Category: Governance

Children and Guns

Here are some statistics about children and guns

  • In a typical week in the US 25 children die from gunshot wounds
  • Between 2012 and 2014 1297 children under 18 died each year as a result of firearm injuries
  • In addition there were 5790 non-fatal injuries from gunshots
  • African American children are 10 times more likely to be killed by homicides than white children: 3.5 per 100,000
  • Suicide among white children is 4 times as high as it is for African American children
  • The rate of unintentional firearm deaths is twice as high for African American children than it is for white children
  • The District of Columbia and Louisiana had the highest firearm death, respectively 4.2 and 4.5 per 100,000
  • Child suicide by gun were highest in Montana, Idaho, Oklahoma, and Alaska
  • Most children who died of unintentional gun injury were shot by another child about the same age
  • Child gun homicide deaths have declined, but suicide have increased by 36% from 2007 to 2014
  • Gun suicide rates for that period increased 60%

Extreme Commutes

Talking to the nurse in the doctor’s office she shared she had a long commute, “it’s only 32 miles” she said, “but it takes 2 hours because of traffic.” She didn’t like four hours of her day spent driving, she did however like her job, and felt lucky since she had to work. Other nurses in that same office shared similar stories of 2 hours commute to work.  Of course living in Southern California where things are so spread out, such stories are not unusual. Yet when the NYT published an article about what it called extreme commutes, and did it the very same day I had had that conversation with the nurse, I had to pay attention. Decades ago, commuting is Continue reading “Extreme Commutes”

Child Marriage and Economic Development

Child marriage has normally been seen as a human right issue. But a new study by the World Banks and the Center for Research on Women (CRW) suggest that child marriage is also an issue of economic development.  While child marriage does occur even in countries like the US, the greatest proportion occurs in poor countries. In Niger for example 77% of women between the ages of 18 to 22 were married before the age of 18. Sometimes the poorer the country, the more child marriage is likely to occur. Often there are laws banning child marriage, yet it still occurs.  Laws have been on the books in Bangladesh for example since a surprising 1929, but have been Continue reading “Child Marriage and Economic Development”

Going To Jail as a Civic Duty

I was struck by an op-ed in the L.A. Times by novelist Jesse Ball in which he suggests that serving on jury duty may not be enough to fulfill our civic duty. His idea is that every 10 years we would be called to serve time at a prison. Just like most prisoners today we would not know which prison or for how long. He says anywhere from 3 to 90 days. Our lives would be disrupted just as that of those being incarcerated. We would be subject to all the prison’s regulations and to the way guards treat inmates. In short for that indeterminate period of time we would be just as any other Continue reading “Going To Jail as a Civic Duty”