacant and wonder what happened behind those closed curtains, that front door with the iron security grate.
So it goes. We are here until we’re not, and sometimes we take the rest of the story with us.
David Leibowitz has called the Valley home since 1995. Contact david@leibowitzsolo.com.
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