Societal violence is a continuing cause for concern. We see a decline in civility all round.
Homicide is just one measure. Identifying causes and solutions also runs into political agendas that are counter productive.
http://michiganradio.org/post/group-calls-michigans-african-american-homicide-rate-public-health-crisis
So the AIDS epidemic was aggravated by political impediments to normal public health measures. Same thing would be true for cultural problems like domestic and societal violence.
So the City of Detroit went from the Paris of the Midwest to a gutted wreck in 30 plus years. Chicago and Philly appear to suffer from many of the same problems.
There is a lot of politically poisoned junk social science that creates false hopes or bad policy agendas.
I’d say it should be a societal concern, but a public health concern? Culture and behavior, morality and society are not well suited to the methods and the expertise of public health officials.
It would be nice if the medical profession could fix urban violence, but wanna doesn’t assure gonna.
I could argue that no responsible person is the government’s problem. Also, I didn’t say to what extent public health experts should be involved. Monitoring infection rates and regulating blood products is a perfectly reasonable role for the CDC. Public education concerning how communicable diseases spread can have a preventative effect. At the very least, AIDS is a disease, so the Center for Disease Control has an argument to make.
True, but it seems like they used to wait until there actually was ice on the roads to close them. I lost two days of work to the threat of ice that never came.
The sarcasm is strong in this one.
How many folks in Louisiana can recognize black ice in time, and how many have tires other than summer tires??
Experience MATTERS.
Why, other than monitoring infection rates, is AIDS a matter for public health experts? Keeping the blood supply clean, yeah. Beyond that? The mechanisms of AIDS transmission are very well known and almost exclusively linked to irresponsible personal behavior. Barring said irresponsible personal behavior, AIDS aka HIV is essentially non-communicable.
AIDS/HIV is a PERSONAL health problem, not public. You can bump elbows on the subway with somebody who has HIV all day long, no problem. If you choose to bump uglies, or swap needles, that’s YOUR problem, not a public problem.
Once the general nature and spread characteristics were identified, AIDS as a public health problem is simply another erroneous expansion of the purview….
Just make sure you examine every possible cause except for the failed subcultures of protected groups.
When I lived in NOLA they closed the bridges and schools because there was a 20% chance of snow flurries. Then I moved to Michigan.
“Purview sprawl” is a good term. In the military they call it “mission creep.”
“9 months of winter and 3 months of poor sledding”
I’m not sure you’re using the word “great” correctly. Of course, Gov. Jindal just closed our state down because some bridges may ice in cold weather. I’ve heard we might get as much as 1/4 inch of sleet!
Detroit has been a very rough place. 30 years ago you needed an armed escort to walk from the Ronald McDonald House to Michigan Children’s Hospital (50 yards) after dark. My son, a deputy, once said that police experience in Michigan was 1 year in Benton Harbor was worth 5 years anywhere else and 1 year in Detroit was worth 5 years in Benton Harbor.
I lived in Michigan for 20 years and two of my kids live there. If you avoid the rough places it is a great place: 9 months of winter and 3 months of poor sledding.
Politically, I’m most disturbed by the “purview sprawl” occurring in executive departments as a result of “good causes”. Regardless of whether the medical community should have an interest in broader social ills, the CDC has no business monitoring non-communicable diseases much less gunshot wounds. AIDS is clearly a matter for public health experts, but violence doesn’t fit their bill domestic or otherwise. Unless, of course, you buy that a guy who hits his wife is just sick and needs therapy rather than a prison sentence. It’s just an excuse to raise budgets and increase the governments reach into private lives and turn doctors’ offices data miners for the fed’s propaganda machine.