Having grown up in the hill country of southeastern Illinois, a poverty-stricken area, there were two people who were the most respected individuals in our region, Dr. Kirby from the village of New Haven and Dr. Rosenberg from the small town of Norris City.

Anyone who had a medical issue went to them for treatment and advice. There was a good reason for it. They were medical doctors who had spent years in training, had graduated from good medical schools and had much greater knowledge than anyone else where we lived when it came to the prevention and treatment of illnesses…. especially illnesses that could kill us like polio, tuberculosis, and smallpox.

My dad was a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat and a Southern Baptist. He revered Truman and Kennedy. We had neighbors who were dyed-in-the-wool Republicans and Methodists. They revered Eisenhower.

When my dad and our neighbors wanted spiritual advice they went to church. When they sought political advice they went to their political leaders who pretty much toed the party line. But when they wanted medical advice on whether to get vaccinated for polio, or diphtheria or smallpox, they went to Dr. Kirby and Dr. Rosenberg.

Why? Because they were the ones with the knowledge to save people’s lives. The political leaders of the 1950s and 1960s when I was growing up didn’t know any more about vaccinations and health care than politicians know today, but they did know enough to tell the public to trust the medical doctors. We did, and America successfully cured or eliminated most of those devastating diseases that threatened us when we were young.