OPEN MEDICAL RECORDS IN LIMBAUGH CASE; ACLU IS NO ANGEL

Here they go again, and I don't mean the Monkees. You state that the
American Civil Liberties Union, bless their pointed little heads, has
weighed in on the side of Rush Limbaugh, right-wing radio talk show host. He
doesn't want his medical records opened in court.

I suppose the ACLU thinks that by defending a fascist nut that it will
somehow legitimize its liberal crusade to free all stripes of dangerous
criminals. This guy is a proven junkie, twice previously treated for
scheduled-narcotic drug abuse. We're not talking about Mother Theresa here.

Why should medical records in the case of a serious felony be sacrosanct?
Nobody wants medical and psychiatric records to be open to your employers
and insurance company for commercial reasons. Judges want the discretion to
run every other aspect of our lives, why can't they be trusted to open
medical records or other evidence when felonious criminal activity is
strongly suspected?

Of course, I can hear the psychiatrists now. How will anyone open his
feelings to us if he thinks the authorities will discover he has 40 bodies
buried beneath his house?

The civil libertarians have their priorities backward. Freeing one black
felon because someone peeked in his trunk without permission doesn't help a
hundred black people who are pushed around every day by a bigoted police
force. What the ACLU needs to do is to work for unbiased police oversight.

Trust me, from personal experience I know that complaining to Polk County's
Sheriff Lawrence Crow or his watch supervisors about police indiscretions
will get you nowhere. You might as well speak to the wall.

I guess, for the ACLU, et al, tearing down crosses and nativity scenes has a
higher priority. The Man of La Mancha lives on.

OWEN SEAR, M.D., Winter Haven