Yes, “Shame.” Now let’s face it.

Yesterday (September 6) Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times pointed out “The Larger Shame” that Katrina has exposed, “the children and families trapped in a never-ending cyclone of poverty.“ He sites the recently released report by the U.S. Census Bureau,"Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States, 2004” (US Census Bureau) reporting that the official poverty rate in the US actually rose last year (from 12.5 percent in 2003 to 12.7 percent in 2004). Accompanying that rise was an increase in the number without health insurance, now 45.8 million people (15.7 percent). It is a horrible irony of a tragedy like Katrina that, as Kristof says, “in some ways the poor children evacuated from New Orleans are the lucky ones because they may now get checkups and vaccinations.”

Infant mortality rates are often used as a shorthand to get a sense of how well a country is doing providing basic health care to its population. “Under Mr. Bush, the national infant mortality rate has risen for the first time since 1958. The U.S. ranks 43rd in the world in infant mortality, according to the C.I.A.'s World Factbook; if we could reach the level of Singapore, ranked No. 1, we would save 18,900 children's lives each year,” writes Kristof. In January 2002 when a group of Health Advocacy students, alums and faculty went to Cuba to learn about the Cuban health care system , the official Cuban press headlined the fact that the infant mortality rate in Cuba was lower than in the US.

It seems as if we have been inured to such facts. Our shame should be deep. Let’s hope this time it leads to action.