Katha Pollitt and Andrew Sullivan

Dear Andrew,
So what about the 40 million people in the US who currently "fall through the cracks" and have no health care coverage? It seems to me you portray as a small problem one that affects enormous numbers of people, and that Congress has no serious intention of doing anything about. Canadians seem to like their national-health-care system, by the way.

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As for Japan, perhaps we are reaching the limits of our mutual lack of knowledge and experience. That your friends found it horrifying is maybe not as conclusive a piece of evidence as you suggest. We'd have to know who your friends are-- I mean, if John Podhoretz hated Japan, it's probably a little bit of heaven on earth. My cousin Betsy (a very nice person who studies Chinese Buddhism) has lived in Kyoto with her husband and two sons for about fifteen years now and is quite happy there teaching English. I don't quite see how the Chinese Buddhism fits in to life in Kyoto, but the whole family are fluent Japanese speakers--the kids go to regular Japanese school--and seem to live all right on not very much money by going native. So, for what it's worth, there.

Have a nice weekend, but don't eat too many meals wrapped in old newspapers.
Katha

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