Issue link: https://tmcpulse.uberflip.com/i/515661
t m c ยป p u l s e | m a y 2 0 1 5 27 in terms of the health of a person. You can go to your doctor, and they want to know how good your circula- tion is. Because if the circulation is good, your health is good. Well, it's the same way with transportation. If people and goods can't move through a community, then it's going to stagnate and it's going to die. So, long-term, one of my main interests is to make deci- sions now that I know won't really come into fruition for 20 or 30 years, which is why I'm chairing the TexDOT Advisory Committee right now. We are looking at how to plan for transportation that will allow for this whole region to continue to grow. On the health care side, 20 years ago health care wasn't a public policy issue and it certainly wasn't something a county judge paid any attention to. But for a variety of reasons, it's here now. And as I pointed out in the State of the County address, wealthy, well-educated people are confused enough about health care. They are looking at insurance premiums and which doctors to select, and all of that. But for other people, it's just a maze. How do you get through it? I am a big believer in preventive care. Establishing medical homes for people, so that they are not afraid to go get health care, and show up at the very end in an emergency room. Emergency rooms are nice, but they are expensive and they are not the ideal place for getting care. So those are the two main things: taking care of the health of the community, and the health of the economy. And they are pretty much tied together. Another thing I talked about was TranStar, which is kind of like the Texas Medical Center. No one today would have designed something that has TexDOT and the city and the county and Metro all in it, but they did. And then this domed building down there that I inher- ited. But I think we ought to use it. It's an asset. Q | Let's talk a bit about mental health. If you could wave a wand and make one or two things happen in the next few years, what would those be? A | I think one of them is already happening, and that is that people are no longer viewing mental health as different from physical health. That's a huge change, just in perception. And that's where someplace like the Texas Medical Center, or the member institutions at least, can ultimately play a bigger role. Because why should a disease of the brain be treated any differently than a disease of any other organ? So I think we are there. That magic wand may not have fully been waved, but it's on its way. But the bigger issue, and it applies to mental health and several other categories, is that we have got to get a realization that investing in things now is really the conservative, smart thing to do, because it saves so much money down the road. And it will allow people to have productive lives, which will generate all kinds of good things, economic or otherwise, for society. Q | How would you describe the Texas Medical Center? A | I describe it to people as being the best collection of medical facilities, period. Sometimes I talk about it, and I don't meant this to sound as negative as it might at first, but it's an accidental occurrence. I mean, yes, some very generous people made some generous donations back in the beginning. But who could have known that it would develop into the 56 institutions that is it now? If we were sitting here today and it didn't exist, I doubt anyone would design it that way. But the fact that it has developed, I consider it to be an absolute gift. Now we need to take advantage, and all of us need to be part of nurturing the Texas Medical Center and its institutions so that the institutions, and the whole medical center, can really grow into its full potential. Q | Looking forward, what do you get most excited about looking at the next five or 10 years? A | We have got things going in the right direction on mental health. We've got people in Austin, from really conservative Republicans to really liberal Democrats, all talking about mental health. So that is going to be a big thing that I don't want to let go of. I do want to solve the Astrodome dilemma, and make use of that asset. And again, being repetitive, I hope to get some decisions made, not just by me but by the decision-making bodies, to build certain transportation facilities so that when I'm living in my cabin up in the East Texas woods, peo- ple down here can be moving around because someone made a decision long ago. Q | That's a beautiful quilt you have hanging here in your office. Can you tell us about it? A | My wife is part of a quilting group that has met for many years, and when I went to Washington in '89, she was going to make a quilt to hang behind my desk in the Interstate Commerce Commission. And this was finally finished six years ago, so it didn't quite work out. It's a Baltimore album quilt, and that's why you have the fed- eral eagles in the corners, and they are always supposed to tell a story. So, birds and flowers became the theme. And we both went to Bellaire High School, so that's where the cardinal is from. Baltimore Oriole, because we were living in Maryland at the time, and going to the Orioles games. Gwen was born in Louisiana, so the pelican. State bird of Texas is a mockingbird. Robins were always a favorite of mine as a kid, and we just needed something colorful, so we added the blue jay, and of course, the Rice owl. And then the flowers, you have the black-eyed Susan, which is the state flower of Maryland, and then the yellow roses and blue bonnets. And then you have the Texas Flag, and the Scottish flag because we used to go there every year. And that leaves that one bird, a canary, and no one ever knows what that's for. I am the only person you will ever meet who gets signed jerseys from the Norwich Canaries soccer club. A friend of mine is one of the minor owners of the Canaries, so I started following them years ago. Q | One last question. What advice would you give someone who is beginning their career in public service? A | The advice I always give, that I still do, is to read books about people who have been here and done this. Not just the real famous ones. You read and you come across things and you learn from what they did. And you learn from the mistakes that people made, too. So I tell people just absorb as much as you can from people that you know, and from people you can read about. Secondly, there was an old gentleman named Bill Heatly in the Legislature, who when I first went up in my 20s, he was exactly the kind of person that I didn't like. Old-line, conservative Democrat, West Texas, nothing about it matched up. And I guess he kind of sensed that because he took me aside one day and said, 'Look, I know you don't like me, but I'm going to give you some advice. Never permanentize an enemy.' Now, I don't know that 'permanentize' is a word, but he and I got to be pretty good friends after that, because you start thinking about it and you are going to vote on something one day and be on opposite sides. And then the next day, you may want to be on the same side. But if I have made you such a personal enemy that you aren't willing to work with me, or vice versa, then we aren't going to accomplish anything. And I have always remembered that. It was such great advice. We have got things going in the right direction on mental health. We've got people in Austin, from really conservative Republicans to really liberal Democrats, all talking about mental health. So that is going to be a big thing that I don't want to let go of.