Jon L. Christensen: “Last year with the help of Congressman J.C. Watts and many others, we passed a sense of Congress that April should be…”

“Last year with the help of Congressman J.C. Watts and many others, we passed a sense of Congress that April should be Minority Health Month. There have already been many conferences, briefings and other activities to call attention to the poor health, the lack of access and the wide disparities in the health of this country's minority populations. Whether it is heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes or AIDS, just to name a few, African Americans in particular, but all people of color, die and are disabled in numbers far disproportionate to their representation in our country. No country can achieve its full greatness when it continues to essentially ignore the plight of one-third of its citizens and residents, when the right of health care is denied to so many. Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King said that 'of all the forms of injustice, the denial of health care is the most shocking and inhumane.' As we debate the budget, it would be shocking and inhumane to pass a tax cut of any size while almost 75 million people do not have full health insurance and while hundreds of people of color die every day prematurely from preventable causes. We are a better country than this. Let us prove it before we go home to face our constituents and celebrate the most important holy days of the Christian and Jewish faith. In health, as in education, no one should be left behind.”