A Coup for All Americans

When Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr. stood before the U.S. Supreme Court in March to argue for the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, Supreme Court watchers all commented about how poor a job he did. Most of the attacks on him seemed legitimate. Though, to be fair, he was trying to stave off attacks from a largely antagonistic court making specious arguments about broccoli. There was even a sound byte of him choking. (Is nothing beneath the Internet these days?) The general sense was one of defeat.

Naturally then, it came as a surprise when the Supreme Court upheld the ACA, with no less than the George W. Bush appointee Chief Justice John Roberts providing the swing vote and offering up as justification an interpretation of the mandate as being a tax, something that even the administration was hesitant to do. ("Tax" is a bad word for both sides of the political divide these days.)

I was seeing patients that day, but between 9:50 and 10:16 a.m., I snuck out every chance I could to check websites that were live blogging the event. I held my breath and bit my nails, just like, I assume, you did. (For the record, said websites are the New York Times, Slate.com, and NPR. Thankfully I did not turn to CNN or Fox News. I would have had a heart attack, and then I might have missed the happy ending.)

Bracing myself for what I thought was a done deal, I was thrilled, exhilarated, relieved, and overjoyed by the outcome. I excitedly knocked on my boss’s exam room door (he was in with a patient) to deliver the news. Indeed I did my best Mexican jumping bean impression.

This is a wonderful coup for an administration plagued by a Congress determined to see it fail. Better still, this is a coup for Americans. Emma Lazarus wrote in her poem, "The New Colossus": "Give me your tired, your poor/Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free/The wretched refuse of your teeming shore./Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,/I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" These are words referring to the first immigrant populations on Ellis Island, immortalized on a plaque on your Lady Liberty.

After all, to whom much is given, much is required in return. The writer and journalist Michael Lewis (of "Moneyball" fame), in his commencement address at this year’s Princeton University graduation, said it best when he spoke of humility: "Recognize that if you have had success, you have also had luck, and with luck comes obligation. You owe a debt, and not just to your gods. You owe a debt to the unlucky."

Francois Guisot, a French statesman from the late 1700s, said: "Not to be a republican at twenty is proof of want of heart; to be one at thirty is proof of want of head." (This quote often is misattributed, by the way, to Winston Churchill.) But kindness should be a virtue regardless of your age.

Dr. Chan is in practice in Pawtucket, R.I. E-mail her at rhnews.com.

When Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr. stood before the U.S. Supreme Court in March to argue for the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, Supreme Court watchers all commented about how poor a job he did. Most of the attacks on him seemed legitimate. Though, to be fair, he was trying to stave off attacks from a largely antagonistic court making specious arguments about broccoli. There was even a sound byte of him choking. (Is nothing beneath the Internet these days?) The general sense was one of defeat.

Naturally then, it came as a surprise when the Supreme Court upheld the ACA, with no less than the George W. Bush appointee Chief Justice John Roberts providing the swing vote and offering up as justification an interpretation of the mandate as being a tax, something that even the administration was hesitant to do. ("Tax" is a bad word for both sides of the political divide these days.)

I was seeing patients that day, but between 9:50 and 10:16 a.m., I snuck out every chance I could to check websites that were live blogging the event. I held my breath and bit my nails, just like, I assume, you did. (For the record, said websites are the New York Times, Slate.com, and NPR. Thankfully I did not turn to CNN or Fox News. I would have had a heart attack, and then I might have missed the happy ending.)

Bracing myself for what I thought was a done deal, I was thrilled, exhilarated, relieved, and overjoyed by the outcome. I excitedly knocked on my boss’s exam room door (he was in with a patient) to deliver the news. Indeed I did my best Mexican jumping bean impression.

This is a wonderful coup for an administration plagued by a Congress determined to see it fail. Better still, this is a coup for Americans. Emma Lazarus wrote in her poem, "The New Colossus": "Give me your tired, your poor/Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free/The wretched refuse of your teeming shore./Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,/I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" These are words referring to the first immigrant populations on Ellis Island, immortalized on a plaque on your Lady Liberty.

After all, to whom much is given, much is required in return. The writer and journalist Michael Lewis (of "Moneyball" fame), in his commencement address at this year’s Princeton University graduation, said it best when he spoke of humility: "Recognize that if you have had success, you have also had luck, and with luck comes obligation. You owe a debt, and not just to your gods. You owe a debt to the unlucky."

Francois Guisot, a French statesman from the late 1700s, said: "Not to be a republican at twenty is proof of want of heart; to be one at thirty is proof of want of head." (This quote often is misattributed, by the way, to Winston Churchill.) But kindness should be a virtue regardless of your age.

Dr. Chan is in practice in Pawtucket, R.I. E-mail her at rhnews.com.

When Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr. stood before the U.S. Supreme Court in March to argue for the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, Supreme Court watchers all commented about how poor a job he did. Most of the attacks on him seemed legitimate. Though, to be fair, he was trying to stave off attacks from a largely antagonistic court making specious arguments about broccoli. There was even a sound byte of him choking. (Is nothing beneath the Internet these days?) The general sense was one of defeat.

Naturally then, it came as a surprise when the Supreme Court upheld the ACA, with no less than the George W. Bush appointee Chief Justice John Roberts providing the swing vote and offering up as justification an interpretation of the mandate as being a tax, something that even the administration was hesitant to do. ("Tax" is a bad word for both sides of the political divide these days.)

I was seeing patients that day, but between 9:50 and 10:16 a.m., I snuck out every chance I could to check websites that were live blogging the event. I held my breath and bit my nails, just like, I assume, you did. (For the record, said websites are the New York Times, Slate.com, and NPR. Thankfully I did not turn to CNN or Fox News. I would have had a heart attack, and then I might have missed the happy ending.)

Bracing myself for what I thought was a done deal, I was thrilled, exhilarated, relieved, and overjoyed by the outcome. I excitedly knocked on my boss’s exam room door (he was in with a patient) to deliver the news. Indeed I did my best Mexican jumping bean impression.

This is a wonderful coup for an administration plagued by a Congress determined to see it fail. Better still, this is a coup for Americans. Emma Lazarus wrote in her poem, "The New Colossus": "Give me your tired, your poor/Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free/The wretched refuse of your teeming shore./Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,/I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" These are words referring to the first immigrant populations on Ellis Island, immortalized on a plaque on your Lady Liberty.

After all, to whom much is given, much is required in return. The writer and journalist Michael Lewis (of "Moneyball" fame), in his commencement address at this year’s Princeton University graduation, said it best when he spoke of humility: "Recognize that if you have had success, you have also had luck, and with luck comes obligation. You owe a debt, and not just to your gods. You owe a debt to the unlucky."

Francois Guisot, a French statesman from the late 1700s, said: "Not to be a republican at twenty is proof of want of heart; to be one at thirty is proof of want of head." (This quote often is misattributed, by the way, to Winston Churchill.) But kindness should be a virtue regardless of your age.

Dr. Chan is in practice in Pawtucket, R.I. E-mail her at rhnews.com.