By Ken Walker
Not the sniper
Elevate your mind for a second. Rise above the media manure that is wasted on this sniper coverage. First of all, it’s a movie, no matter how hard it is portrayed, because without the enticing struggles of Charles Moose and this supposed “Muhammad,” (statistically, spree murderers are 81% white with military history), what else is there to life? Well, two things that can be mentioned are a recent study concerning American school segregation and the health care crisis you might be able to read about on B/C columns on fourth or fifth pages.
The first, a recent study by Harvard University is uncovering facts that show America is turning back to public school segregation and Kentucky is included. Texas is the worst segregator in the 239 districts covered. Who do we know from Texas? Nice job you did there, ex-Governor Bush, leading the nation in segregation and state carried out death sentences.
Each district was chosen in the study because it enrolls more than 25,000 students. It said that since Brown V. Board of Education in 1954, segregation in the public school system began enormously declining, “reaching its lowest point in 1980.” Yet, since 1986, “rates of interracial exposure” in the public schools have declined at large rates. It also states that “several US court decisions in the 1990s seem to have accelerated a nationwide trend toward resegregation.” This is occurring very quickly in the South, again, and more modernly in the West. One case that really displays ancient rail of thought is one from Texas. The state court ruled that a boy complained his grades were so high because the “education was not good enough” at a school in Beaumont. He requested special admission to a better school, was denied, and then the state told him he must finish his remaining senior year at the inadequate high school against which he filed. This segregation, invisible as it may be, is difficult to cope with. So, while our senators/representatives passed a resolution overturning the Constitution and giving power to the president to “use force” against a regime, this country is continually acting regime-like with racism, health care, and inadequate education for those who need and want it.
As for health care, the latest Census Bureau release states that 41.2 million Americans are uninsured when it comes to health welfare. These are the workers, keep in mind, not the unemployed, irregular citizens, and illegal aliens. That 41.2 million is 49%, nearly half of the country, yet at the beginning of the summer, Germany released information that 98% of their public is insured. How do they pull that off, yet this country does not?
Germany remains capitalist, but retains a social market. This social market allows the country’s centralized government to step in and make policies that allow 98% of the country to be covered when it comes to health-related matters. Back to the US, where 18 states, including Texas, are cutting eligibility for Medicaid, which serves the poorest families. The cutbacks will likely be reasoned with the recessing economy.
In 1997, CHIP was introduced to cover children of the working poor. It was introduced by Clinton and a Republican-led Congress, but since has been cut back 53% by the current administration. The 49% of the country has grown from 42% five years ago and should get considerably worse. The United States must, as lobbied by Kate Sullivan (the director of health-care policies at the US Chamber of Commerce), push and push hard for socialized health care and other social securities. If aliens and minorities in concentrated areas are on the rise, those areas will need stepped-up health care policies. So why not make it centralized? It must be mandated that in this laissez-faire capitalist system, where the market is free to roam with virtually no government interference, that health care, retirement wages, child care, etc., all must be centralized. There are too many small businesses that are dropping employees and unable to afford health benefits. Someone breaks a leg and a hospital drops that bomb of a bill, then the cycle continues. It must be stopped. We must write to senators, protest and learn where the money US workers give willingly to the government goes. Rather than devote “29 percent of the annual budget… to the annual budget,” why not devote it to centralized health care?
Segregation, drooping health care, and foreign policy all seem a bit dusty and should be wiped off. We are the world’s leading economy, and we are currently struggling. Our economy is twice the size of the second-ranked Japan economy, yet we still participate in these failing methods of governing. It can’t last.
