Surgeon General Nomination Sends The Right Messages
I am just so tickled over President Obama's nomination of Dr. Regina Benjamin for Surgeon General. She's one of those rare people who brings so much to the table it's difficult to know what to praise first:
- Her lifelong commitment to prevention, health and wellness, after tragically losing multiple family members to diabetes, HIV-related illnesses, and lung cancer;
- Her work in family medicine, undertaken in part as service to our country as part of the National Health Services Corp;
- Her tireless commitment to underserved communities, particularly Gulf Coast Alabama residents, in which the poor and immigrant and minority groups are over-represented and still struggling with post-Katrina recovery;
- Her recognized excellence and distinction in delivering compassionate care, as evidenced by her MacArthur Foundation genius grant;
- Her refusal to turn those in need away, regardless of ability to pay;
- Her investment in her own Gulf Coast communities, when too many of us activists grow up and move on to more exciting locales (or so we think);
- Her barrier-breaking career success, as "the first black woman to head a state medical society, and the first woman, first African-American woman, and first person younger than 40 to sit on the board of trustees of the American Medical Association."
The NY Times has a touching profile of her, which suggests that her faith may drive her commitment and service to the poor. The only alarm bell is how it may shape her views on reproductive health, which I know many of us are interested in better understanding.
RaceWire takes the opportunity of her nomination to wonder if her appointment - that of of an African-American woman working with poor men and women of color - will raise the profile of the new face of HIV/AIDS in this country: that of a black woman living in poverty. Reproductive justice may be about women's rights to control their own reproduction, but that includes our access to and enforcement of contraception and safe sex practices, which obviously offer protection against HIV and STDs. I too am curious to see if and how Dr. Benjamin and the Obama Administration addresses this deadly and unequal scourge.
Congrats to Dr. Benjamin for her nomination!
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