We are seeing a lot of PSAs (public service announcements) on TV aimed at encouraging people to return their census forms. Evidently this is a greater problem in Latino communities because illegal immigrants fear that the government can use census data to track down, and even deport, illegal immigrants. Evidently there is a rumor to his effect going around in Spanish-speaking communities.
However, I have never seen any of these PSA in Spanish. Does that make sense to anybody?
A news item of a couple days ago said that Chicago police officers, who now have video cameras in their cars, have been keeping these cameras turned off. The cameras are supposed to deter any police wrongdoing, for example during traffic stops. The police excuse for not having their cams turned on? They might be shown doing something they are not supposed to do. No further comment needed.
Population control: I feel that no family should have more than two or three children. More people being born means more pollution, more strain on natural resources, more energy use and hence production of greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming, and destruction of habitat for wildlife. We are covering America with subdivisions and parking lots.
I could go on and on, on that subject. But now evidently there's yet another reason to limit family size: A recently-announced study shows that women increase their risk of stroke with every child that they give birth to. So today I was wishing I could say to the guy I saw with five kids, "Think of what you are doing to your wife every time you knock her up!"
Of course, given the nature of things, tomorrow a study will come out showing no such relationship. Meanwhile, the mother of all those kids didn't look at all harassed, I have to admit. Plus, they looked like a family who could afford those children. But, for the reasons above, I don't feel a family should have all the kids they can afford to.
Copyright © 2010 by Richard Stein
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My maternal grandmother gave birth to fourteen healthy children and my mother five. My mother is in her eighties and my grandmother lived into her nineties with no strokes. My grandmother died from heart trouble. There are always new studies coming out and some make disputable claims. Family planning has been a societal problem but predominantly in certain communities. Most of us are no doubt aware of China's method of population control but then China doesn't have an untarnished reputation when it comes to human rights adherence. Where we find freedoms unfortunately oftentimes we find abuses. Getting people to act as adults, be responsible, live respectfully of others, or do our idea of what is right this day and age presents a major challenge. Regulation of behaviour is and should be a delicate matter. The more people and diversity we see in our big and not always so happy family the more care we must take to not step on anothers toes.
ReplyDeleteI heard another view years ago: that couples who are affluent and intelligent should have as many children as possible. Otherwise the dumb will populate the planet. More recently, that premise was the basis for the movie "Idiocracy."
ReplyDeleteMy replies to the commenters: I'd agree that it would be very inimical to American notions of freedom for anyone--government or anyone else--to try to regulate people's fertility. But I'd like to see other means used. For one, I'd drop the incentive (by means of tax deductions) that our government currently offers to the bearing of children.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, it would be desirable for the gene pool if the intelligent had more children and those of low intelligence had fewer. Again, America is not going to stand for any policies directed to such an end. For one thing, it unfortunately brings to mind the Nazi regime's eugenics policies: not only getting rid of all the population groups they deemed "undesirable," but on the other side, they had this institution called Lebensborn where perfect Aryan-specimen males and perfect Aryan-specimen females were brought together and encouraged to breed. Also (as that example suggests), that's repulsive to us because it sounds like animal breeding.
So we can improve animal species but not our own, it would seem. However desirable it might be to try to improve the human species by applying eugenic principles when the issue is viewed dispassionately, the other side of the issue is that it raises the specter of totalitarianism and some futuristic dystopia of science fiction.