Louisiana Voice

Do you really want to know how your elected officials go about stabbing honest individuals in the back in order to do favors for political cronies?

Well, do you?

You must not because you just keep electing these same political hacks to office. Term limits? Hah! Doesn’t mean a thing. Francis Thompson ran his string in the House only to turn around and run for the Senate. Same for Jim Fannin. Of course, Neil Riser’s claim to infamy is his laughable attempt to ram through a six-figure retirement increase for his pal former State Police Superintendent Mike Edmonson.

And Walsworth needs his proctologist every morning to fine his….well, never mind.

And now these “honorable and distinguished public servants” are pooling their political muscle to block the appointment of Dr. Jeetendra Patel to the Louisiana State Board of Dentistry after he was properly included in a list of three nominees, including incumbent Dr. Richard (we like to call him “Rick”) Willis.

That’s the way it’s supposed to be done: three names submitted to the governor and the governor names the new appointee.

But, oh no. Rick couldn’t play by the rules. Tearing a page from Mitch McConnel’s playbook, he adopted a new set of rules and called for a new election—to hell with what the governor wanted. Not only that, whereas previously, only members of the area dental association (in this case, Northeast Louisiana) could vote on a nominee, Rick decided to let the voting be opened up to all comers. Not a dentist? No problem! Here’s my campaign brochure.

Even good ol’ Rick had the cojones to admit in the letter above that Patel was ousted only “after multiple votes and petitions.” Man, he must need a wheelbarrow to haul ’em around.

In the above letter, Rick, apparently desperate to hold onto his power, implores members of the Northeast Louisiana Dental Association to “keep the pressure on Fannin, Riser, Walsworth and Thompson” to “do the right thing.”

Do the right thing, Rick?

The right thing would have been for you to shut the hell up, lick your wounded pride and walk away with your head held high. You served your five-year term, now go home.

But you couldn’t do that.

Why? is the question. What is so important about serving on the board that would deliberately go out of your way to undermine a man who has done nothing to you? Is it power, prestige, or something else?

And that, dear readers, is the crux of the issue with the Louisiana State Dental Board. Its only purpose is to serve as a means of extorting huge fines for minor infractions from dentists who, should they resist, are systematically ground down by an agency that has unlimited financial and legal resources. And this is usually done to a dentist who poses a competitive threat to a sitting board member.

If it’s not about power, it’s about race.

And neither is what this country, this state, is supposed to be about.

We are supposed to be about fairness.

We are supposed to be about compassion.

We are supposed to be about democracy.

None of these traits apply to the methods employed by Dr. Rick Willis.

Perhaps it’s time for the Dental Board to investigate him for unfair competition.

But don’t hold your breath.