Say What?

Tue., Aug. 16, 1994

Vatican’s mad, go ahead anyway

The Vatican’s angry volley at the working document for next month’s World Conference on Population and Development seems to ensure that the Roman Catholic Church will not be part of any broad consensus that may emerge. …

While birthrates are low in rich countries and are falling in some poor ones, they remain very high in many others - especially in Africa, where war, drought and famine aggravate high mortality rates among infants and young mothers. …

The goal must be to broaden family planning programs, in particular through the expansion of women’s rights to health care and reproductive information, and to make their own choices about childbearing. … The world cannot afford to put off the debate if it is ever to come to terms, as a community, with the population explosion. From an editorial in the Sacramento Bee

Keep at it, Congress

The argument is now being made … that Congress has let health-care reform go too late; that not even the authors know what is in the giant bills, some portions of which would likely be unworkable or do more harm than good; and that … measured action can be taken later.

We continue to think, nevertheless, that there is still time … and that Congress ought to try.

None of these bills is perfect; far from it. But some of their flaws are being greatly exaggerated. And, importantly: most could be fixed before enactment and in such a way as to justify enactment. From an editorial in the Washington Post

… And it’s six, seven, eight strikes you’re out

America awakened Friday to life without baseball, the eighth time since 1972 that the millionaires who run and play the game have indulged in their favorite pastime. As owners and players dig in for what may be the longest, costliest and ugliest strike in the game’s history, it would be instructive for them to reflect on what the forgotten fans think of them. …

There is a bright side: no temptation to watch the Chicago Cubs further humiliate themselves. From an editorial in the Chicago Tribune

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