Thanks to the INKster's friend, Richard Naskali, she is able to give readers an update on former Moscow resident Dr. Jill Seaman. Seaman has spent decades exploring the most effective way to bring modern medicine to the beleaguered people of South Sudan.
She was featured in the January 2013 issue of National Geographic.
Jill is the daughter of the late Prof. Francis Seaman, long-time chairman of the University of Idaho Department of Philosophy and active with UI General Studies, and Mary Seaman, who regularly "watch-dogged" the finances of the city of Moscow.
Francis, or Frank as he was commonly known here, served on the Moscow School Board and could always be counted on to keep a close eye on that group.
Jill was a Washington-Wyoming-Alaska-Montana-Idaho medical student, which subsidized her study at the University of Washington Medical School. She later trained in tropical medicine. She spent many years with Médecins Sans Frontières (Physicians without Borders) in Africa, now working in Sudan. Last Sept. 6, she gave the Robert B. and Floretta Austin Distinguished Lecture in Science at UI, detailing her innovative work treating the deadly Kala Azar disease among the Nuer people of Sudan.
On her own, Jill formed "Sudan Medical Relief" after MSF left Sudan. In 2009, she was awarded a McArthur fellowship and was also honored with several other "world hero" physicians for her distinguished works in medicine.
"Jill is a selfless world citizen," Naskali said.
Jill still retains her parents' Moscow home in the University Heights and occasionally comes back to visit.
U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., recently issued a press release singing her own praises for voting against H.R. 1954, a bill that would raise the national debt ceiling by $4.2 trillion but without any spending cuts.
"Congress should not raise the debt ceiling again unless it's accompanied by significant cuts in government spending and fundamental budget reform. The debate over the debt ceiling is just getting started and in the weeks ahead, we will have a unique opportunity to change the current course and incentives in our nation's capitol to smarter spending and a smaller role for the federal government."
McMorrris Rodgers is vice chairman of the House Republican Conference. On behalf of the party earlier this week she announced that they would allow the government to shut down rather than accept Obama's plan to increase the debt ceiling.
"That probably means no Social Security and Veterans' Retirement checks among other things," the INKster's Priest Brother observed. "As long as it's good for big oil, the wealthy, then that other 47 percent of blood-sucking government moochers can all go to hell, starving and sick all the way."
Amen.
... the blotter rests.
INK is penned by Vera White. To contribute to INK, e-mail vnwhite2@cableone.net.
