Not everyone has the luxury of wonder. Far too many have been driven from their own country into a bleak, hungry future. Self-conscious about my fortune, I wrote State of the World in 2015:

If we lay out human experience what do we see?

A percentage warm, snuggly, well-fed and free.

And the others–many others–less lucky than we.

Why have we been blessed and not the others,

no more deserving than our other brothers.

Yet I still hide with you, warm under the covers.

I read that the scourge of agent orange still wreaks havoc on the babies of Vietnam

As for our country’s health coverage for the birth defects of our women veterans who served there, the statement is that:

VA recognizes a wide range of birth defects as associated with women U.S. Veterans’ service in Vietnam. These diseases are not tied to herbicides, including Agent Orange, or dioxin exposure, but rather to the birth mother’s service in Vietnam.

Mysterious, eh?