Tick, tick, tick...

One statistic released from the new Census is the ratio of births to deaths. Among white people it was reported to be 1:1. One birth for every death - a stable population. Among Hispanics it was 9:1. Nine births per death. Explosive population growth.

If that meant only that there would be lots of Hispanic babies, it would be wonderful. There are few things more precious than a Hispanic baby. Thick black hair, dark brown eyes. And this world certainly needs more such beautiful things.

Why should there be such a disparity between whites and Hispanics? Partly it is the philosophy of white elites against population growth, the misguided one-child-is-enough belief, pitted against the Hispanic culture of big families.

Sadly, it is in large part due to teen pregnancy. An alarming number of Hispanic girls are becoming pregnant almost as soon as they reach puberty. Generally that means a serious curtailment if not a complete end to their education. That often results in a lifetime of living on welfare.

Alarmingly, those pregnancies are not always the result of a careless relationship with a boy who also has just reached puberty. Newspaper headlines too often tell of abusive sex with young Hispanic girls by an uncle, a stepfather, or other adult man in a position of authority. A crime, in other words. An outgrowth, perhaps, of the long-held Hispanic culture of machismo - the philosophy of male superiority which more or less devalues women to the status of property.

There is another dark side to the statistic. With the Federal debt now over $13 trillion, we keep hearing people say we are burdening our children. With explosive population growth, maybe there will be enough children to handle it. Sheer population growth has pulled our chestnuts out of the fire in the past. But what happens when the children we are burdening are totally incapable of shouldering that burden?

When a baby is born to a 13-year-old mother (of any race, creed or color), there is an odds on chance that it will grow up on some form of welfare; that it will not have parental insistence, or even encouragement to stay in school; that it will not become an earner of high wages. Odds are against it becoming a taxpayer... necessary for paying down the government's debt.

Is a time bomb ticking?