Lesson Eight

Section One: News in Brief

Tapescript
1. Two years of sensitive negotiations paid off today as seventy for-
mer Cuban political prisoners arrived in the United Staits. All of the
prisoners had served least ten years in Cuban jails, and some had
been in prison since Fidel Castro came to power in 1959. The release
was arranged in part by French underwater explorer, Jacques
Cousteau, and a delegation of American'Roman Catholic bishops.

2. President Reagan today unveiled plans for a nine hundred million
dollar plan to reduce drug abuse in the United States. It incl@des half
a billion dollars for stepping up drug enforcement along US borders,
especially in the southwest. The plan also calls for mandatory drug
testing for some federal workers. NPR's Brenda Wilson reports. 'As
part of his national crusade against drugs, President Reagan signed
an executive order today requiring federal workers in sensitive posi-
tions to undergo drug tests. The order covers employees who have
access to classified information, presidentially appointed officials,
law enforcement officials, and any federal worker engaged in activi-
ties which affect public health and safety or national security. But
heads of government agencies may order additional workers to take
the test. Federal employees who are, found to have continued to use
illegal drugs after a second test will be automatically fired. The over-
all drug testing program is expected to cost fifty-s ix million dollars,
but administration officials could not get even a ballpark figure of
how many workers may be included in the mandatory program. I'm
Brenda Wilson.'

3. Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres is in Washington for talks
with US leaders, including President Reagan. Earlier Peres met with
Secretary of State George Shultz. Afterwards, the two told reporters
that the Soviet Union will have no role in Middle East peace talks,
because it has no diplomatic ties with Israel and does not permit free
emigration of Soviet Jews.

Section Two: News in Detail

Tapescript
Israel's Prime Minister Shimon Peres is in Washington D. C.
this week to confer with high-level US officials. His visit follows his
summit with Egyptian President Mubarak last week. This afternoon,
the Israeli leader and President Reagan met at the White House.
NPR's Elizabeth Colton reports.
Israel's Peres comes to Washington only weeks before he is
scheduled to step down from the Prime Minister's post and exchange
roles with the current Foreign Minister, Yitzhak Shamir. This rota-
tion was arranged two years ago as part of Israel's coalition national
unity government. But what was expected to be little more than a
farewell visit for Prime Minister Peres has now taken on a new im-
portance because of Peres' recent achievements towards bringing
peace between Israelis and Arabs. At the White House this afternoon
President Reagan said that the Middle East peace process was the
major topic for discussion. And he praised Prime Minister Peres' ef-
forts in that direction.
'We noted favorable trends in the Middle East, not just the

longing for peace by the Israeli and Arab peoples, but constructive
actions taken by leaders in the region to breathe new life into the
peace process. No one has done more than Prime Minister Peres to
that end. His vision, his statesmanship, and his tenacity are greatly
appreciated here." President Reagan said that other items on the
agenda of his meeting with Prime Minister Peres were American
economic aid to Israel, international terrorism, and Soviet Jewry.
The President assured the Israeli leader that the plight of Soviet
Jewry will remain an important topic in all the talks between the US
and the Soviets. I'm Elizabeth Colton in Washington.

Section Three: Special Report

Tapescript
A chapbook arrived in the mail a while back from the
Northeastern Ohio University's College of Medicine. The chapbook,
a small pamphlet of collected poetry, contains works by students,
part of the school's 'Human Values in Medicine" program. NPR's
Susan Stanberg leafed through the poems.
The selected works by finalists in the "William Carlos Williams
Poetry Competition,' named for America's great poet-physician,
the New Jersey country doctor who used to scroll drafts of poems on
pages of his prescription pads. William Carlos Williams wrote short,
sometimes, and to the quick.
This is just to say I have eaten the plums
That were in the ice box,
And which you were probably saving for breakfast.
Forgive me; they were delicious,
So sweet and so cold.
"Let me read it again."
And he did. William Carlos Williams, who died in 1963, has
been an inspiration to patients and physicians. So, it's fitting that the
Northeastern Ohio University's College of Medicine should name its
poetry competition for him. Now, at the beginning of its fifth year,
the competition is open to all medical students in this country, but
just one percent of them, a few hundred or so, entered the competi-
tion.
,, I'm sure a lot more are closet poets and aren't willing yet to
submit. We hope they do." Martin Cohn, director of the Human
Values in Medicine's program at the College of Medicine, says that
students' poetry centers around several themes.
' I guess it falls into categories that all poets write about, in-

,i
eluding lovers and ff;cnds and soi-r )wful kinds of situi tions, but then
there is also the experience that they're i-nost intimate with, which is
medical school itself, which is also a theme, and also relationships
with patients."
Poetry by ten medical students is presented in the chapbook,
accompanied by biographical notes on each of the poets. Kurt Beal,
at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, des-
cribes himself this way.
"I write to remember, to find, to uncover, to unfold. I have
learned that poetry is music. And I write because I cannot sing."
Martin Cohn has some sam ples of poems from the chapbook. P.
C. Bowman of the Medical College of Virginia School of Medicine
wrote "Cartographer about his Wife."
When I watch you watching yourselves in the mirror,
Undress not with caution but with care,
Peeling the swimsuit from shoulders and breasts,
Exposing the belly flat from its vortex to the ribs,
Ordered as architecture. The hip swell
That breaks my geometer's heart.
It is a map of some impossible country,
Whose turns widen to vistas and stations
So sudden that I cannot breathe or comprehend
How I have wandered there and kept my life.
"Wonderful poem."
"Ya. "
"But he doesn't have to be a doctor to have written it."
"No. That's true."
"Give us one that could only be written by a doctor."
" OK. There is a poem, another one on anatomy, that was
written by Diane Roston, who, as the other poets, has a v r
C,y inter-
esting background. She danced for a number of years in a regional
company and also had taken courses in journalism. And she writes

of an experience with a cadaver, and the life of this cadaver. And she
ends the poem with the following verse..
Now student to anatomy.
Cleave and mark this slab
Of thirty-one-year-old Caucasian female flesh,
Limbs, thorax, cranium, muscle by rigid muscle.
Disassemble this motorcycle victim's every part,
As if so gray a matter never wore a flashing ruby dress.
I notice there's so much of that in this poetry by the medical
students, the reminders to themselves of humanity here. it's not just
arteries; it's not just anatomy. There are humans."
"That's right. And we feel we're just trying to do our part to en-
courage them to remember. Many students shuck off the arts and
humanities when they enter medical school, and even if we can keep
them involved, even if it's a thread of involvement, or vicarious
involvement by reading, not necessarily writing - that's what we are
trying to do."
At the Northeastern Ohio University's College of Medicine,
Martin Cohn says there's no evidence that the making of poetry
produces better medicine, but he has to believe it helps the students
understand themselves and their patients better. And so the William
Carlos Williams Poetry Competition continues. I'm Susan Stanberg.
This is just to say I have eaten the plums
That were in the ice box
And which you were probably saving for breakfast.
Forgive me; they were delicious,
So sweet and so cold.

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