When I was a boy old enough to join my parents at the dinner table when there were family guests, most of the talk was about medicine. My father was an internationally recognized anesthesiologist, my mother had been a surgical nurse, one uncle was a cardiologist and head of a major clinic, another was a hospital administrator, two great aunts were famous nurses, one had founded the Frontier Nursing Corp, the other had begun the children’s convalescent movement. One dinner memory from that time has stayed with me over the years. The enthusiasm of that evening’s conversation, and their smiles, when they talked about how penicillin was finally breaking the crisis of syphilis. They thought it would become a minor issue, and it did. Until the poor health care of our present-day illness profit system, and the lack of proper sex education have allowed it to arise from the dead and become a crisis once again.  This article describes what has happened. And I want you to pay particular attention to where the problem is worse. Once again, what stands out? Of the worst ten states what do you notice? Except for New Mexico, which is a kind of purple state, all are Red states controlled by Republicans.