By Norman Fleishman
With interest that none of your readers has yet commented on China”s “one child per family” policy; how far do they think governmental control can extend? If a family isn”t free to decide how many they are going to be, what are they free to choose? What to have for dinner? What time to go to bed?
The global family (which numbered one billion when my father was born, in 1900 ? having taken a half-million years to creep to that amount) has leaped to seven billion in the brevity of this past century. Soon, we will surpass 10!
What this means (for those who might wonder, “why should we give a squawk?”) the queues of the starving are already in the hundreds of millions, global warming is impinging more and more on the human future, the planet is contending with drought and desiccation as it seeks water enough to survive, and most formidable of all (I”ve felt anyway, in my 50 years of concern about wildly advancing population growth): we live with the instantaneous menace of global war.
Nuclear weapons swarm, first of all, as worldwide exasperation increases ? along with national vexation and displeasure ? isn”t it likely this multitudinous jamming might erupt in some kind of calamitous “road rage?”
Since half of America”s pregnancies last year were “accidental” (and the mother of our recent octuplets ? already the mother of six ? has said “she made a mistake”) we might be in a place to take our hat off to China for its leadership on this most sensitive matter: many thanks ? and cheers!
Norman Fleishman
Lakeport
