Three new questions
I’m in the dentist chair the day after the general election, mouth full of fingers, captive audience to chatter. Seems my dentist is surprised at people ejecting MAGA from their lives. Is that an “own-the-libs” chuckle? Mouth free, I listed the personal ways that Donald Trump plans to harm my family, me especially as the “enemy within.” I can’t breathe. Is my dentist unable to consider consequences? Unable to empathize? Is my dentist a psychopath? Dentist office panic attacks are the worst.
It’s cringy being underneath a dentist with sharp tools who’s OK with genital grabbers and adjudicated sexual offender presidents. Donald Trump bullies and threatens every demographic except his own and my dentist can’t understand there is a boundary called decency. Is my dentist “indecent”?
On a “learned better late than never” note, I’ve honed my post-election requirement list for health care professionals:
1. Exhibit critical thinking skills. Lacking the ability to consider the short- and long-term consequences to actions, including speaking, is problematic.
2. Possess the ability to empathize. Lacking empathy is psychopathic, a mental disorder and an automatic disqualification for professionals in the fields of human care.
3. Practice the best science-based techniques and treatments, even if the Trump administration eliminates professional standards.
I took things for granted, had the cozy idea that medical and dental professionals are smart, empathetic people with a decency boundary. Off to find a decent dentist, but I have some questions first. Three of them.
Janet Marugg
Clarkston
