Deaths of Despair

Deaths of despair increasing, but only in the USA Mortality rates are rising in the United States, especially among poor, rural populations, and specifically among whites.  Life expectancy in other groups continues its historic rise, and this rising pattern is also found in 16 other countries with comparable economic levels.  This phenomenon has been dubbed “deaths of despair” because the …

Black Lives Matter

It seems appropriate today to notice the fact that the largest civil rights movement ever is responding to the shame of ongoing racism not only in the United States, but in communities around the world. On June 19, 1865 the Emancipation Proclamation was read out publicly in Texas, the last state to surrender in the American Civil War. The states …