News to me: Political but mostly Social

Update: The New York Times has collected bloggers’ responses to the possible nomination, and are asking your opinions.

The New York Times and CNN are reporting that Dr. Sanjay Gupta has been approached about the vacant Surgeon General position by President Elect Obama’s Transition Team.  Why does this matter?  There are two reasons: the position of Surgeon General, as well as the Secretary of Agriculture, has been mostly overlooked over the last nearly 10 years, and the man is Indian.

Care of CNN.com

First things first, the Surgeon General’s position has been largely ignored by the public and, more importantly, the media for as long as I can remember.  Not since C. Evertt Koop took a stance on cigarettes and the tobacco industry has there been a face the public can latch onto, and the reason that happened was because of his staunch belief that tobacco products were, in fact, killing people.  Now, with the possibility of Dr. Gupta, you have someone who has made it his life’s work to seriously address issues of health across the board.  Several times he’s reported on the escalating cases of both type-1 and -2 diabetes among young people and the continued growth of odd or long thought dead diseases.  Not to mention his obvious charisma and celebrity as a CNN journalist and writer for Time Magazine.  In Dr. Gupta we would have someone the public is familiar with, trusts, and might be able to focus the voters to push their state’s representatives to look into the health concerns that have been gallingly staring us in the face.

Second, and this is the big deal, the man is Indian.  INDIAN!  We would not only have a black man whom everyone recognizes and respects, but an Indian man of similar caliber.  This would be a quite a step in the right direction.  In fact, if this happens, President Obama would have the most diverse cabinet in Washington’s history.  That’s something to be proud of.  Not only for him, but for us, the voting public.  Look what we did!  We made progress.  Thank God we’re finally ready for this to happen.