The year was 1915. After weeks at sea, Harry Dorfman (maybe that wasn’t even his name) arrived from Warsaw, uneducated, penniless and unable to read or write one word of English.
He found a place to live in a Lower East-Side tenement (probably with others from his same Polish village) and took the only job he could find, driving a team of horses over the newly-built Brooklyn bridge. His destination was the farms in this outer borough and he delivered each morning a wagon-load of milk to the ever-expanding, Jewish population on Manhattan’s, Delancy street.
Repeatedly, I heard his recollection of the “highway-robbers’s story”, about those “unfortunates” who met the ire of that Polish milkman’s gun, and that “they never stole one container of my milk.”
Sure, he drank too much (Vodka, certainly not the milk). Sure he just “loved those women” ( two wives and numerous girlfriends), but his son became a doctor, one of his daughters, my mother, became Charles Goren’s executive assistant ( the founder of the modern card game, Bridge) and his other daughter ran the tiny family-owned candy-store.
Harry Dorfman was my grandfather. He was 98 when he died, not a sick day in his entire life.
This poor, uneducated, illiterate Polish immigrant left a legacy of doctors, lawyers, dentists, teachers, scientists, and probably his most crowning achievement, housewives. He really loved his borsch.
Living with family into his 90’s, he deserved and received our respect and admiration. I was so special to him, being his first-born grandson. I miss him very much. He never did learn how to read or write my name in English. But, I really did love that character.
In the Nov. 12 issue of the National Review, it was reported that British doctors have been asked to designate one percent of their patients who will likely die this year and offer them immediate “end of life” treatment in order to save their National Health Service $840 million dollars a year.
Norman Lamb, minister of State for Care Services, is asking Physicians in England’s government-run healthcare system, to look for “indications of fragility and deterioration” and that end-of-life treatment should be “as comfortable and dignified as we can possibly make it.” How considerate of him.
Hidden in the 2,800 pages of Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) are two committees:
1- “The Independent Payment Advisory Board” controls all payments to doctors, hospitals, research centers and medical schools and
2- “ The U.S. Preventative Services Task Force” determines exactly what types of treatment every doctor may perform and which patients may receive them.
These two committees :
1- are made up of government appointees (not necessarily physicians);
2- meet in private and are not required to publish any minutes of their meetings;
3- have no congressional oversight;
4- are not required to hold any public hearings; and
5- for the first time in our history, may use “cost” as a major factor in their recommendations for our healthcare.
Who would you like to be in charge of your treatment during the last few years of your life? Minister Norman Lamb, Barack Obama, Secretary Cathleen Sebalious , or Grandpa Harry?
On Nov. 6, the choice was made for you.
“The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”
Ronald Reagan, Aug. 2, 1986
Dr. Stephen Morris
North Hills
