Tom Wells: A Political Life in Progress
I came of age in the 60's at the intersection of Civil Rights, Abortion Rights, and Medicare for All, in the aftermath of the defeat of German Fascism and Japanese Imperialism. All these were made personal to me in my father's medical career. He spent 10 years first overseas in the Army Medical Corp, then in the states as chief-of-surgery at a VA hospital. 10 years patching up soldiers crippled defeating Fascists and Japan.
He set up private practice in a mid-Georgia mill town in '56. Found immediately that the broader society did not follow the color-blind policies of the Army or VA. Found soon enough that poor women were dying untreated of botched illegal abortions. The poor community soon understood that he would risk jail in nightly house-calls to save an innocent life. And he never learned to deny care to anyone for lack of money. Working daily to exhaustion he provided our small town the Medicare for All that we as a nation still suffer the lack of.
