CUSTOM COMPUTING 6815 DICKINSON COURT TAMPA FLORIDA 33634-4707 CIS: 71327,1251 Mon 08-30-1993 Here are some more facts about Dr. Joycelyn Elders, Clinton's nominee for Surgeon General. Previous posts chronicling her past statements can be found here in ELDERS.TXT and ELDER2.TXT. We believe she is not morally fit to hold the highest medical office in the United States. More importantly, we believe his nomination of Elders is just one more example of Bill Clinton's moral fitness to be the President. We've said it before, and we'll say it again, "This man is totally devoid of any morals." Just look at the people with whom he has surrounded himself and the issues that he deemed to be the ones with which he must FIRST deal: Gays in the Military, lifting the ban on fetal research, lifting the gag rule on counseling for women seeking abortions, lifting the ban on abortions in military hospitals, the appointment of a militant lesbian to his cabinet. Someone asked, "Where is the soul of this man." We think it is time to ask that question again. We also think that question should be asked of the media people who continue to defend and support him. Back to Dr. Elders. Here is more. ======================================================================= HER SALARY ARRANGEMENT AS ARKANSAS HEALTH DIRECTOR. The State of Arkansas places a cap on how much state employees can be paid. For several years the Health Department has transferred the money it has available to pay Dr. Elders to the University of Arkansas Medical School (UAMS). UAMS has then paid her a considerably higher sum as a professor of pediatrics, even though her position as state health director is a full-time, full- year job. HER ALLEGEDLY LAX ENFORCEMENT OF A BAN ON STATE FUNDING OF CONTRACEPTIVE DISTRIBUTION AT SCHOOL-BASED CLINICS. In 1991, the Arkansas legislature adopted a prohibition on the use of state money to distribute contraceptives at school-based clinics. Shortly after the restriction was adopted, Dr. Elders announced that the school-based clinics would continue to distribute contraceptives using federal and local money. But a pending lawsuit filed by Rep. Tim Hutchinson (R-AR) alleges that state funds are being used in violation of the ban. HER CONDUCT AS A MEMBER OF THE BOARD OF THE NATIONAL BANK OF ARKANSAS. Dr. Elders recently settled a lawsuit filed against her and four other former directors of this bank. According to the NATIONAL REVIEW (April 26, 1993), the suit alleged that she had voted to give herself and other directors an unsecured $230,000 line of credit and that she and her colleagues had improperly moved to transfer money to an Illinois savings and loan to cover bad lending practices in which they had engaged. THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. MALAK. In September, 1991, Dr. Elders named Dr. Fahmy Malak, an embattled medical examiner for the State of Arkansas, to a senior post in her department. Dr. Malak's appointment cam despite a department-wide hiring freeze. Dr. Malak had been under fire since 1985 for a host of controversial autopsy results, several of which were later reversed by grand juries. Among his more maligned findings were that a man shot five times in the chest had committed suicide, that two teenagers run over by a train had fallen asleep on the tracks after smoking marijuana, that a man whom a grand jury later ruled had been murdered had died accidentally while strangling himself during a sexual act, and that a deputy coroner who had ordered life support withdrawn from a brain-dead patient had committed murder. Dr. Malak later apologized for falsely accusing the deputy coroner, a charge that arose because Dr. Malak had misread a notation in the deceased patient's medical chart. Elders, long one of Dr. Malak's staunchest defenders, noted that, "There are a lot of medical symbols," and said of Malak, "If you don't make mistakes, you're not doing anything.". ======================================================================= If you've read our previous posts, you know Dr. Elders attacked the Catholic church. Here is the text of a letter sent to Sen. Alphonse D'Amato (R-NY) by John Cardinal O'Connor, Archbishop of New York. August 5, 1993 Dear Senator D'Amato, I write to you as one deeply disturbed by remarks attributed to the nominee for Surgeon General, Dr. Joycelyn Elders, revealing substantial animosity toward the Catholic Church and Catholics generally. Dr. Elders is quoted as stating: "The first 400 years black people had their freedom aborted and the Church said nothing. The way of life for the Native American as aborted: the Church was silent. We attempted to eradicate a whole race of people through the Holocaust, and the Church as silent. . . . . Look at who's fighting the pro-choice movement; a celibate, male- dominated Church." Catholics throughout American history have suffered from the effects of religious bigotry. It is a blot on our country's human rights record. Such blatant and broad sweeping attacks as have been attributed to Dr. Elders would be troubling on the lips of any citizen. To hear them from one appointed to a national pulpit is even more profoundly disturbing. This is particularly true considering that the stature of the Office of the Surgeon General is great -- particularly in recent years in the