Social Ills

Our society is beset by many ills, none curable. R. J. RICHARDSON Valencia

California has proved to be a land of opportunity where hard work delivers prosperity and nurtures innovation. Its human capital has helped the state develop into the world's ninth-largest economy, which attracts nearly half of the venture capital in the nation. But this opportunity and success have not reached everyone, and the California dream is in danger of slipping away. Today, California ranks first in the country in the number of working low-income families. "Working Hard, Left Behind," a new study conducted by the Campaign for College Opportunity, found that millions in the state are working hard but are increasingly left behind.

The Board of Supervisors this week directed county officials to identify preventive health-care and social-services programs that might receive more money in next fiscal year's budget. Board Chairman William G. Steiner proposed the action, saying the county needs to refocus priorities on programs that prevent larger social ills and "get the greatest return on our expenditures."

More than 30 years into the AIDS epidemic, a combination of safe-sex education and a new generation of pharmaceuticals has left many Americans convinced that HIV/AIDS is a problem that has been, if not solved, at least addressed. But that's certainly not true in the American South, which accounts for nearly 50% of all new HIV infections in the United States. The South has the highest rate of AIDS deaths of any U.S. region. It also has the largest numbers of adolescents and adults living with HIV and the fewest resources to fight the epidemic.

Tom Petty is a classic American rocker who used to supplement his own songs in concert with party-minded numbers by Chuck Berry and other early rock or R&B figures. On Saturday night at the Pacific Amphitheatre, he instead spotlighted "For What It's Worth," the Buffalo Springfield's memorable 1967 reaction to repressive authority. He and the Heartbreakers' version was darkly poignant, but in no way merely nostalgic.

With Ronald Reagan having made his appearance and ridden off into the sunset, Republicans heard two sharply divergent depictions of the future of their party Tuesday night. The first came from the official keynote speaker, New Jersey Gov. Thomas H. Kean, who opened the George Bush part of the GOP convention with a call for the Republican Party to use "Reagan-Bush principles" to combat social ills that the Reagan Administration has been widely accused of ignoring.

President Bush proposed a $100-million national volunteer program today, urging all Americans to become "points of light" by helping their communities fight homelessness, hunger, drug abuse and other problems. In a speech to New York civic leaders, Bush officially outlined his four-year program "to join hands and link hearts, to light up the American sky." Led by New Jersey Gov. Thomas H. Kean, it will encourage citizens of all ages as well as businesses and other institutions to work harder against social ills.

Education Secretary William J. Bennett, voicing his strongest support of a heightened role for religion in American society, Wednesday attacked the use of school textbooks that have "excluded religious history" and politics that are "deprived of religion." In a speech at the University of Missouri, Bennett called for general "public encouragement" of religious beliefs as a way of combatting social ills such as teen-age pregnancies and illegal drug use.

Every year on Good Friday, thousands of devout Catholics congregate outside Christ the King church in Oxnard's neighborhood of La Colonia to watch a re-creation of the trial, torture and crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The Passion play is a grand spectacle, captivating even the most restless teen-agers with graphic portrayals of Roman soldiers whipping Jesus at various stations of the cross.

There was once a time in black America when the church, with its early morning sermons and Sunday school afternoons, was the central force in the inner city--an institution that stirred spiritual inspiration and moral obligation within those who crowded its pews. Nowadays, it often seems that drugs and gangs have more influence on the lives of those in urban America than old-time religion.

Social conservatives say they're trying to address the problems of family breakdown, crime and welfare costs, but there's a huge disconnect between the problems they identify and the policy solutions they propose. It's almost like the man who looked for his keys on the thoroughfare, even though he lost them in the alley, because the light was better. Social conservatives tend to talk about issues such as abortion and gay rights, stem cell research and the role of religion "in the public square": "Those who would have us ignore the battle being fought over life, marriage and religious liberty have forgotten the lessons of history," said Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.

A gore merchant isn't born, he's made. Consider the case of Eli Roth, whose gory, lucrative films are often described as "torture porn" or with an especially pungent new term: "gorno." This Friday, Roth's latest, "Hostel: Part II," will land in theaters with a splatter -- the plot finds three nubile coeds trapped in an Eastern European sadism club where fiends on vacation pay to slowly carve up strangers. If the thought of watching that makes you nauseated, well, Roth can understand.

Re "5 steps to get out of skid row," Current, Dec. 31 The authors omit one hugely important area of consideration in ending homelessness: the family context from which each person arrives on skid row. Here's an example: Years ago, my roommates and I invited a young, homeless man to stay with us. We helped connect him with work and made sure he was well-fed and groomed to improve his job prospects. I asked if he had any family who might be able to help. To my surprise, he responded that his parents were on a world tour and unreachable, but owned a house in Manhattan Beach to which he was no longer invited.

"Darwin's Nightmare" starts slowly, hypnotically, like a cobra with all the time in the world to strike. It immerses you in its reality one toe at a time, until suddenly you are in over your head, gasping for air as the horror of the situation reveals itself in all its savage devastation.

Restored to its original length and rich color under the supervision of its legendary cameraman Vittorio Storaro in 1994, Bernardo Bertolucci's 1970 "The Conformist" seems every bit the masterpiece it was when first released by Paramount. In this dazzling film, Bertolucci manages to combine the bravura style of Fellini, the acute sense of period of Visconti and the fervent political commitment of Elio Petri -- and, better still, a lack of self-indulgence.

"I thank you for insulting me." Thus blogged former King Norodom Sihanouk to a critic of his support of gay marriage. He didn't share any of the insulting e-mails with his readers, but noted: "My country, Cambodia, has chosen to be a liberal democracy since 1993. Every Cambodian ... including the King has the right to express freely their view."

Rep. Richard A. Gephardt and his Democratic presidential rival Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis derided each other's remedies for the nation's economic and social ills Monday night in a debate involving all six contenders for the 1988 Democratic nomination. Gephardt called Dukakis' proposal to raise substantial revenue by increasing compliance with the federal income tax "hokum, when it comes to dealing with the budget."

Prayer in school, creches in front of government buildings and invocations at public ceremonies are out. A television network promotes its most popular show with a scene mocking a family saying grace: "Dear God, we pay for all this stuff ourselves so thanks for nothing" is Bart Simpson's punch line.

Augusto Roa Bastos, one of South America's most celebrated novelists, whose fictional writings often examined Paraguay's social and political struggles, has died. He was 88. Roa Bastos, the 1989 winner of the prestigious Cervantes Prize for Literature in Spanish, died Tuesday of complications from surgery after a recent fall in his Asuncion home.

Fifth-grade teacher Max Schafer's class at Fenton Avenue Charter School in Lake View Terrace has become a mini-film school. But instead of shooting ghost stories, adventures or romances, the students are producing, directing and acting in computerized videos about math, science, vocabulary and other educational topics. These I-movies (Internet movies), produced and edited on a program in classroom computers, are an increasingly popular tool at schools in California and nationwide.