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Aging in Our Time / Who Are the Caregivers?

Students of the Bible interpret the phrase “brother’s keeper” in relation to a lesson in caring … or being responsible … for others.  By this interpretation “others” refers to everyone, related by blood or not. 

  Offspring of America’s big birth boom following World War II, however, are focusing closer to home; more than 20% of them, according to statistics, are taking care of those who first took care of them. 

 So with the aging population, an entire world has come alive around Elder Care as Caregiving and caregivers come out of the closet.   Old myopic views of “dementia” and “Alzheimer’s” are fading in the glare of research’s great light – a research that is still bringing gray matters out of the shadows. Also, Caregivers and the Caregiven are living longer.

 In “Caregiving:  The Spiritual Journey of Love, Loss and Renewal,” two-time Pulitzer nominee Beth Witrogen McLeod offers heart and soul to statistics.   She writes: I was drifting along in my tidy little life, as … immortal as the next fortysomething.  Suddenly… everything that had been familiar vanished.” 

 As caregivers work to fulfill the needs of loved ones, many reveal they also are peering into mortality’s eye and seeing their own.  Is it a guilty hope that one day someone may do the same for them?  Ms. Witrogen writes, “(Caregivers go lengths to) travel in health care systems trying to control long-term-care costs while living in a society that idolizes youth and independence rather than wisdom and community.” 

 Following is an excerpt from Ms. Witrogen’s work.  Perhaps not so fitting a metaphor – but one just the same, is how we rescued “Caregiving”: we found it last week atop a pile of used books at a local flea market. Our Time Press publishers are grateful: the book is enhancing our caregiving.       

                                                                                  Bernice Elizabeth Green

 

Who Are the Caregivers?

(Excerpted from: Caregiving: The Spiritual Journey of Love, Loss and Renewal -

{(c)2009 Beth Witrogen McLeod. All Rights Reserved.

 Reprinted with Permission. John Wiley & Sons Publishing})

 

 My parents left a double-edged legacy: awareness of both the sorrow and the generosity of the human heart.  Nowhere perhaps is this paradox more widely played out than on the daily stage of family caregiving, where the unsuspecting can find themselves on a chaotic journey in which the only certainty is the demise of their loved one.  These caregivers are on a path seemingly without end, subjected to the stresses and the guilt of watching another’s pain without being able to erase it, of witnessing a loved one’s dying without being able to prevent it. They quietly sacrifice personal agendas to look after those in need, when sandwiched between child care and jobs and usually without advance planning. They live a world apart from everyday reality and wonder if they will ever be normal again. They have one goal: to maintain the dignity and the well-being of their loved one until the end.  The burden is great, the information insufficient, the doubt overpowering.  Yet, these loyal souls – many of whom do not recognize themselves as caregivers-work largely without professional help, feeling they can and must do everything alone.  There is no question about taking on this role: they do so compelled not only by the dictates of society, but also by the mandates of the heart.

 They bathe, feed, dress, shop for, listen to, and transport frail parents, spouses, children, friends, relatives, neighbors and even strangers.  Night and day they torment over how to keep loved ones out of nursing homes, how to give adequate medical attention and make life-and death-decisions when they have not been trained to do so,  Often in poor health or over age sixty-five themselves, they worry about safeguarding an obstinate relative’s finances or moving him or her to a more secure home.

 They are the parents who lovingly tend to disabled children.  They are the grandparents raising grandkids because their own children are incarcerated, divorced or on drugs.  They are the well spouses who grieve while their mates still live but have forgotten all the love that ever passed between them.  They are the adult children who have discovered an entirely new and unanticipated midlife crisis: caring for an aging parent.  They are mostly women.

 In individual way, they blaze their own trails and build support networks.  Each caregiver must deal with challenges like handling complex medical and legal documents, finding appropriate housing or care facilities, modifying a home for safety, moving a loved one cross-country, massaging a child forever confined to bed, or changing the diaper on a modest and humiliated parent.  Loved ones who have been independent now fear becoming burdensome; family patterns ware turned upside down and futures are forever altered. Usually these tasks are carried out with courage and persistence against frustrating odds.   Shorn of energy but loyal and loving to the end, family caregivers more than measure up to the demands: they are stalwarts who persevere against great obstacles. 

Caregiving is as much if not more, about the emotional impact as it is the physical.  Long after proper housing or medical care has been arranged, greater personal issues remain: how do we keep our hearts open in hell? And why should we try?  This is the inner journey of caregiving: this is the promise of renewal.

 Although family caregiving has always existed across all cultural and economic settings, some elements are unique to this era: an increasingly aged and disabled population that will be filled by the massive baby boom generation (who has ) entered midlife, the lack of adequate and coordinated systems to finance and support long-term care of the chronically ill and disabled, and a renaissance in spiritual seeking and exploration of end-of-life issues.

 In North America, the number of family caregivers has exploded by 300 percent in only nine years (Note to readers: Witrogen’s book was published in 1999.), reaching into a quarter of all households.

