Word: starkly
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Mike and thousands like him are stark evidence of America's brutal indifference to the mentally ill. The care meted out to the severely disturbed is a "disaster by any measure used," concludes a new report issued by the Public Citizen Health Research Group and the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI). "Not since the 1820s have so many mentally ill individuals lived untreated in public shelters, on the streets and in jails." Up to 30% of the estimated 500,000 homeless in the U.S. suffer from serious mental disorders, mostly schizophrenia and manic depression...
...interest groups and ordinary citizens demand to have their say, both before any proposed solution is made public and afterward. When Bush tries to communicate with a TV audience, he often lacks confidence. More important, except when he is campaigning for himself, Bush shrinks from framing options in a stark and persuasive manner that can force people to make a choice. He often speaks of using the "bully pulpit" to get his way, but to him it means little more than "telling people how deeply you feel" instead of knocking heads together to get things done...
...locker-room incidents are a stark and valuable reminder that the battles that I and others waged for equality in the 1970s didn't bring an end to discrimination. They only kept the more overt forms from showing. We've learned that changing the rules doesn't necessarily alter attitudes. Stereotypical, outmoded and confining images of women, not at all suited to the reality of their actual lives, still pop up and sting...
...involvement in American life -- must, like everything else, be paid for. Today, it is not being paid for. The federal deficit, now nearly $300 billion if various "off-budget" items like the S&L bailout are counted, is testimony to Americans' failure to meet their obligations. So is the stark fact that every citizen's share of the national debt has more than tripled in the past 11 years. A debt of such enormity simply cannot be paid off without sacrifice. Paying it off will mean higher taxes and reduced spending over many years. Anyone who thinks -- or promises -- otherwise...
This sort of stage artifice is Betrayal's central problem: every poignant gesture is extended beyond its natural limits, every subtle shade is obliterated by the stark interpretation. Even the harsh lighting creates a visual over-simplification on the stage. Betrayal is a first-rate script with an ingenious plot, and the acting in this production is generally admirable. But its black and white interpretation leaves us longing for a touch of gray...