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<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>
<H1>T.H. - For too many, America is a Third World country</H1><!--End Headline--><BR><!--Start Byline-->
<ADDRESS>Tom Henderson</ADDRESS><!--End Byline-->
<P><A name=story><!--Start Story--></A>Ever wonder why bleeding hearts carp
about the disadvantaged, about the inequities of race and culture?
<P>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.
<P>Their chances might even be better -- given all those quotas and hiring
preferences.
<P>Sure.
<P>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.
<P>Among industrialized nations, only Latvia has a higher infant mortality rate.
<P>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.
<P>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.
<P>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.
<P>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.
<P>How convenient.
<P>To acknowledge the problem would mean accepting the responsibility to
actually do something about it -- like improving access to health care.
<P>And that would mean recognizing -- along with practically every other
industrialized nation on the planet -- that health care is a right, not a
privilege.
<P>''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.
<P>''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."
<P>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. </P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>