{"id":1272,"date":"2020-08-10T21:59:24","date_gmt":"2020-08-11T04:59:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/?p=1272"},"modified":"2020-08-10T21:59:24","modified_gmt":"2020-08-11T04:59:24","slug":"talking-ideho","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/?p=1272","title":{"rendered":"Talking Ideho"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Pulling a calf. Sorry, I don’t have pictures of Fred.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Before I went to medical school, I thought veterinary medicine might be a better calling to live in a small Idaho town. For that was my dream, a small town with a stable economy to raise our kids. I remember the long drives around Council Valley and beyond in Fred Stovner\u2019s 1960 \u00be ton 4WD International pickup on calving calls. He was the local vet for Council.  We would talk a lot about animals and health and God. Then, when we got to the ranch, his language changed. There were more, \u201cShe don\u2019t\u201d and \u201cain\u2019t\u201d and other kinds of speech, different than we shared in the dark front seat. I asked him about this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDon\u2019t they think you are talking down to them?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He chuckled as the steering wheel shimmied over the ruts. \u201cThey don\u2019t want to think you think you are better than them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martha (my wife) to this day points out to me when I switch into talking \u201cIdeho\u201d. That\u2019s her term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a strong anti-intellectual feeling in this rural state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s almost like you have a different skin color. If the regular folks I run into as a doctor or representative start to think I\u2019m coming off as superior, the game is over. If I can\u2019t explain to them in common sense language why they need to stop drinking or smoking or lose weight, or vote for me, then I\u2019m just a know-it-all with no standing. We need to share a language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want to thank State Senator Steve Thain for pointing this out this week. He said in an interim committee meeting discussing the role of Public Health Districts, \u201cListening to experts is an elitist approach.\u201d He went on: \u201cI\u2019m also fearful that it leads to totalitarianism, especially when you say well, we\u2019re doing it for the public good. America was founded on the idea that people weighed their own risks, did what they thought was best for their own interests. \u2026 The role of experts should be to give us the best information they have, and we should weigh it. They should never set policy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He is so right. Having some Ivory Tower elitist telling me what to do with my life is a nightmare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, every day, people come to me with their fears, their struggles with their health. How should I convince them to change their behavior?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Public Health in Idaho is distributed to districts. The public health commissioners in each district are mainly county commissioners, elected by us, and they then throw in a couple \u201chealth professionals\u201d, a doctor or a nurse who live in the district. The \u201cprofessionals\u201d must be approved by the elected commissioners to serve. This body then studies the landscape and makes recommendations, from upgrading a local sewer district or shutting down a polluted restaurant. The recommendations from the legislative interim committees this last week went along the lines of Senator Thain\u2019s comments. The vote, while not unanimous, was to remove Public Health districts from having authority to shut down a school or university in the face of this Covid pandemic. The committee would rather the authority to limit any activity rested on the shoulders of the elected school board members or State Board of Education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Us \u201cexperts\u201d felt a swift kick to the groin. We should. We are not speaking the language of risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fred Stovner would sometimes be called to deliver a heifer who couldn\u2019t get her first calf out. He would pose, \u201cWell, we could do a c-section, and that will cost you $100, or I could try to pull her.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI done pulled.\u201d The rancher would say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fred would reach in and check the heifer. \u201cI could get the calf out, but it might kill the calf. It might kill the heifer. You want I should try?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rancher would kick dirt and decide. That\u2019s the kind of decision making we need right now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Before I went to medical school, I thought veterinary medicine might be a better calling to live in a small Idaho town. For that was my dream, a small town with a stable economy to raise our kids. I remember … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1272"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1272"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1274,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1272\/revisions\/1274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}