Published: November 24, 2007 04:42 pm            

VASICEK: The public has a right to know

A close relative of mine has a serious medical condition; she considered a specialty treatment hospital. Since her insurance coverage for such an institution was tenuous, she asked if she could have all costs upfront.

“Of course you can, no problem,” the clerk assured her. So she checked into the hospital and consulted a doctor who proposed a whole slew of tests, some of which seem unjustified to her.

“How much will that first test cost?” she asked. The physician replied, “I do not handle that. You will have to inquire at the billing office.”

She moseyed on over to the billing office and made the same inquiry.

“We can’t give you the cost,” they stated, “it depends what the doctor decides as he administers the test.” No cost, no estimate, no range — no information. My relative checked out.

Like me, she is suspicious of people who are not above board and who encourage others “not to worry about it.” Yet I am amazed at how many carefree optimists have no guilt about leaving us with the consequences of their misplaced optimism.

Take, for example, a recent AP article appearing in the Kokomo Tribune, headlined as, “FBI: Detroit nation’s most dangerous city.” The article began, “In another blow to the Motor City’s tarnished image, Detroit pushed past St. Louis to become the nation’s most dangerous city.”

As I read on, I was amazed to read that one group was crying “foul,” and suggested the report was inaccurate (I wonder what the residents of Detroit would say about crime in their city?). But what really amazed me was what the Mayor of Rochester, New York, said about the report: “‘What I take exception to is the use of these statistics and the damage they inflict on a number of these cities.’”

Excuse me, but are we supposed to keep this information hush? If someone wants to move to Detroit or relocate a business there, are we supposed to hide the fact that they (or their employees) are significantly more likely to be victims of violent crime by relocating there? What about our right to know facts that affect our lives?

But it is not only the Rochester Mayor (who happens to be chairman of the Criminal and Social Justice Committee for the U.S. Conference of Mayors) who wants to suppress this important information. So does Michael Tonry, president of the American Society of Criminology. He is quoted as saying that these rankings, “‘do groundless harm to many communities…they also work against a key goal of our society, which is a better understanding of crime-related issues by both scientists and the public.’”

So let’s see if I have this right. I am to consider relocating to Detroit without knowing how dangerous such a move might be so that criminologists can better understand crime-related issues? Do you see what is wrong with this picture?

I do not think the criminals themselves expect us to be that stupid!

People have a right to know what affects them. Detroit has its problems. Denial, silence, and suppression of information are not the answer.

It reminds me of the “nice” doctor; if you cannot afford the surgery, he’ll touch up the X-ray. But do you really get better through doctored X-rays?

Interestingly, the same issue of the Tribune carried an article about a Delphi worker (Edith Buckley) who had relocated from Milwaukee and was laid off after working five weeks at the Kokomo plant. But Edith Buckley was not angry at Delphi, for they had warned her of that possibility before she was relocated. Delphi had done its job and presented its best understanding of the risks. Here is a positive example of communication with integrity, an increasingly extinct species.

Whether because of careless optimism, social/political/religious agendas, or the belief that public information should be the guarded secret of the Academic Elite, we seem to be a society that cannot (or will not) communicate clearly, simply, and openly. The public has a right to know. This is America, not the old “party line” USSR.

Ed Vasicek is pastor of

Highland Park Church and

a weekly contributor to the Kokomo Tribune.

        

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