Editorial roundup

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• The (Youngstown) Vindicator, April 11

Fifty years ago last month, the father of America’s civil-rights movement duly lashed out at the widening health gap between white Americans and minorities. Though not as brutal in the moment as were the billy clubs and attack dogs used to stifle discontent, the long-term pain of inaccessibility to basic health care dealt a harsh blow to the quality of life of blacks and other minorities. It also contributed significantly to the great divide between America’s haves and have-nots.

Two decades later in 1985, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released its landmark report, the Secretary’s Task Force Report on Black and Minority Health, better known as The Heckler Report. It reinforced King’s angst by documenting the prevalence of health disparities among racial and ethnic minorities in the U.S. It called such disparities “an affront both to our ideals and to the ongoing genius of American medicine.”

Today, improvements in technology, standards of living and access to health care have begun to narrow those once colossal gaps. Nonetheless, health inequities remain a stain on our nation and an affront to our noble ideals…

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• The Canton Repository, April 11

Certainty? Out. Inevitability? Long gone. Predictability? Try again. Those all dropped out of the presidential primaries weeks ago.

In what has shaped up to be one of the strangest races in decades, all bets are off, which explains why Ohio Gov. John Kasich remains hellbent on staying in.

Last month, comedian Stephen Colbert joked about Kasich’s presidential aspirations following his lone victory in Ohio:

“Governor, here’s a riddle: What’s round on both ends and has got to be high in the middle? Because to secure the nomination at the convention in Cleveland this summer, Kasich would have to get 116 percent of the remaining delegates. We’d have to make him governor of every remaining state, plus some states we don’t even have yet. He’s looking very good in North Kentucksylvania and Massachippissippi.”

Thirty-two states have voted, 18 remain. Republican front-runner Donald Trump, suffering a damaging loss in Wisconsin last week, has a tough row to hoe to secure the nomination before the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. No wonder he whined, with an air of entitlement ahead of the Badger State contest, about Kasich…

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