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Facts Are Vital, But An Emotional Response Can Be Otto-Matic

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By STEVE OTTO

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 9, 2008

Maybe I used to be better at it than I am now. I was standing there, a few feet from the hospital bed, and my emotions were churning while I was trying to sound confident and ask semi-intelligent questions at the same time.

It was Thursday, and I had been invited in to speak with the mother of the young woman attacked six weeks ago outside the Bloomingdale Regional Public Library. The mother has maintained a constant vigil, sleeping in a cot a few feet from her daughter's bed at Tampa General Hospital.

The mother had avoided any publicity up until then, but by last week there was a growing frustration that nothing was being done for her daughter and a fear that the girl was about to be dumped in some nursing facility where she would receive minimal care.

When you are a layperson and do not understand everything that is involved, it is easy to make a mistake. I stared at the young woman lying in her bed, a serene expression on her face, and the first thing I thought of was the fairy tale in which Snow White is just lying there, waiting for someone to come wake her up.

I had been in the room only a couple of minutes, and I was already wrapped up on the mother's side and outraged that nothing more was being done for the woman who only weeks earlier had such a golden future. Now there was no guarantee she would ever wake up or what she might be like when she did.
Privacy laws kept me from talking to the doctors or hospital staff, who must have their own frustrations about not being able to explain everything to stiffs like me.

The hospital media person called me after the story appeared on TBO .com and said I was mistaken when I said the hospital social worker had been coming in and harassing the mother to move her daughter to another facility. He reminded me he couldn't even say the woman was a patient in the hospital, but it is the job of case workers like that to look for the right facilities for their patients.

I'm sure he was right, but I was putting myself in the position of the mother or any patient or relative who find themselves in a terrifying, possibly life-or-death situation, and not knowing what to do. It is so easy to feel like you are being pressured to do something.

I know I wrote that column from an emotional perspective, but isn't that the way it is for any of us who suddenly find ourselves forced into decisions we don't really understand?

Cease-Fire In Uncivil War Over Flag?

It was a huge mail week, topped with e-mail from people commenting on a column about that massive Confederate flag near the Interstate 75 and I-4 intersection.

Most of the letters were in support of the flag and suggested that people like me do not understand what the Civil War was all about. I'll give you just one, this from Pam Steele:

"Steve, I read your editorial this morning and wanted to share this with you. ... Lots of those 'in positions of power' and the media don't have a clue what this organization (United Daughters of the Confederacy) is all about. This is one of the oldest and most patriotic organizations in the country today. Their membership includes volunteering for the VA hospitals and visiting veterans at home regardless of what color they are and where they are from. They also provide boxes/cards/phone cards to the soldiers in Iraq and award scholarships. This is not a 'racist' or political organization.

"I suppose the fact that they place flowers on Confederate veterans' graves, honor the Confederate flag, raise funds for memorials and monuments for Confederate veterans automatically identifies them as racist? Apparently this is the position of our local politicians who are positioning themselves for higher aspirations in county government. Or just trying to get out of hot water for other issues.

"Organizations such as the UDC are not asking anyone to agree or have the same respect for this flag or the ancestors that fought under it. However, it is our right to do so without being profiled as a bunch of backwoods white supremacists with a hidden agenda. These organizations are truly some of the last patriotic organizations left in the country today. Before you (or anyone else) pass judgment on these groups, you owe it to your readership to attend one of their meetings."

Hey, Eat Our Dust, No. 47!

Austin Curry, who is the executive director of Elder Care Advocacy of Florida, commented on a column on the state's budget cuts:

"Steve, you gotta look on the bright side of this. Forty-sixth place is well above the 50th place the state garners for child health care. Just think of the opportunity! Why there is no way to go except up and then the politicians can point with great pride as to how they've improved your lot in life. Heavens to Mergatroyd! They might even embark on a $100,000 PR campaign to show their magnificence.

"We have an abundance of underserved needy here in Hillsborough County, including frail elderly, grandparents caring for their children's children, caregivers with Alzheimer's family members and on and on."

Keyword: Otto Graphs, to read and comment on Steve Otto's blog.

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