[Moderator's note: Yes, normally too off-topic for here, but such a
clever comeback to yesterday's post about the fur trade in China that it
more or less fits in.  I suspect some will take issue with the poster's
message, but please remember this was in response to a post that was at
least loosely ferret-related -- let's not start talking about the war
in Iraq next unless they employ ferrets there too!  BIG]
 
I just finished watching the nightly news.  I will say that I was
"not surprised by what I saw." It has never ceased to amaze me that a
culture that claims to revere the dignity of the individual, and of the
individuals right to self-determination destroys so many lives with
"little disregard."
 
Fifty percent of the adult population of Camden, NJ, is illiterate, in
the most mighty industrial and economic power that the world has ever
known.  A woman here earns approximately seventy five cents on the dollar
for every one that a man earns.  It is illegal to teach children about
birth control or how to protect themselves form sexually tr ansmitted
diseases in many school systems.  Accordingly, we have one of the highest
rates of teen pr egnancy in the industrialized world.  Being born to a
teenaged mother vastly increases a childs risk of poverty, and decreases
the probability that they will get an adequate education.  It is only
within the last few weeks that it has become illegal to execute a minor
child.  The elderly frequently cannot begin to afford necessary
prescription medicine, and routinely leave the country to buy it so
that they can attend to other expenses such as food and rent on a fixed
income, after a lifetime of honest labor.
 
Much of the rest of the world turns its face toward us, and laments "It's
difficult to enforce our morals on another country, especially one who
refuses to change.  It will all come down to politics in the end."
 
Let's fix all of this, THEN harp on the "morality" of the Chinese, or of
anybody else.
 
An American who still loves this country
[Posted in FML issue 4815]