Bill Hiss lives in Lewiston.

It does seem odd to be writing an op-ed from a hospital bed, with ninth-floor views to Mount Washington, and people bustling to and fro night and day. Being a healer here is like serving on a submarine: tiny spaces, machinery everywhere and staff maneuvering past each other.

But perhaps it’s a helpful time for a literal grayhead — I am 82 — to share three thoughts while attached to an IV pole.

First, seeing the staff at Maine Medical Center is a blunt reminder of how utterly insane, cruel and counterproductive for America is this federal administration’s hostility to immigrants. At least as I see them at work, perhaps 10%-20% of the doctors, 30%-40% of the RNs, 70% of the LPNs and the vast majority of the support staff of housekeepers, food staff, etc., are immigrants.

Hope to stay alive? Get meds at 2 a.m.? Need food brought to your bedside? Pay attention, folks: immigrants are doing much of the work we need to stay alive.

Within the last hour, I was seen by two infectious disease physicians, one an immigrant from Vietnam, the other from an Arab country, who will care for me over the six-week treatment for a spine infection. As a minister, I see the same pattern in hospitals, rehab centers and nursing homes: the immigrants are irreplaceable labor. The same is true of agricultural workers, meat packing, hospitality, restaurants, truck drivers and countless other fields.

Second, being caught in the tragic contractions of Central Maine Medical Center for nine weeks before being referred to Maine Medical Center has been a (literal) painful reminder that perhaps it is time to rethink our medical delivery system.

I have a fine education, can get information, can afford medical expenses and have a high-end Medicare Advantage policy. But all summer I was caught in one communication or insurance snafu after another. This federal administration and our for-profit insurance industry have their fingers around our throats. If I cannot figure it out with my advantages, what in God’s name are the 70%-80% of America’s lower economic bands to do when faced with a serious medical problem?

Third, seeing the barrage of negative TV ads reminds me that hopefully sooner — by
November — we will need to find common-sense, middle-ground spaces in our social contracts. Tragically for America, President Trump’s view of the world is based on his own mental illness of narcissism, hatreds, racism, insults, pathological incessant lying, policy ignorance and the instincts of a lifelong real estate con man.

Equally tragic, the Republicans in Congress have been almost completely compliant with his daily whims, disrupting everything from fuel and food prices to international treaties to respect for our constitutional protections. Every day a new threat, a new distraction: masked and armed ICE officers at polling places, snipers on his garish monument to himself, threats to our closest allies, all while he and his family are raking in billions in illegal sweetheart deals.

Two of my fellow Lewiston citizens, running as Republicans for higher office, have yard signs that are purple, and one of these fellow citizens told me when she knocked on my door that this was deliberate, to try to send a signal that she hoped people would see her as a moderate. Well, I would like to believe so.

These two women are not MAGA cartoons spewing hate; they have worked faithfully in their current public offices. But how are we to interpret their candidacies in the light of Sen. Susan Collins claiming to be a moderate, while voting for what Trump wanted 95% of the time? My hope is that they will demonstrate clearly a rejection of MAGA cruelty and illegality.

And yes, if they are elected, I hope to offer thoughts on how we find more sensible middle ground for our country.