AAEM Presidents Message: Why I joined AAEM

[CAL/AAEM News Service]

AAEM President’s Message: Why I joined AAEM

Source: AAEM Common Sense (http://www.aaem.org/commonsense/index.shtml)
Author: A. Antoine Kazzi, MD FAAEM
Date: January/February 2006


Martin Luther King, Jr. said once that, “The ultimate
measure of a man is not where he stands in moments
of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge
and controversy.”

Nearly midnight Friday in Beirut, I find myself in a coffeehouse down
the street from my new apartment, writing to you – our members
and friends, my last President’s Message, wondering how to relay to
you the strong feelings I have about my last 21 years in the USA,
working side-by-side with so many wonderful leaders and emergency
physicians to serve our patients and communities the best we can.

Most of you do not know it yet; however, it was only four weeks ago
that I chose to move back to Beirut to establish the first academic
department of emergency medicine at the American University of
Beirut, with a residency program that will meet all the ACGME
requirements that we have defined for proper training in the specialty
we cherish. This was not an easy decision; and I am confident that
most of you have experienced that bittersweet paradoxical feeling
which prevails when we say goodbye to what we love: we grow a little
and die a little


Tonight, I could speak to you about the AAEM activities or discuss
its educational, political and practice-related achievements. I was also
tempted to speak in-depth about the wonderful gathering of 1,400
emergency physicians from 67 nations and the 50 societies that were
working together during the Third Mediterranean Emergency
Medicine Congress to produce the largest and best international
scientific conference that our specialty has produced.

However, deep in my heart, I hear a voice telling me instead to tell
you a personal story, and to have the story relayed to you so you
know how I really feel about the Academy and my last 21 years living as
a citizen and free man in the USA.

My friends and colleagues in the AAEM Board of Directors know
some of this. It was in 1984 that I immigrated to the USA to study
medicine, after I was forced to interrupt my studies at the American
University of Beirut. The campus had fallen in the hands of forces
that were hostile to my sect and upset at my years of service fighting
against a foreign occupation army. That was a time when the forces
of sectarian evil were reigning over the whole country. There was too
much religion and too little faith. Sadly, the black shadow of those
forces remains at large
 At the age of 12, I experienced my hometown
under siege and bombarded for a full year, and the absurdity of intersectarian
strife. I then witnessed 5,000 soldiers of that occupation
army invade the town and slaughter 1,000 civilians over 72 hours. In
one of the neighborhoods that were first overrun, my family and I were
the only ones to survive those 3 nights of horror.

The rest of my years in Lebanon were colored by those events. We
went to school during the day and manned the barricades and
trenches at night. Some days, nights or weeks were worse than others.
It was a time when so many spoke of God and justice; yet only a few
knew the value of law, the respect of the life and freedom of others.
Forgotten was the value of equality, civil rights, integrity and
tolerance.

Forced to interrupt my medical studies, I found myself again
pressured to return to the trenches. However, my three years at the
American University of Beirut had certainly convinced me more
than ever that sectarianism was absurd and atrocious. I was no longer
13. I was 20 and had learned my lesson. I took advantage of the
first opportunity I had to board a plane and landed in Logan Airport
in Boston. Two days later a wonderful Dean, Dr. William Mac’
Nary, gave me a probationary status in his medical school, and gave
me the chance to have what turned out to be a new life and a
wonderfully blessed career in the USA.

Yet, deep in my heart, I found myself alone and away from my
family and community. I was yearning for that feeling of belonging,
of an extended family and searching for a struggle where I would
again feel the same passion and integrity I had felt for a cause at one
point in my teenage life.

This search did not take too long. I soon found emergency medicine
was my community and felt deep in my heart that the American
Academy of Emergency Medicine had become my family. I found
purity in its mission and vision statements. Yes, I certainly saw that
it had idealism, and that many criticized it as utopian. However, I
also experienced firsthand the integrity of its leaders. I felt passion
for its objectives and aspirations and saw true value in its activities
and engagements.

I always will.

So, to answer my own question, why did I join the American
Academy of Emergency Medicine?

Because emergency medicine is not only just a job! It is a vocation! A
struggle to do what is best and what is right and ethical for our patients
and colleagues. And because the AAEM stands for integrity and
transparency in the way we practice and serve patients, the specialty
and the individual specialist!

Another quote by Martin Luther King, Jr. best mirrors the essence
of AAEM: “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about
things that matter.”

AAEM will never be silent about the issues that matter! Looking at
the slate of candidates, I am very confident stating loud and clear
that AAEM is in good hands and will sooner or later succeed in
turning the specialty back to where it needs to be!

Yes, as I write these farewell words as your president, I renew my
commitment to serve the specialty we cherish, the specialist and most
of all the patients we care for – anywhere I go.

I am not saying goodbye to AAEM. I have been a member for 12
years, since the AAEM was founded by those who took the first
stand against the forces of greed! I will continue to serve the American
Academy on select international and US national matters the best I
can.

“I have been so fortunate for the privilege you gave to me - to serve as
an AAEM President, Vice President and Board member over the last 7
years.” I will, therefore, always be most indebted to you for your
confidence and support, grateful for the privilege of serving our nation
and specialty and certainly very proud to be a citizen of our great
nation, the United States of America.

As I conclude my statement, I wish to take a moment to thank my
closest mentors and friends in AAEM: Dr. Robert McNamara, Dr.
Tom Scaletta, Dr. Joe Wood, Dr. Peter Rosen, Dr. Lewis Goldfrank,
Dr. Mark Langdorf, Dr. Steve Hayden, Dr. Bill Durkin, Dr. Larry
Weiss, Dr. Ramon Johnson and Dr. Jerris Hedges, the AAEM
Executive Director, Ms. Kay Whalen and her outstanding team, the
remaining current and past directors and officers of the Board of
Directors, the very inspiring Dr. Joe Lex, Dr. Ghazala Sharieff, Dr.
Amal Mattu and Dr. Bob Simon, and most of all, the members of
AAEM for their confidence and guidance.

I will conclude with one last statement by Dr. Martin Luther King

that has particular meaning that mirrors the spirit of this moment

“If life is to be complete it must include not only the dimension of
length but also of breadth, by which the individual concerns himself
in the welfare of others. No man has learned to live until he can rise
above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the
broader concerns of all humanity.”



Cyrus Shahpar & Brian Potts 
Managing Editors, CAL/AAEM News Service
University of California, Irvine

The CAL/AAEM Archives are available at: http://maillists.uci.edu/mailman/public/calaaem/


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com