To Join or Not to Join...that is the question (SOMA/AMSA)

[jhug]

If organizations gain legitimacy just by *having* positions, regardless of what those positions are, I'd sooner join up with Hamas; they have cooler hats, and no ban on pharm freebies.

yea, but you could join hamas and try to change it from within

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Members don't see this ad.

 

[LukeWhite]

yea, but you could join hamas and try to change it from within

I'm not that motivated; I'm just in it for the free kaffiyeh.

 

[LukeWhite]

Everyone has their own opinion. I would appreciate it if we kept the boards clean. This is a forum about the value of AMSA not a place to spout one's political beliefs or deny the values of other. Also as a future physician I hope you develop a little bit more compassion and understanding for other peoples values. Not everyone shares your beliefs.

Tex, everyone has their own opinion, but again, just having opinions doesn't make them valid. Some opinions are bad, and some ideas are dumb. Saying so is no slur on the people; it's a slur on the bad idea.

With all that said, pieties about how calling this idea or that misguided is just silly. I lack compassion because I have a problem with an organization supporting a procedure that vacuums the brains out of a late-term baby?

As a future physician, I hope you eventually come around to the idea that some things are right, some things are wrong, and it's our obligation to fight for the former, particularly when it involves lives, and absolutely and especially when it's a matter of organizations claiming to represent us fighting for just the opposite. While AMSA was patting themselves on the back for their admirable compassion towards others' opinions, nine month old children were being disemboweled in America and children of every age were dying of starvation and chemical gas exposure in Iraq, and AMSA did nothing save to put out indignant press releases when the rest of the world finally decided to do something about it. There are plenty of other organizations and people deserving of blame too, but as long as I'm a med student, I'll keep a special place in my attention for the group that does these things while purporting to represent my profession.

 

[TCOM-2006]

Ummmm....NO.

1. They do not represent themselves as the "the organization for medical students", they represent themselves as "The largest medical student organization" which is a big difference and their claim is 100% true. They have never represented themselves as "the organization for medical students"

just want to make a simple factual correction:

"The American Medical Student Association (AMSA), with more than a half-century history of medical student activism, is the oldest and largest independent association of physicians-in-training in the United States."

from the AMSA website:
http://www.amsa.org/about/

"The AMA Medical Student Section (MSS), with nearly 50,000 members, is the largest and most influential organization of medical students in the country."

from the AMA-MSS website: http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/14.html

**the key word here for AMSA is **independent**. AMSA is its own organization while the MSS is a special section within the AMA. both AMSA and AMA-MSS have ~ 50K members, but in this figure AMSA includes pre-med, resident and some physician members - while the 50K figure for the MSS is only med students.

 

[jhug]

independent, misguided, worthless, deceiving, fallacious...
take your pick...