<div><font face="Arial" size="2">"Then explain why the United States is practically a Third World country when it comes to infant mortality. Nearly five babies per 1,000 in this country never make it past infancy.<br> Among industrialized nations, only Latvia has a higher infant mortality rate."<br> <br> </font></div> <div><font face="Arial" size="2">I have no doubt that there are inequalities among peoples in the United States based on race. <br> <br> However, I believe it is important to point out that most third world countries do not have a the resources to record all of their infant mortality rates as accurately as a wealthy nation like the US. <br> <br> There is also no universal standard for defining and recording infant mortality.<br> </font></div> <div><font face="Arial" size="2">I am not saying that is the entire reason for the similarities in numbers. However, I am willing to bet that it does have something to do with those numbers. Also,
there is great incentives for third world countries to have strict standards of recording something as infant mortality as they depend heavily on tourist dollars and few people want to visit a country with a high death rate of any kind, especially if they have children.<br> <br> </font></div> <div><font face="Arial" size="2">Nonetheless, there is NO REASON why the most powerful and wealthiest nation on Earth is not providing quality and affordable health care to its citizens. The Philippines for example, an extremely poor nations, yet has comparable health care to the US. Our medical system is full of greed, corruption, fraud, and is not based on a system of doing what is best for the people it is suppose to be taking care of. <br> <br> <br> </font></div> <div><font face="Arial" size="2">_DJA<br> </font></div> <br><br><b><i>Bill London <london@moscow.com></i></b> wrote:<blockquote class="replbq" style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255);
margin-left: 5px; padding-left: 5px;"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <meta content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1543" name="GENERATOR"> <style></style> <div><font face="Arial" size="2">I was very impressed (as I often am) by Tom Henderson's editorial this morning in the Tribune -- especially his summary last paragraph ...see below....BL</font></div> <div><font face="Arial" size="2"></font> </div> <div><font face="Arial" size="2">-----</font></div> <div><font face="Arial" size="2"> </font><h1><font face="Arial" size="2">T.H. - For too many, America is a Third World country</font></h1><!--End Headline--><font face="Arial" size="2"><br><!--Start Byline--> </font><address><font face="Arial" size="2">Tom Henderson</font></address><!--End Byline--> <div><font face="Arial" size="2"><a name="story"><!--Start Story--></a>Ever wonder why bleeding hearts carp about the disadvantaged, about the inequities of race and culture?
</font></div><div><font face="Arial" size="2">After all, America is the land of opportunity. If the so-called "disadvantaged" just pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps, they'd have the same chance every upper-middle-class white kid has for a comfortable life. </font></div><div><font face="Arial" size="2">Their chances might even be better -- given all those quotas and hiring preferences. </font></div><div><font face="Arial" size="2">Sure. </font></div><div><font face="Arial" size="2">Then explain why the United States is practically a Third World country when it comes to infant mortality. Nearly five babies per 1,000 in this country never make it past infancy. </font></div><div><font face="Arial" size="2">Among industrialized nations, only Latvia has a higher infant mortality rate. </font></div><div><font face="Arial" size="2">We may all be equal in this country. But as the saying goes, some of us are more equal than others. Behind America's
delusions about upward mobility lies a giant chasm between the haves and have-nots. </font></div><div><font face="Arial" size="2">Many of the have-nots have brown skin. Among America's black population, the infant mortality rate is nine deaths per 1,000 -- closer to rates in the Third World than to those among industrialized nations. </font></div><div><font face="Arial" size="2">That's not because black people refuse to better themselves. It's because the people holding the purse strings either refuse to acknowledge the continuing inequities of race and class in American life -- or they just plain, flat don't give a damn. </font></div><div><font face="Arial" size="2">They would rather imagine a Culture of Victimhood, where the downtrodden have only themselves to blame because they whine too much or have low self-esteem. </font></div><div><font face="Arial" size="2">How convenient. </font></div><div><font face="Arial" size="2">To acknowledge the problem would
mean accepting the responsibility to actually do something about it -- like improving access to health care. </font></div><div><font face="Arial" size="2">And that would mean recognizing -- along with practically every other industrialized nation on the planet -- that health care is a right, not a privilege. </font></div><div><font face="Arial" size="2">''Our health care system focuses on providing high-tech services for complicated cases. We do this very well," says Kenneth Thorpe, a health policy expert at Emory University. </font></div><div><font face="Arial" size="2">''What we do not do is provide basic primary and preventive health care services. We do not pay for these services and do not have a delivery system that is designed to provide primary prevention." </font></div><div><font face="Arial" size="2">Do we truly have equal opportunity in this country? Or does it just seem that way when you live too far above the street to hear other people's babies
cry? -- T.H. </font></div></div>_____________________________________________________<br> List services made available by First Step Internet, <br> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994. <br> http://www.fsr.net <br> mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com<br>ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ<br></blockquote><br><p>__________________________________________________<br>Do You Yahoo!?<br>Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around <br>http://mail.yahoo.com <p>
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