As we in Ontario and Canada continue to observe the effects
of increasing inequality on our society, I have to
wonder about the deafening silence among many health
promoters. [Some comments and suggestions for action on this
list-serve would be a good start]

In Ontario, we see the poorest of the poor having their
incomes cut by 22%, hostel use increasing by 50%, and food
banks doing a booming business...

If we, health promoters who should know better, do not speak
out, what hope do any of us really have? Or is it as US
folksinger Tom Paxton once said:

We didn't know at all.
We didn't see a thing.
You can't hold us to blame.
What could we do?
It was a terrible shame.
But we can't bare the blame.
Oh no, not us, we didn't know.


  ***************************************************
  From new transmitters came the old stupidities.
  Wisdom was passed on from mouth to mouth.
            -Bertolt Brecht
  ***************************************************

Dennis Raphael, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Acting Director,
Masters of Health Science Program in Health Promotion
Department of Public Health Sciences
Graduate Department of Community Health
University of Toronto
McMurrich Building, Room 101
Toronto, Ontario, CANADA M5S 1A8