moral code

This week my main news sources have been offering a lot of info about the role of so-called morality in public health policy.

On Tuesday, Frontline ran an epic masterpiece of journalism on the HIV/AIDS epidemic. It cited numerous instances in which the spread of the disease could have been lessened if policies had been shaped by scientific reality, not moralistic theory. And I just listened to a KC Currents piece about a recent change in Missouri law making it harder for poor people to get contraception.

And it occured to me that the privileged folks in power treat the less fortunate like children.

All these policies do is take choices away from people who can't afford to choose. The well-off -- those who fill a similar demographic as those making the policies -- have the luxury of so-called immorality without consequence. Contraception, clean needles, abortion, expensive medication -- they'll be able to get these things regardless of the changes in the law.

And the rich -- just like their fellow humans, the poor -- will continue to indulge in so-called immorality.

So those in power are daddies. Bad ones, to tell the truth. They're stern, punishing daddies who, despite the best intentions of their draconian ways, only wind up making the family more dysfunctional with their iron fist.