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=2 Letters to the Editor Letters are welcomed and will be published, iffound suitable, as space permits. The editors reserve the right to edit and abridge letters, to publish replies, and to solicit responses from authors and others. Letters should be submitted in duplicate, double-spaced (including references), and generally should not exceed 400 words.
Back Volumes of AJPH Available In the Journal is an announcement occasionally that [some] back issues and volumes of the American Journal of Public Health are available. I believe I have the complete copies of the printed Journals since 1931. I am retired and no longer make use of them and would like to dispose of them without throwing them away. Could you give me any information about an organization or institution which might be interested in having copies for all these years? Russell W. H. Gillespie Route 1, Box 136 Pullman, WA 99163 Editor's Note: We suggest that interested organizations or institutions write directly to Mr. Gillespie.
Navarro Article Challenged Dr. Navarro's June AJPH article1 shows how to misuse statistics provocatively; and ignores basic logic, psychology and economics. Health problems and services do indeed vary among our citizenry; but why, REALLY? What solutions are really possible? Who's responsible, for what action? Navarro's picture of struggling workers ruthlessly exploited by "a very few" "managers of wealth" is classic Marxist hogwash! Witness 40hour weeks, minimum wage, fringe ben-
efits, unemployment compensation, welfare, etc. Our Declaration of Independence 1208
states that all men are created equal; and our tradition is that people of the humblest origins can work to achieve the status which Navarro resents. Progress in the civil rights movements reflect our national concern with the principle and the tradition. Each person has primary responsibility for his own life. Navarro's polemics won't change the truism that "5 percent of the people make things happen; 25 percent watch it happen; 70 percent don't know it's happening and don't care." Leadership and ability at the upper end of their normal curves of distribution will find expression; they cannot be forced from the middle or bottom ends of those curves. Yet Navarro rants at "the very few." Distracted by his arithmetic, Navarro ignores basic common-sense laws of economics and population. Complete self-sufficiency is impossible where we all want, and most have, cars, TV, full utilities, etc. Providing these goods and services requires leadership, capital, and workers. Whether you are a service person, professional, production worker, or entrepreneur, work will always be primarily a way to make a living rather than a means of "self-expression", whatever that is! At any level, work is what you have to do to stay even or to get ahead. If "workers" called all the shots, still only "a very few" individuals would be involved and the money would have to come from somewhere. Navarro ignores the facts of specialization. Deploring the absence of "workers" from direction and management of our institutions, he ignores the crucial need for special skills and abilities to do special jobs. Why not also deplore "workers" absence from organ transplant teams and from the National Academy of Sciences? Clearly Navarro would like to claim proxy power for all "workers",
becoming paradoxically one of "the very few" who control the distribution of resources and power. George G. Browning, MD, MPH 180 Sawmill Drive Penfield, NY 14526
REFERENCE 1. Navarro, V. The underdevelopment of health of working America: causes, consequences and possible solutions. Am. J. Public Health 66:538-547, 1976.
Navarro Response By indulging in a heavy dose of epithets, slanders, and unsubstantiated accusations, Browning certainly conveys the nature and depth of his commitment to his values, but not the accuracy or inaccuracy of my interpretation of the reality that he objects to. He accuses me of "misusing" statistics. By not even discussing, however, where this imputed misuse took place, such an accusation is daring in assertion but scarce in evidence. This attitude is further demonstrated in his statement that "5 per cent of the people make things happen; 25 per cent watch it happen; 70 per cent don't know it's happening and don't care." Where is his evidence for this? Not only does it translate a most profound sense of contempt for the American people, but it also conflicts with all available evidence-evidence presented in my article, showing that the assumedly ignorant and apathetic majority know better and care more about what happens in this country than the present defenders of established positions would like to see. The supposed ignorance of the ruled has always been the justification for the perpetuation of the rulers. In the absence of contrary evidence, Browning's remarks are not only a gratuitous insult to the majority of the American people, but reflect a disAJPH December, 1976, Vol. 66, No. 12
=2 Letters to the Editor Letters are welcomed and will be published, iffound suitable, as space permits. The editors reserve the right to edit and abridge letters, to publish replies, and to solicit responses from authors and others. Letters should be submitted in duplicate, double-spaced (including references), and generally should not exceed 400 words.
