Government and medicine: An unfortunate similarity

(Compiler's note: This is a must read editorial.)

BY ROBIN L. QUILLON

“Maggots no wonder cure for festering wounds.”

When I first saw this Reuters headline, I thought I was about to read an article about new Treasury Secretary Timothy “tax cheat” Geithner, or about other tax cheats President Obama seems to be offering up for positions in his administration.

Or I thought it was an article about the president’s ever-expanding and bloated stimulus plan. Or maybe even, I thought, an article about the political finger-pointing going on in both parties regarding the AIG bonuses.

But, no, the article was about how maggots at one time were placed in wounds to help the healing process, and how that really may not have been such a great idea after all.

I did, unfortunately, find some striking similarities between the maggots’ story and what goes on in Washington.

For example, as Reuters reported, maggots do clean wounds more quickly than do normal methods of treatment, but this does not lead to faster healing.

Correspondingly, it looks as if we have nothing more than a new crop of maggots in charge and on the Hill, and they are just not getting the job done.

Some patients, the story continued, also found so-called larval therapy more painful. That according to a study in the British Medical Journal.

My thoughts returned to D.C., where “tax cheat” larva Geithner needs to resign.

He is in way over his head.

Congress should have rejected his nomination. Then again, the president should never have submitted his name in the first place – especially in light of his tax-cheating.

Gruesome as it sounds, maggots have a long history in medicine. Napoleon’s battle surgeon was a maggot enthusiast. They were put to work during the American Civil War, and also in the trenches of World War I.

Our political leaders have a long history of doing the same things year after year while expecting different results. It’s time to clean house in Congress. And as the leader of his party, Obama needs to get his maggots wiggling to the same tune and get the job done for the American people.

More recently, medical experts have been looking again at the creatures’ healing powers, including their potential to prevent dangerous infections such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).

Hmmm, the American people have been looking for a long time for our elected leaders to get the job done, only to be disappointed year after year.

Enough is enough!

It’s time the American people rise up and take back their government, and we do that in the voting booth.

But back to the maggots’ story, which said that scientists have determined that “It doesn’t seem to be worth pursuing in this particular group of patients, if what you are aiming for is quicker healing.”

As things are running now, the same can be said of our leaders in Washington.

And the final striking similarity between the maggots in this study and those in Washington: When maggots run out of dead flesh to eat, they eat each other.

Yuk!