David Satcher

I read with amazement your Sept. 16 editorial regarding the nomination of Dr. David Satcher to be U.S. surgeon general. The Clinton administration has presented an eminently qualified physician (head of Meharry Medical School, interim dean of the Charles R. Drew Postgraduate Medical School, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) for this post. He has also been endorsed by the American Medical Assn. Yet this black doctor’s credentials do not seem to be good enough for The Times, which feels he should “model” himself after Dr. C. Everett Koop.

Did Dr. Koop become the outstanding surgeon general he was because he modeled himself after someone else? Did anyone even suggest that he do so?

You say Dr. Satcher is no Joycelyn Elders, who “knew a great deal more about health care than politics,” without supplying a single shred of evidence to support the statement. However, being like Dr. Elders is nothing to be ashamed of. She demonstrated precisely the type of qualities one would want in a U.S. surgeon general, but was constantly castigated by a conservative, Republican-controlled Congress.

I wish Dr. Satcher the best during the confirmation process (being anti-gun won’t help his chances), and hope that he will have the opportunity to use his considerable gifts, abilities and vision to guide the health policies of the nation into the next century.

ROBERT BOONE

Los Angeles