Thank you, 20th century. “The latter part of the 19th century was an era of tuberculosis, typhoid, sanitariums, child labor, child death, horses, horse manure, candles, 12-hour work days, Jim Crow laws, tenements, slaughterhouses, and outhouses,” write Stephen Moore and Julian Simon in a Cato Institute report, “The Greatest Century That Ever Was” (December 15). “Lynchings–not just of blacks–were common. (In the South 11 Italians were lynched in one month.) To live to 50 was to count one’s blessings. For a mother to have all four of her children live to adulthood was to beat the odds of nature….Industrial cities were typically enveloped in clouds of black soot and smoke….Streets were smelly and filled with garbage before modern sewerage systems and plumbing were put in place. Leading killers of the day included pneumonia, tuberculosis, diarrhea, and violence….In 1900 black incomes were less than 40 percent of those of whites; in 1979 they were about 58 percent of those of whites; and today they are more than 75 percent of those of whites.”
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
“There will be a new pope, sooner rather than later,” writes Paul Varnell in the Chicago Free Press (January 19). “Gay Catholics may hope he will be more moderate on gay issues than John Paul II, but that will not happen….Too many other doctrines would be destabilized by any change on homosexuality. However, the new confirmation of the rigidity of Catholic doctrine will accelerate the trend for Catholics to treat Catholicism more as many Jews view Judaism–that is, a cultural tradition rather than a set of doctrinal demands.”
