(no subject)

[dreamer_easy]

So. Infant mortality. I'm sure I sound naive and sanctimonious and middle-class and White in my surprise and anger. Not being directly, personally affected by it, you read all these statistics about the results of racism, about mortgages and glass ceilings and whatever, and it all seems so abstract; and then one figure smacks you between the eyes like a shovel. Piles of dead babies tend to have that effect. That's what racism is, what sexism is, what war is, what it always has been. The most vulnerable human beings, like miner's canaries, tumbled into mass graves, dead of greed.

*takes a deep breath*

Meanwhile in Australia:

Forced to live in hunger: a study of Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory (infant mortality: 16.7) finds they can't afford to eat healthily - or sometimes at all. Researchers suggest short-term help (eg fruit and vegetable hampers) but also long-term change. Lemme see if I can find the full report online.

Comments

O RLY?

[thegameiam.livejournal.com]

Not being directly, personally affected by it, you read all these statistics about the results of racism, about mortgages and glass ceilings and whatever, and it all seems so abstract; and then one figure smacks you between the eyes like a shovel. Piles of dead babies tend to have that effect.

and then

The most productive way we can deal with a thorny situation is to build as much common ground as possible, rather than sidetracking from the huge things that need doing on that common ground and focusing only on the wedge issues.

The second is a much better approach than the first. Tone down the rhetoric if you're actually trying to work toward a solution.

Re: O RLY?

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

WHEN I AM HIT BETWEEN THE EYES WITH A SHOVEL

*** I SHOUT ***

Re: O RLY?

[thegameiam.livejournal.com]

Shouting fixes nothing. If you want to actually improve things like this, work on improving access to medical and food services in poor communities. I'm certain that there are lots of groups who need volunteers.

Re: O RLY?

[jblum.livejournal.com]

...You jump in to accuse her of supporting baby-killing, and then complain that she's ramping up the rhetoric?

Re: O RLY?

[thegameiam.livejournal.com]

Re-read from the start.

Re: O RLY?

[jblum.livejournal.com]

I did. You're the one who took it from impassioned but non-divisive into ad hominem territory, by trying to make Kate's irrelevant personal beliefs on abortion your central issue. That's divisive rhetoric right there.

Re: O RLY?

[thegameiam.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Last I checked, Kate had espoused public policy opinions on the subject of abortion. That takes personal beliefs out of the "irrelevant" category. I am making a connection between a public policy position and a public health problem. Yes, it's uncomfortable, and my statement was specifically designed to be uncomfortable, but I don't know exactly where it would have gotten into ad hominem territory.

Did I put false words into Kate or anyone's mouth?