midst of a deepening national crisis over the effects of sexual irresponsibility. Dr. Elders has also expressed contempt for the millions of Americans who participate in the human rights struggle for the the unborn, and and the disabled. She purportedly scorns pro-life Americans as having a " love affair with the fetus," and is quoted as saying that they "love little babies, as long they're in someone else's uterus, rather than caring about children after they're born.". One traditionally associates the profession of medicine with special concern for the small and defenseless human being. Yet nowhere do I hear Dr. Elders acknowledge the slightest good will, the slightest compassion toward the child in the womb. Her alleged statements regarding unborn Down's Syndrome children are most disquieting in this regard. She is also quoted as saying that "abortion has reduced the number of children afflicted with severe defects: the number of Down's Syndrome infants in Washington State in 1976 was 64% lower than it would have been without legal abortion." Apparently Dr. Elders regards the destruction of such children through abortion as part of the success story of modern medicine. As one who has spent many years of his life working with and for the retarded, I am deeply troubled by such an attitude. Dr. Elders seems also to have clearly expressed an intent not only to continue, but to intensify the utterly failed policy of offering contraception freely to teenagers. Twenty years of this practice has failed to improve our children's health and well-being. In fact, they are associated with substantial declines in the quality of their lives, with increases in teenage sexual activity, teen abortions, sexually transmitted diseases, and out-of-wedlock pregnancies. Yet nowhere do I see Dr. Elders required to assume the burden of proof as to why 20 years of failed social policy should be followed by 4 more. Thank you for your vote on August 3 on the Nickles Amendment to the Treasury/Postal Appropriations Bill. It was a tragedy that the substance of Senator Nickles' proposal did not receive the full deliber- ations it deserved, but I thank you for your part in seeking to obtain Senate consideration. In future votes on the Hyde Amendment and National Health Care, I hope that you will reflect on the conscience problems inherent in requiring any taxpayer, any employer, any employee, to contribute any amount, no matter how small, to an act they acknowledge to be nothing less than the deliberate destruction of innocent human life. I do hope you will consider the points I have raised. Considering the crisis of values our nation is now facing, I do not believe that concerns about religious intolerance and moral responsibility are trivial. I look forward to your reply. Faithfully in Christ /s/ John Cardinal O'Connor Archbishop of New York ======================================================================= Senator Don Nickles (R-OK) spoke at some length on the floor of the Senate about Dr. Elders and her radical ideas on health care. Following are excerpts from his presentation. "She went further when she told the Labor Committee: 'Abortion was the single most important factor in the significant decrease in neonatal mortality between 1964 and 1977.' Dr. Elders says that abortion decreases infant mortality. Well, I suppose it does. If your life is ended before you are born, there is absolutely no chance you will die after birth. So she is correct. But, what a solution." "In the February 16, 1993, edition of the Washington Post, it is reported that she keeps an 'Ozark Rubber Plant' on her desk. 'Its stalks,' according to the Washington Post, 'are sprouting condoms, and an attached note reads: 'Blooms mostly at night. Blooms vary in length, depending on owner. Blooms may wilt in chilly atmosphere.' I do not think that being flippant about condoms and condom distribution is really the kind of attitude we really want a Surgeon General to have." "Elders' pay has come under scrutiny because she earns much more than the maximum salary established for her health department job by the State legislature. The legal maximum salary set for the health department director is $76,440 a year, but Dr. Elders makes about $103,000 a year. Her pay comes from both the health department and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, where she formerly worked a a pediatric endocrinologist." [UPLOADER COMMENT] Senator Nickles went on detail how her Arkansas compensation was challenged by two different Attorneys-general of AR. He also detailed how she had been paid both by the State of Arkansas and the federal Department of Health and Human Services. He also chronicled the issue of Dr. Elders and her husband having a nurse for her mother-in- law and not paying taxes on the nurse. Throughout his presentation, he brought up all the issues we have posted here and had them all put in the Congressional Record. ======================================================================= Although we are adamantly opposed to appointment of this woman to Surgeon General of the United States, this is more than a reflection of Joycelyn Elders. This is also a reflection of the man who nominated her, Bill Clinton. This information was provided by Oklahoma Senator Don Nickles UPLOADED BY: Vern Semrad