RICHARDSON: A crisis in confidence

I’m a pretty trusting guy. I don’t believe in conspiracy theories as a rule and I don’t think my government is out to get me. I’m not one who thinks the federal government or governments in general are inherently inept. I don’t believe the majority of large organizations are out to screw the little guy. However, this past week those beliefs have been called into question.

First, there was the news about the White House fence jumper, Omar Gonzalez. Not only did Gonzalez jump the fence, but he also made it much farther into the White House -- all the way to the East Room -- than was originally reported. I’ve stood at the White House fence many times. Remember, he had to climb a 9-foot fence and sprint roughly 75 yards to the North Portico where he entered, got into the Entrance Hall, turned left into the East Room and was finally tackled by an off-duty agent when he tried to enter the Green Room at the other end of the residence. Did I mention he had a knife?

That’s confidence crisis No. 1. Then I hear that, during his visit to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, President Obama shared an elevator with an armed contract worker in Atlanta who wasn’t cleared by the Secret Service and was an ex-felon. I’ve been up close to four presidents, and you wouldn’t believe the hassle you have to go through to be in the same universe as the commander in chief, much less an elevator.

Guess what? The president found out about the incident at the same time we did. The former director of the Secret Service, Julia Pierson, had neglected to tell her boss, Homeland Security Director Jeh Johnson, nor had she informed the president.

It would be one thing if the primary duty of the Secret Service wasn’t to protect the president and other leaders of this country (before you start sending nastygrams, I know the Secret Service has other duties in the financial arena). But if someone passes a counterfeit bill, nobody dies. A slipup with the president could mean his life or that of his family. Quite frankly, I wonder why Gonzales wasn’t shot. The dogs weren’t even released.

Whether you like President Obama or not, I have to believe that no American would want to see him assassinated. Maybe that’s naive. There are certainly crazies out there, but knowing that, wouldn’t the men and women whose primary responsibility is to protect the leader of the free world be more vigilant?

My second crisis of faith occurred at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. A Liberian man, Thomas Duncan, appeared at its doors showing symptoms of what doctors thought was the flu. Duncan had recently returned from Liberia. According to reports, he told that to one of his nurses. A companion also told hospital personnel he had just come from Liberia. They sent him home with a bunch of useless antibiotics. The next time they would see him was when he arrived at the hospital by ambulance, a victim of Ebola.

Here’s my problem. Ebola isn’t some unknown foreign disease. It has been in the news constantly for weeks. This was not a hard puzzle to figure out. These medical professionals should have easily connected the dots: vomiting, fever, Liberia. But they didn’t and sent him home instead.

He didn’t go to the emergency room of just any hospital. Texas Health Presbyterian is ranked in the top five hospitals in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. It’s ranked No. 15 in the state. I’ll leave it up to you, dear reader, to decide why this happened.

I would think differently if Ebola had not been so heavily in the news of late. I would think differently if Duncan had failed to tell them he had just come from Liberia. So why was this mistake made? Why weren’t these big dots connected? Yes, the hospital has major egg on its face.

To add insult, the family Duncan was staying with is quarantined, but The New York Times reported Thursday the apartment where he fell ill had not yet been cleaned. Bedsheets and towels he used hadn’t been removed, but there were four people still living there (thankfully, they were moved to another location Friday afternoon). The company hired by the CDC to do the cleanup didn’t have permission to transport hazardous materials on Texas highways and couldn’t enter the apartment until Friday, five days after Duncan was admitted to the hospital with Ebola. Go figure.

With all that said, I’m getting a bit paranoid. They say Ebola is not communicable until the carrier gets sick. Well, I’m just sayin’.

Charles E. Richardson is The Telegraph’s editorial page editor. He can be reached at 478-744-4342 or via email at crichardson@macon.com. Tweet @crichard1020.

This story was originally published October 5, 2014 at 12:00 AM with the headline "RICHARDSON: A crisis in confidence."