Back Volumes of AJPH Available In the Journal is an announcement occasionally that [some] back issues and volumes of the American Journal of Public Health are available. I believe I have the complete copies of the printed Journals since 1931. I am retired and no longer make use of them and would like to dispose of them without throwing them away. Could you give me any information about an organization or institution which might be interested in having copies for all these years? Russell W. H. Gillespie Route 1, Box 136 Pullman, WA 99163 Editor's Note: We suggest that interested organizations or institutions write directly to Mr. Gillespie.
Navarro Article Challenged Dr. Navarro's June AJPH article1 shows how to misuse statistics provocatively; and ignores basic logic, psychology and economics. Health problems and services do indeed vary among our citizenry; but why, REALLY? What solutions are really possible? Who's responsible, for what action? Navarro's picture of struggling workers ruthlessly exploited by "a very few" "managers of wealth" is classic Marxist hogwash! Witness 40hour weeks, minimum wage, fringe ben-
efits, unemployment compensation, welfare, etc. Our Declaration of Independence 1208
states that all men are created equal; and our tradition is that people of the humblest origins can work to achieve the status which Navarro resents. Progress in the civil rights movements reflect our national concern with the principle and the tradition. Each person has primary responsibility for his own life. Navarro's polemics won't change the truism that "5 percent of the people make things happen; 25 percent watch it happen; 70 percent don't know it's happening and don't care." Leadership and ability at the upper end of their normal curves of distribution will find expression; they cannot be forced from the middle or bottom ends of those curves. Yet Navarro rants at "the very few." Distracted by his arithmetic, Navarro ignores basic common-sense laws of economics and population. Complete self-sufficiency is impossible where we all want, and most have, cars, TV, full utilities, etc. Providing these goods and services requires leadership, capital, and workers. Whether you are a service person, professional, production worker, or entrepreneur, work will always be primarily a way to make a living rather than a means of "self-expression", whatever that is! At any level, work is what you have to do to stay even or to get ahead. If "workers" called all the shots, still only "a very few" individuals would be involved and the money would have to come from somewhere. Navarro ignores the facts of specialization. Deploring the absence of "workers" from direction and management of our institutions, he ignores the crucial need for special skills and abilities to do special jobs. Why not also deplore "workers" absence from organ transplant teams and from the National Academy of Sciences? Clearly Navarro would like to claim proxy power for all "workers",
becoming paradoxically one of "the very few" who control the distribution of resources and power. George G. Browning, MD, MPH 180 Sawmill Drive Penfield, NY 14526
REFERENCE 1. Navarro, V. The underdevelopment of health of working America: causes, consequences and possible solutions. Am. J. Public Health 66:538-547, 1976.
Navarro Response By indulging in a heavy dose of epithets, slanders, and unsubstantiated accusations, Browning certainly conveys the nature and depth of his commitment to his values, but not the accuracy or inaccuracy of my interpretation of the reality that he objects to. He accuses me of "misusing" statistics. By not even discussing, however, where this imputed misuse took place, such an accusation is daring in assertion but scarce in evidence. This attitude is further demonstrated in his statement that "5 per cent of the people make things happen; 25 per cent watch it happen; 70 per cent don't know it's happening and don't care." Where is his evidence for this? Not only does it translate a most profound sense of contempt for the American people, but it also conflicts with all available evidence-evidence presented in my article, showing that the assumedly ignorant and apathetic majority know better and care more about what happens in this country than the present defenders of established positions would like to see. The supposed ignorance of the ruled has always been the justification for the perpetuation of the rulers. In the absence of contrary evidence, Browning's remarks are not only a gratuitous insult to the majority of the American people, but reflect a disAJPH December, 1976, Vol. 66, No. 12
