“I’m Allergic” and the New Face of Victimhood (Dr. Lane’s Thoughts LXXX)

You aren’t a ‘victim’ if you win. You aren’t a victim if you have bent the will of the people to agree with you. You aren’t a victim if you have changed the face of reasonable discourse. You aren’t a victim if you have too many people agreeing with your assessment of your own perspective of you being a ‘victim’. You are not a victim if you have a huge audience for your grievances

Most importantly, you are not a victim if you were born rich and have always been rich; you have never held a real job that involves labor of any kind, nor chosen a meal that didn’t involve fries.

I want to share the story of a woman who lives on my street: the “I’m Allergic!” woman. I discovered her last summer. How long she has lived here is a mystery to me – she may have been here for years or is new to the neighborhood. Honestly, I don’t care. She has become a problem as she walks/lurches around my street in a manner that reminds me of the character ‘Shrek’ from the eponymous movies

I was walking my little dog, Leo #4, proud in his “I love my Daddy’ t-shirt and I see a bedraggled blonde (?) woman walking towards me. When the woman was about 100 feet in front of me she shouts out “I’m Allergic!”

At first I thought she was on her phone or talking to someone until I realized that she was addressing her comment to me! I speculate that she was telling me that she was allergic to my dog. Outside. On the sidewalk. Of course, I don’t care about her medical problem but I move my boy across the street just to keep the peace.

She is ‘allergic’ and I move to accommodate her. In my neighborhood people are polite and no one would want to disturb anyone if a simple change in placement would avoid a medical emergency. This has been repeated several times since our first encounter. I call her ‘She-Shrek’ because of her doughty appearance but “I’m allergic” woman works for this essay.

I am confident that she considers herself a victim of her allergic reaction (if there really is one) to my little dog. Leo #4 is her tormenter. He is 7 pounds and not a danger to anyone but I am his human and I don’t want him to suffer from anyone

We walk, we avoid encounters with the She-Shrek and all is peaceful; she owns the public sidewalk because I try to avoid confrontation

The Dump continues to consider all discourse that isn’t Pro-Dump to be examples of his constant state of VICTIM. He won the election but, for him, this theme will never die – he will always be a victim of anyone who disagrees with him. And my neighbor will always tell everyone and anyone that she is allergic.

2) I am at war with one organized group of CDL examiners – a Medi-clinic called CONCENTRA. There are many reasons to despise them but the one that stands out is their use of the rare condition SLEEP APNEA and the infamous ’17-inch neck’ criteria.

To start, they do not have a CDL examiner on staff. I accidentally discovered that they use an organization that sends iterant CDL examiners to places to do the exam. That is all these people do and then they move on to another location. They are per diem employees.

The rule of the 17-inch neck to define Sleep Apnea is a half-truth. The rule is that a 17-inch neck PLUS (read that again, there is second part of the rule) another condition (in medicine we call this a co-morbidity) of diabetes or high blood pressure or, in some cases, obesity.

Not the 17-inch neck by itself.

You want to know why? This is not a real criteria. It is found 99% of the time in a HUGE group of people. [Get close to the screen because I am about to drop some truth about a huge group of these ’17-inch neck people’] We call these people [shhh, its a secret so we can’t spread this information to just anyone. I consider you a confidante].

MAJOR LEAGUE ATHLETES. Amateur, also. These HUGE people have big necks. Do you expect them to have a petite neck? They do not have sleep apnea.

Except, to CONCENTRA they all must have sleep apnea. It is their criteria and it makes them money.

3) My mentor, Dr. David O. Carpenter, is not allowed to continue his work because Monsanto found lawyers who discovered a legally-technical way in which his generosity was in violation of the IRS. Dr. Carpenter has been stopped by them because he donated his income from offering testimony in PCB cases to create a fund to assist his graduate students with their expenses while they are in school.

https://www.timesunion.com/state/article/renowned-ualbany-pcb-researcher-alternate-17759855.php

Yes, this needs clarification because if you are a good person it is hard to believe that anyone with a soul and a heart would not find it a compelling argument that Monsanto is just evil and Dr. Carpenter is not the best person you can imagine.

I want to give you a scenario: if you want people to be on your side in an argument it is nice that any warm body will suffice but these ‘warm bodies’ are not always good enough when you need soldiers. Dr. Carpenter (MD Harvard 1964) is a plain-old tough guy from Oklahoma who is willing to fight the good fight against companies that destroy our soil, water, and air. Unfortunately, destroying our soil, water, and air pays very well to the people who run these companies and they can pay a great deal of money to attorneys to protect their capability to continue to do their deeds with full immunity.

Dr. Carpenter has used his considerable knowledge, intelligence, and leadership to bring expert testimony in court cases that have hindered or stopped companies like Monsanto from destroying the planet. He gets paid to offer his testimony and, as the article states, it is about $200,000 a year. A considerable amount of money but a fraction of what he could earn by offering his same skills to a company like Monsanto to defend their way of conducting business (think, an extra zero at the end of that number).

Not only is Dr. Carpenter a hero he goes one step further by not keeping this testimony money. he gave it to the SUNY Albany to distribute to his graduate students so that they can stay in school and become great leaders in science like him.

I want to share with you what Dr. Carpenter told me when I was his student around 1993 after I asked him what he hoped to do with his unsurpassed and considerable influence in science, medicine, and education. He told me, “I want to help other people reach their goals.” He would, later, help me to reach my goal and go to medical school (10 years after this conversation).