Dr. Dix said:
uclacrewdude, your personal opinion about AMSA aside, you definitely make some great points and suggestions. It's truly a shame that the AMSA chapter at your school wasn't effective at conveying its platforms. There's only a few national directives/priorities and sounds like you would agree with some of them. They really lost a powerful political lobbyist in you.
I really liked your post because you were respectful in the way you presented your opinion, you backed it up with the state of AMSA at your school, and then you gave some alternative ways to still be politically involved. I respect you for that. More people like you are needed on this forum.
wow, thanks dr dix. i havent had that much hot air up my ass since that one, extremely memorable, night at the burrito stand.
yes, i would agree with some of them. but i think AMSA attempts to come off as a political organization with a medical angle, when in reality it has a bigger agenda than that -- note what dreamin said about how wonderful AMSA is. btw dreamin, thanks for defecating on this thread by turning it into a freakin advertisement.
basically, i have my own politics, and its inevitable that when you undertake so many platforms youre gonna decrease your appeal. it is essentially cultist to recruit members thinking youre up for one thing (lets call it generically improved medicine) but are embroiled in a number of things, like amnesty intl, or whatever.
1) state what you are and what you want right away. before offering netters guides, amsa should clearly explain what their political goals are.
2) if i want national change, thats what the democratic party is for, or republican if thats your cup of tea. the democratic platform has more ideas that i agree with than amsa does.
3) if i want national change, i think of grassroots campaigns. in other words, amsa is so bureaucratic and nebulous an organization that we havent seen any events planned by them in weeks. philly has 6 schools, and im on the amsa mail list, so its not like im just not hearing about these things. if anything, theyre already out of touch with the people (med students, in this case). you have to talk to people individually -- this meant hunting gunners and deriding them for not being human and bringing down healthcare; being nice to nurses, being modest to strangers re:med school, etc to eliminate the idea of the holier-than-thou doctor whom people would love to sue the pants off of; getting individual students involved and actually talking to your govt reps -- those of us on the eastern seaboard should be talking to the state reps at least; and getting together groups of students in the school to do community-oriented things, like Prevention Point or something. big change starts little or starts big. amsa is more of a middleman between me and government in my opinion.
that last point underscores why i think amsa is a terrible way to get involved, counter to what troutbum says. amsa, being the middleman, dilutes the voice of the individual physician. actually, the reason we have no collective voice as physicians is b/c physicians arent talking in the first place. mobilize individual physicians. it seems like most people get really involved in medical school ... until residency and real life set in. people withdraw into their lives. so amsa is great and fine for medical students, but how come i dont see any suburban physicians at any of the meetings?
that would be an accomplishment -- if they could actually bring someone back from the great white flight to involve themselves in the politics.
so basically, a lot more of your interests can be served by joining other groups instead of amsa.
p.s. no, i didnt ding you dr dix. you have a crappy argument, but at least it was logical.
Hope this helps
