Life and Death in Arkansas

IF there’s one thing you can say about Dr. Joycelyn Elders, President Clinton’s nominee for Surgeon General, it’s that she doesn’t discriminate. Since 1987, when she took over as director of the Arkansas Department of Health, she has addressed everything from the annual Arkansas AFL-CIO convention, to “One in Ten,” a conference of lobbyists for a pro-gay school curriculum, to the hungry patrons of Don’s Catfish Kitchen. She even takes her show out of state. For example, a 1991 article in the Arkansas Gazette noted that “from January 1 through April 30, the outspoken director attended 71 in-state and out-of-state functions. . . . ‘She’s out an average of three days a week . . . plus weekends,’ said Tom Butler, the department deputy director who runs the agency on a day-to-day basis.”

From this track record, we might get the idea that Dr. Elders, if she is confirmed, will not spend much time on the everyday work of the Surgeon General’s office. Then again, that might be the good news. Not because she is incompetent—the 59-year-old Dr. Elders has the reputation of being one of the leading pediatric endocrinologists around. But because of her focus on every politically correct cause in her field, from contraceptives in the schools to taxpayer-funded abortion.

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Floyd G. Brown

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IF there’s one thing you can say about Dr. Joycelyn Elders, President Clinton’s nominee for Surgeon General, it’s that she doesn’t discriminate. Since 1987, when she took over as director of the Arkansas Department of Health, she has addressed everything from the annual Arkansas AFL-CIO convention, to “One in Ten,” a conference of lobbyists for a pro-gay school curriculum, to the hungry patrons of Don’s Catfish Kitchen. She even takes her show out of state. For example, a 1991 article in the Arkansas Gazette noted that “from January 1 through April 30, the outspoken director attended 71 in-state and out-of-state functions. . . . ‘She’s out an average of three days a week . . . plus weekends,’ said Tom Butler, the department deputy director who runs the agency on a day-to-day basis.”

From this track record, we might get the idea that Dr. Elders, if she is confirmed, will not spend much time on the everyday work of the Surgeon General’s office. Then again, that might be the good news. Not because she is incompetent—the 59-year-old Dr. Elders has the reputation of being one of the leading pediatric endocrinologists around. But because of her focus on every politically correct cause in her field, from contraceptives in the schools to taxpayer-funded abortion.