Since I'm on all sorts of mailing lists, I got two interesting missives back to back. First, I'll quote the one from Change.org:
Big news: UNICEF just announced that the number of children under the age of five dying each day has significantly dropped over the past year: from 24,000 to 22,000.
We're asking you to take action today and help make that number ZERO.
We know you believe that 22,000 children dying from preventable causes each day is 22,000 too many. They die from causes most of us will never have to worry about - such as starvation, unsanitary living conditions, no access to clean drinking water, or lack of a five-cent vaccine.
We are making remarkable progress toward a world in which no child dies from preventable causes, and can see a light at the end of the tunnel. But without a strong commitment by the U.S. government, we will never reach zero. Please urge Congress to fully fund our committment to UNICEF this year to help save millions of children's lives and protect their futures.
From measles campaigns in Pakistan to emergency food in Ethiopia; from hurricane relief in Haiti to anti-malarial bed net distribution in Nigeria - UNICEF's work is having a huge impact. And with this latest announcement comes more hope - we can see that the drop in child mortality is actually accelerating.
In a very concrete way, the news about a drop in child mortality demonstrates that global investment and strategic partnerships are putting comprehensive child survival strategies in place that get results. Over the last 50 years, UNICEF and its partners have helped reduce the worldwide child mortality rate by more than 50%. This pace of improvement is increasing, and we are getting closer to a day when zero children die from preventable causes.
Please write Congress today and urge continued strong support of UNICEF so that we can continue to reduce the number of preventable child deaths around the world.
Now a quote from PJ O'Rourke:
"The free market is a bathroom scale. We may not like what we see when we step on the bathroom scale, but we can’t pass a law making ourselves weigh 165. Liberals and leftists think we can."
The irony is that, of course, liberals don't necessarily want destabilizing budget deficits, and conservatives don't want dead children. But nothing can be clearer than how such emotional appeals to engage Congress on missions of mercy are the modus operandi of progressive activism. What's galling about this example is the aim towards Zero Tolerance, which any reasonable person should see as extreme.
What indeed is preventable? Congressional spending?
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