We hold these truths....

Abstract

It is traditional in an address of this kind in surgical organizations for a great social, national, professional issue to be analyzed, often quite correctly and brilliantly. A clarion call for a plan of action is outlined, actions that are succinctly and brilliantly captured. If you peruse most of the Presidential Addresses of surgical organizations, you will find that as a pattern. I am not certain I can do that very well. I am not sure I know what to tell you about the nation's and the world's problems. I am not sure that if I had an action plan, it would have any credibility or that anybody would follow it, however correct it might be. And so, rather than making pronouncements about the all too real issues that confront us, what I would like to talk about are some matters that underlie all that we do--the constants--those aspects that at least I perceive as truths underlying what we do. Some of you may argue that these matters have little or nothing to do with the scientific organization or scientific meeting and will not convey anything of value. I hope to prove you incorrect. I hope at the end of this brief talk that you will take something away from it. Certainly I am sincere in my offering. I am not trying to sound arrogant or accomplished, nor do I presume to know all the answers. These are merely observations and things I think about.