Dear Editor:

I saw something today which may be of interest.

Being a poor man, eating at Kentucky Fried Chicken once a week is a treat for me. About a month ago, I saw a cook with his left wrist wrapped up in an Ace bandage.

He said that he couldn't afford to see a doctor, so he bandaged his wrist himself, and continued working over the hot fryolator, dropping in the chicken with his right hand, a piece at a time. He was obviously in considerable pain.

I urged him to go the emergency room, knowing that a wrist fracture, even when treated, can lead to the loss of hand function - permanently.

I saw him again today. The bandage is off, but his fingers are curled up like a gaff hook, and have no movement.

Which leads me to ask, How far have we fallen as a nation? Are we still America, or are we Africa?

I imagine that even in the Congo, a useful worker - a man who prepares food for others - would have a broken bone set by a witchdoctor.

As a Populist, I am dead set against socialized medicine, but while a fry cook loses the use of his hand for the lack of $500, the U.S. spends $11 billion a month on the wars in Iran and Iraq, and Wall Street swindlers earn several million every week.

Something is clearly wrong in America.

Romulus