WHERE ARE THE VALUES?
Written by Ruth Cohen, M.D.
to The New York Times, April 14, 2007
in response to “The Duke Case:
What Was Learned?” in “Letters,”
April 13, 2007.

To the Editor:
Overlooked in proclaiming the innocence of the young men at Duke is the reality that they paid an impoverished, degraded, mentally ill black woman to strip for their supposed pleasure. These elite students have mothers, sisters and girlfriends. Where do they get their values? In the media there is talk of respect for people of all backgrounds. Should there be concern for underprivileged women?

—Ruth Cohen, M.D.
—New York, NY

SOCIO-SOMATIC DISEASE.
Written by Nicholas Freudenberg to
The New York Times, January 12, 2006, following publication of a series of articles
on diabetes in New York City.

To the Editor:
Unfortunately, diabetes (Series, Jan 9-12) is not the only recent epidemic to have caught New York unaware. Beginning in the 1970s HIV infection spread rapidly among various groups. In that same period, tuberculosis, a disease that had been declining for a century, suddenly spiked, infecting thousands. In the 1980s, rates of childhood asthma increased significantly. In each case, deteriorating living conditions for the city's poor, a health care system inaccessible to the neediest, and not focused on prevention, and budget cuts that undermined health contributed to the epidemic. The current Mayor and City Council now face the task not only of bringing diabetes under control but also of preventing the next epidemic. To do that, they will need to address the fundamental causes of ill health: poverty, special interests who put profit ahead of health, and a fiscal climate that accepts saving current costs by imposing epidemics on our children and grandchildren.

— Nicholas Freudenberg

The writer is Distinguished Professor of Public Health at Hunter College, City University of New York.