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Harry T. Cook
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By Harry T. Cook
10/10/14
In what passes for a national culture, the sobriquet "Obamacare" has been adopted for what is properly known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The ACA has enabled millions of Americans heretofore shut out of America's profit-driven health care system to obtain decent medical care. The schadenfreude in which sworn enemies of Barack Obama have indulged themselves over the early difficulties of getting the act implemented is countered by the obvious good it has done in just a year. Here is one example of how the ACA has worked a miracle in the lives of some of Detroit's poorest people and, at the same time, has enabled the 43-year-old nonprofit mission known as Crossroads of Michigan to expand its aid to just such persons. When an obstinate, Republican-dominated Michigan Legislature finally was able to overcome its anti-Obama snit long enough to approve the expansion of Medicaid, tens of thousands of people for whom health care insurance had been only a wispy dream finally had in their hands a plastic card that availed them of medical care and prescription medicines at low or no cost to them. You could say that very powerless people were thereby empowered, their long-suffering dignity given a boost. They could begin to exert a measure of control over their own health and well-being. How any legislature in America would fight such a thing as Michigan's did for too long and with such zeal is beyond me. Meanwhile, Crossroads of Michigan that over the years has laid out large chunks of its otherwise tight annual budgets to purchase prescription medicine for its clients suddenly had available funds to help those clients in other ways. It could afford and has afforded to help pay utility bills to avoid gas and electricity shutoffs. It could afford and has afforded to provide more transportation aid for those who have no automobiles therefore must depend on what the City of Detroit makes bold to call a bus system and many of its users call a joke. A volunteer counselor at Crossroads of Michigan ever since I retired from the active priesthood more than five years ago, I have had to trade one blessing for another. In serving clients who needed prescription medicine, I came to know Jerry Najor, proprietor of a small pharmacy tucked away in an aging building in the bleeding heart of what's left of the city. For years and with little to no profit and the occasional loss, he has honored prescription vouchers that Crossroads has given to its needy clients. On most days, whilst working with one or another of our down-and-out clients who needed help obtaining medicine, I would telephone Mr. Najor to inquire about the availability and cost of the prescription. No conversation with him was ever anything but friendly and helpful. Now that the expansion of Medicaid is a fact, I haven't spoken to him in months. That's the blessing I miss. But Medicaid for all who need it is a huge thing. It goes to show just how much Obama cares. Jerry Najor cared, too, when the chips were down. Still does. Note: A sentence in last Friday's essay should have read: "I find myself clinging to three distinct categories of books, which represent the abiding interests in my years-long attempt to cultivate an intellectual life."
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Copyright 2014 Harry T. Cook. All rights reserved. This article may not be used or reproduced without proper credit.
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Readers Write
Re essay of 10/3/14 Books
Thomas Lynch, Milford, Michigan:
I read with interest your essay on books in your personal library. Alas, I can part with nothing yet, neither Mencken nor Melville; in fact, am planning to read "The American Language" and "Moby Dick" each again before the light goes out.
Blayney Colmore, Jacksonville, Vermont:
When we last moved I took on that task of culling books. Though I have taken, happily, to Kindle reading, I do love walking past bookcases and having the spines elicit deja vu. Remembering when I bought the book and why, often associating it with events then taking place in my life and/or the world. But there is a certain satisfying cleansing in clearing out. As to your comments about theology being the torture of biblical verses, HarveyGuthrie, my revered professor of Hebrew scripture, once said to us would-be scholars, "You should take a look at the biblical text sometime; it casts a lot of light on the commentaries."
Humphrey Coddington, Toronto, Ontario:
I knew you must be a bibliophile! There aren't a lot of us left. Thanks for the paean to the printed page. Long may it last!
Herb Kaufman, Beverly Hills, Michigan:
When you visit someone's home and scrutinize the books on the tables and shelves, you can pretty well summarize in a few seconds the character and integrity of the owner of those tomes. If my father -- who in my opinion was one himself -- had had the opportunity to visit your residence, he would immediately have earmarked you as a "Chochem"; the ultimate compliment with which he could honor a man. And if I could speak to him today, I would most strongly affirm his impression. Thank you for what you say and do.
Muriel Banfield, Highland Park, Illinois:
My brother was a professor of English at Northwestern many years ago. His home library had more than 40,000 volumes by the time of his death. His kids had to deal with it. As hard as it is to part with such "friends," I'm glad for your kids' sake that you are culling the lot of them.
Stanley A. Beattie, Farmington Hills, Michigan:
I, too, must consider giving away much of my book collection. I'll keep my three translations of THE GOOD BOOK -- surely the source of more sorrow, killing, and thought sinking into abysmal error than anything.
Fred Fenton, Concord, California:
I, too, am "downsizing," and I find the experience disheartening. Do I give up Samuel Eliot Morison's 15-volume History of United States Naval Operations in World War II because it takes up half a shelf? I was a student in Admiral Morison's last course in American Colonial History. That was a great experience. A whole shelf is filled with PD James's books. I would love to read all her mystery novels again. I agree with you that Doris Kearns Goodwin's books must be kept. Her regular appearances on TV remind me what a sharp mind and good heart she has. I gladly donated 1,400 books of church history and theology to my last parish, but everything from the classics to modern authors that line the walls in three rooms of my house are treasures to me. When the local bookseller comes to offer a pittance for all but a few hundred of them, I will have to pour myself a strong libation and settle down with one of the books I keep on buying.
Ramona Devries, Lafayette, Indiana:
He who begins with Wordsworth and ends with Kierkegaard must be a mighty interesting man I, too, love the touch and feel of a book -- even though I read you online! I fear television and the much-touted social media are turning us into an illiterate nation. But why did you not mention Herman Melville?
Maynard Burrell, Tacoma, Washington:
Your love for books is reflected in your writing. Good writers have savored the language of others. I can tell that you, like Lincoln, must have read the English Bible because I can see (and sometimes even here) those familiar cadences. Your ode to the printed page this morning made my day.
Morley Thompson, Toronto, Ontario:
A neighbor forwarded me your essay "Books" this morning. He and I are retired librarians and know exactly what you were saying about books. Of course, there are books, and there are books. The authors you mentioned are the real thing.
Jim Gualdoni, Commerce Township Michigan:
Please say you didn't toss out your very first copy of John A.T. Robinson's "Honest to God." Editor's Confession: I have it still.
Jane T. Long, Dayton, Ohio:
Being a Jane Austen teacher and reader -- I love love love novels! Of all sorts: Rule 1: If it is not signed to me, or a first hardcover edition - and can be gotten through our excellent Library system -- out it goes. Except Jane Austen, of course. PAINFUL but so essential to our smaller abodes. Rule 2: If it matches the slipcovers is not an excuse to keep a book that fails Rule 1. Rule 3: If I have not read (after 10 years) or have not finished, having started: OUT it goes, despite Rule 1. Rule 4: Books survive best on shelves -- so, if the above has left me with books still on other surfaces, I must find a shelving unit and some other piece of furniture must go, say the Steinway? Rule 5: One copy of anything. Choose your favorite and out go the others. Exception: Jane Austen novels. Rule 6: Remember daily what my librarian friend says: "Write down how many books you read last year, then figure out how many years you expect to live, and choose your books accordingly. Or find another hour in your day to read. Best wishes with downsizing the book collection. I'd rather have all my teeth drawn.
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