◆ SpookStack

Disarmament and the War on Poverty by MARTIN OPPENHEIMER In Southern California there is a small ghost town of half-built homes, empty streets, and unused schools. It is a brand new town, but no one lives there. It was built for the families of technicians, engineers, and Air Force personnel to be stationed at a nearby air base. But plans changed, and the base was never built. The ghost town spotlights a problem: We produce what we do not use; we have needs that are not met. ; In this country one home in six is below standard. Our infant mortality rate is higher than that of ten other countries. Seventy million of us suffer from one or more chronic diseases. Every time we build a bomber we use money that could build hundreds of classrooms; each time we launch a ship dozens of playgrounds could be constructed; end each time we bury a missile in a silo we bury the equivalent of thousands of family homes. “As the richest country in the world, we should not need io offer ‘half a loaf of health’ when we have a unique opportunity to make this a nation of healthy people ... Millions .. . suffer untold agonies and lead frustrating and unproductive lives— and thousands die—not because we do not know how to heip them, but because they cannot obtain the quantity and quality of medical care that we are capable of and more morally obli. gated to provide.” —~ Policy Resolutions, AFL-CiO, Adopted November 1963