Compliments to hospital and comments on pieces in The Dispatch
First, for some time I have wanted to complement Baptist Memorial Hospital in Columbus. For a variety of reasons, I have spent quite a bit more time at the hospital in the past year than usual. The upside, for me (and others, I’m certain), is that I consistently get very professional and, even better, very pleasant and kind treatment from basically every employee that I encounter there. Considering how often I’ve been there over the past year plus, that has been a fairly large number of employees — ranging from people who check me in, to the many technicians, to the doctors on staff. That I have come to expect this sort of care now says quite a lot about Baptist, and, in turn, those who hire and manage the facility.
On three relatively recent articles from the Dispatch:
Monday, Jan. 25: kudos to Senator Wicker for refusing to “get into the business of deciding the results of our election.” Unfortunately, I cannot extend the same to our other Senator, Cindy Hyde-Smith, who persisted in promoting unfounded claims of election fraud. It is sad that the senator requires no evidence to support her action and, worse, is not sufficiently impressed by the multiple recounts and scores of dismissed lawsuits in every contested state. Yes, there remain constituents who still think the election was ‘stolen’ but this is based on the continued promotion of that falsehood through such actions by Senator Hyde-Smith and others like her, not on actual evidence of fraud. A case of Catch 22.
In the Sunday, Jan. 24 article about CMSD’s consideration of year-round education. While I support the concept, I was dismayed that the graphic produced by CMSD to promote this idea contained a misspelling. Seemed ironic. Disclaimer: I have often been dismayed by the frequent mistakes I make in my Dispatch letters.
Lastly, the Ramirez political cartoon on Friday, Jan. 22, seemed a bit over the top in its criticism of President Biden’s speaking ability. I agree that Biden has lost a step since his 8 years as VP but he is still clearly coherent — I hope I am half as clear at 78. Seems like we should withhold such extreme criticism until we see the outcome of the Biden agenda, already advancing rapidly, especially his efforts to ramp up federal action on Covid-19.
Paul Mack
Columbu
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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