Why Dr. Steve Blythe is a leader who should be our next congressman:

 It is a question not of rhetoric but of values – whose values we need in Washington.

1. Leaders dedicate themselves to achieving goals. Steve Blythe works to achieve his goals as shown by a degree in biology from MIT, his medical degree, and a Master’s Degree in Health Management.
   
   
2. Steve is well known to the progressive community of our area. He is very concerned about our community and our country, as evident by the dozens of issue-focused letters and op-eds of his that have been published in “Florida Today”. He has been a featured guest speaker on many occasions at various progressive functions and churches in the community.  Last year he worked with a group of concerned parents to successfully get the Brevard County School Board to change from its “abstinence-only” sex education policy to a more comprehensive approach. This effort was documented by Robert Greenwald’s Brave New Films for an episode of the ACLU’s Freedom Files series.
   
   
3. A leader must be a teacher. Steve is a teacher – he has taught at the undergraduate, graduate school, medical school, nursing school, and medical residency training level. A dedicated nutritionist, he created and taught the first nutrition curriculum at his medical school in Maine.
   
   
4. He has had various hospital staff leadership positions and when living in Colorado was appointed by the Governor to serve on the Governor’s Medicaid Advisory Council.
   
   
5. Is he a leader? As a doctor, Dr. Blythe “leads” a group of about 2,000 individuals in their personal goals of achieving optimum health. This leadership involves scientific studies, evidence-based decision-making, personalized education, and frequent communication.  Dr. Blythe has set the standard for care in the electronic age for this community by allowing his patients to schedule their own appointments online and by his e-mail communications with patients.
   
   
6. He has a very strong sense of ethics. Several times Dr. Blythe has been forced to choose between the easy path and making an ethical choice which would cost him his job. As a graduate student doing clinical nutrition research he discovered that the scientist he was working for was giving unapproved research medications to his patients. Dr. Blythe acted to protect the patients, which meant giving up his job and never completing his graduate degree in nutrition. As a result of his efforts in this case he was invited to testify to Senator Ted Kennedy’s Senate Select Subcommittee on Human Research which was investigating the abuse of human subjects of medical research.
   
   
7. As a physician Steve Blythe learned that he could most effectively help people when he didn’t pass judgment or expect his own values to be mirrored in others. He has learned tolerance and acceptance. This is how it should be in politics as well, he believes. He believes in a woman’s right to chose, and he has spoken out publicly against the anti-gay rights Referendum #2 on the November ballot. You need to ask how the other candidates stand publicly on these issues.
   
   
8. Politics is not a career path for Steve - he feels that he already has a nice career. Dr. Blythe is running for congress because he is sick at heart of the daily struggle to care for his patients who cannot get the medical care they need. Because he is sick at heart of seeing another generation suffer through an illegal and unnecessary war. Because he is sick at heart of seeing Americans lose their grasp on the American Dream. He wants to do something about these problems, not simply further his own career.  
   
   
9. Leadership involves commitment. Steve made the commitment to bring a progressive voice from District 15 to Washington a year ago and has stood by that decision since. He has been committed to the Democratic Party through thick and thin – he has never changed political parties in order to run for office and he is not conflicted or confused about his party affiliation. His yard signs and buttons proudly proclaim that he is a Democrat.
   
   
10. Steve Blythe does not promise vague pie-in-the-sky ideas.  When we choose a leader we need to know where that leader will be taking us. Leaders can’t just wait to see which direction the crowd is going and then jump in front – they must lead the way. Steve has a specific action plan for what he will do when elected.  Here we are a mere two months before the primary election and other candidates have just begun to share with us some superficial positions on the issues!
    
    
11. Steve’s politics are personal. They are sincere. They are a lifelong commitment. In the 1980’s Dr. Blythe not only protested against U.S. military support for the dictatorships of Central America, he traveled to the jungles of Chiapas Mexico where he spent two dangerous months providing medical care to Guatemalan refugees and training a team of community health workers. He also later participated in a human rights delegation to Santiago Atitlan, the scene of a brutal massacre by the Guatemalan Army.
    
    
12. Dr. Blythe is not an elitist or money-driven. Because he offers discounted care to those without insurance and refuses to rush patients through in assembly-line fashion he is one of the best – and one of the poorest – doctors in the county.  He has traveled abroad a number of times at great personal expense to offer his medical services to some of the poorest people in the world.  He will bring that caring and compassion for all people with him when he is elected to congress.
    
    

 It is not about rhetoric, but about values.  It is not about talking the talk – it is about walking the walk, and you need to decide who you are going to support in this race and then give your energy, time, and money to that campaign to make sure we have a progressive Democrat representing us in Washington!

  Thank you.