With the pivotal November 6 elections drawing near after the unprecedented and profoundly disturbing disclosures and consequences of having a Trump in the role of president for nearly two years, I have been thinking about Dr. Korones with renewed respect and appreciation. He continued to direct The Newborn Center well into his 80s! He began his attempt to establish an intensive care nursery for critically ill newborns with special attention to poor/minority babies in a year frequently referenced in this Trump era as the nearest similarly turbulent year in our memory -- 1968.
Shouldering the task of creating a neonatal ICU at Memphis' Charity Hospital represented a courageous decision on Dr. Korones' part to stand with/for the marginalized, the exploited, the voiceless in his city/place. One of my numerous discussions with Dr. Korones comes to mind. As he described his lonely and often discouraging but finally successful three-year search for tangible support from political leaders -- local, state, federal -- necessary to build and sustain The Newborn Center, I remember asking him how he positioned himself politically in such a sensitive/conflicted time as were the late 1960s into the early 1970s. His answer revealed his integrity, his center -- "Doug, in the core of my being I am a 'Babycrat'!" His answer remains a deeply convicting corrective for me and perhaps for you too. I am certain he would advise us to vote next Tuesday consistent with a longing for integrity, factual insight, empathy, fairness, peacefulness, mutual respect . . . to watch for hopeful election results . . . and then regardless of the results to return to making attentive/sacrificial decisions in the concrete encounters each day brings, mindful of the risks but grounded/steadied by a contentment in the authenticity of this way of being.