Return-Path: <nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id i1JGCUI06675; Thu, 19 Feb 2004 11:12:30 -0500 (EST) Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2004 11:12:30 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <671EE14D.0D5485B3.0AB94E44@aol.com> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: AndresMuro@aol.com To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-AALPD:1093] Re: Light, not heat X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 X-Mailer: Atlas Mailer 2.0 Status: O Content-Length: 2022 Lines: 33 This was posted this morning: "illiteracy appears to lead to crime." A scientific postulate is that "correlation is not causation" (actually, I got this from my spouse) Also, here are some statistics: El Paso, the city where I live is supposed to have one of the lowest literacy levels in the country and is also supposed to be one of the poorest cities in the country. >From the census: 140,000 adult El Pasoans have not completed HS, and 80,000 have not gone past elementary school. 60% of the adult population does not speak English well, or at all. Unemployment hovers at around 10%, while in the rest of the US is usually between 3% and 6%. 31% of its families and 41% of its children live below the poverty line. Well, guess what? There is virtually no crime in El Paso. A week ago, one elderly woman got raped and the whole county is in shock, and this is a county of almost 1 million. In fact, San Jose, California and El Paso, TX are the two large cities with the lowest crime rate in the entire country. People like to retire in El Paso because of this. They don't go to San Jose as much because it is $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ Here are other facts. The vast majority of people in jail are male, poor, young and minorities: Does this mean that being a male causes crime? Does this mean that being a minority leads to crime? Does this mean that being poor leads to crime? Does this mean that being young leads to crime? Not according to the El Paso stats. In fact, the vast majority of the population of both San Jose and El Paso is Mexican and catholic. Are we to assume that being Mexican and catholic reduces crime? According to the NALS and other estimates, It is estimated that there are 40 million adults scoring in the lowest literacy level, and another 50 million scoring in the second lowest level. This is approximately 1/3 of the adult population in the US. Are we to assume that 1/3 of all adults in the US are potential criminals. Andres go here: www.geocities.com/andresmuro/art.html
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