I hope you will read and sign my petition for reinstatement of my rightful privileges in the ACS.
I have been a Fellow in good standing in the American College of Surgeons (ACS) for over thirty years. Founded in 1913, the ACS is the oldest and largest organization representing surgeons in the world. Its mission used to be to further excellence in surgery and support surgeons and our patients. This is no longer the case.
In 2020, the ACS leadership declared war on surgeons and surgery. It claimed that the ACS is structurally racist, that surgeons- especially white surgeons are racists, and that surgery itself is racist. No evidence to support any of these shocking claims has ever been provided. This messaging by the ACS leadership goes so far as to support the unbelievably toxic claim that patients do better when operated on by a surgeon of their own race. You cannot find any claim more poisonous to the relationship between surgeons and their patients. Imagine meeting your surgeon who is of a different race than yours and worrying whether their implicit racism will prevent them from giving you the best care. This is an insult and a slap in the face to all surgeons who go to work every day committed to the best care of the patient before them, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or any other irrelevant characteristic. We all take the same oath to serve every patient to the best of our ability.
I support Dr Bosshardt.
Thank you for stepping up & speaking out. If changes aren’t made our healthcare, hospitals, medical Procedures, surgeries, doctors, nurses, will fail us all.
Stay strong; most people are on your side.
I support Dr. Bosshardt
Stay strong! Thank you for speaking the truth!!
I read your guest posting on Sensible Medicine today and could only say loudly…finally. Finally someone has the intestinal fortitude to speak out against the insanity of which you have been an apparent casualty. I refuse to use the word ‘victim’ due to current connotations and baggage associated with it…and we have never lived in a culture that so values what words we use to express ideas. I would be happy to contribute in anyway that I can to the cause.
Stephen,
Thank you for the kind words of support. They mean a lot. Like you, I refuse to view myself as a victim. Instead I am simultaneousy outraged and saddened. Outraged that the leadership of the ACS has taken this illiberal, unjustified action to silence me using a trumped up set of charges and saddened that a venerable organization like the ACS has been captured by ideologues and descended to this level of censorship of its members. The erred in assuming that I would just slink away with my tail between my legs or even quit the ACS. While I might have considered this early on, I am now determined to remain a constant thorn in the side of the leadership until they are called account for their actions and ACS membership at large is aware of what is happening within the College. My substack was not started for the purpose of making any money. I am near retirement and comfortable. My time is valuable as I am sure yours is. If I pursue litigation, this will be expensive and I am willing to spend some money and a great deal of time in this, but not to the extent of jeopardizing my retirement. For this reason, I am happy to accept any contributions. I do not have anything formal set up yet for such. You may become a paid subscriber to my substack richardbosshardtmd.substack.com if you wish. For the present, all I can do is assure you that I will keep this set aside for expenses accrued in fighting the ACS. Also, please sign my petition at https://www.change.org/ACS-petition-reinstate-Bosshardt and pass this on to as many people as you can.
Thank you again. Regards. Rick
Amen and thanks
I say that as someone silenced by the accusation of being a racist for question the woke equity mob at the American Pediatric Surgical Association (APSA).
Jack Coughlin
Tampa, Fl
Pedsurg56@gmail.com
Jack,
It seems I keep learning of new medical organizations that have been captured by the critical race theory ideologues pushing DEI and antiracism despite the intolerant, divisive, and frankly racist nature of this ideology. It is astounding to me how this has happened within one generation. We are now in the fight of our lives. Even though I believe all of these initiatives and the ideology that promotes them will eventually self-destruct due to their toxicity, if we do not fight back, we will allow them to last longer than they ever should and possibly permanently destroy the liberal order and all the advances of western enlightenment such that we will be not be fixing our institutions and social structure; we will have to start fresh. I believe that is the plan with the leftist hoping to building some ill-conceived, tired version of utopia. We know how those attempts have ended in the past.
Rick