 Doomsayers would preach that the world has been overtaken by rage, greed, and resignation. I believe that if you look into the private rooms of caregiving families, you will find the true nature of things as they are, beneath the veneer of social conditioning and confusion, stereotype and illusion.  There you will find great kindness and devotion, a trust of life that surpasses doubt or pain.  There you will find the highest expression of who we are.

 If we close our hearts to suffering, we cannot open them to love.  Every benevolent act counts.  By surviving difficulties and holding on to goodness, caregivers inspire others to summon the power of the spirit.  Humanity can evolve from its violence and recklessness into an enlightened age of caring when the lessons of loss are honored, exemplified by modern-day heroes who fulfill the old mandate: to give. Author contact: info@witrogen.com.

 

Health Care Reform: Pt. 3 Who is an American?

It’s that time of year again. Dreaded by children of all ages across the country. The slow gradual progression from long summer days to even shorter hours of daylight is upon us.  The time of year when school bus yellow makes a come back, family members dash out the door, carpools are arranged and Friday nights are spent cheering for high school football heroes blessed with amazing coordination.  Kids and families are back in the swing of things, getting used to all that homework again and making last minute peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  Pretty soon every stoop on the block will have a pumpkin and climbing rose bushes will be replaced with hardy mums.  Say goodbye to summer.  But as we reflect upon another season passing, there is also excitement, a feeling of opportunity as a pall of doubt slowly dissipates and the economy recovers from a year ago.

This country remains poised on the cusp of change.  The new administration has set a tone that it is not afraid to tackle the tough issues like health care reform.

Last November, citizens made history electing the first African American president, Barack Obama and not in my lifetime have I ever seen so many people interacting in the process of politics.  Obama made his campaign and now his administration about people and the needs of American people.  It is this grassroots strategy that continues to resonate a new level of participation.  No longer is the president just the most powerful man in the world, leader of the free world but he is also just a man.  This defines Obama’s appeal to so many who still believe “Yes we can!”

While some worry he will falter under bipartisan pressure, others back Obama’s position on health care reform and look to a future where every American is treated equal, fairly and this continues the movement started on the campaign trail.  Much of the future starts with access to affordable health insurance and quality health care for all Americans.

While the issue of health care reform has created an impassioned debate with the potential to overwhelm dinner conversation and possibly divide families, there remains a weak link in the reform that many conservatives believe will lead to a failed bill.

What we know: Many cannot see eye to eye on the status of the current system. Broken or unbroken, ineffective moneymaking machine or providing quality care, it is anyone’s guess.  One thing for sure, until it is your child, your parent, your own life in the balance, or your lack of money, this issue remains impersonal.  Many people still do not know exactly what the public option is but also on the other hand many believe; could it get any worse? The issue with reform’s ideology: It is very difficult to envision a one thousand page document, a multitude of theories, definitions and complicated legal ease being put into practice on such a grand scale.  This is reform could take years to implement as we transition from the old to the new system.  This reform has the potential to protect our infrastructure.  I am not talking about roads, bridges, canals, airports railroads, or even the Internet but I am talking about people.  The infrastructure is made of people; the working class that make so many lives comfortable.  I am talking about the bus drivers, the trash collectors, waitresses, short order cooks, cleaners, and mechanics, even the cashiers at Wal-Mart.  These are the people that make our country possible.  So then why are they short changed quality health care?

Two things have gone wrong with the reform so far. First it has been rushed and therefore hastily written to a point few can understand it without a law degree.  How is that fair to the infrastructure? For something so monumental, what is the rush?  Campaign promise or not, such a broken system took years, if not decades to build, a solution cannot happen overnight.  The sad truth for over 47 million Americans who remain uninsured and possibly ill, this is the one time as a society we desperately need instant gratification or a magic wand in solving this problem.

Second, many have been quick to judge and look to negative attributes of why reform will not work.  The main concern is how the reform is worded. The language is evasive and generalized.  As with most legal ease and even statues, tried and true laws of this land, this language is open for interpretation by those who practice it, lawmakers.  Such open definitions can lead any law to chaos.  While the language of the reform bill starts by saying “To provide affordable, quality health care for all Americans and reduce the growth in health care spending, and for other purposes” (H.R. 3200, 111th Congress, 1st session) one cannot help but wonder what the bill means by “all Americans”?  Shouldn’t “all Americans” be replaced with all legal citizens or better yet, all tax paying citizens? If you pay taxes, you qualify for the public option because this seems most fair, right?

Still this issue has been a major point of contention many conservatives consider to be the weak link that opens the door to socialism, even Marxism.  Conservatives enjoy their politics in black and white; the gray areas of uncertainty bother them. This bill bothers them because they believe it opens the door for non-resident aliens to be entitled to our health care system, a system they describe as the best in the world. The reform language uses the word beneficiary but does not state the criteria for establishing who a beneficiary will be.  All Americans could include legal resident aliens, right?  On page 170, it does state non-resident aliens will not be allowed to partake of the benefit. What do we do about the non-resident aliens already taking advantage of the best health care system in the world?  What about people with green cards?  Never in the bill does it state the type of identification process a beneficiary will have to complete in order to get approved for the public option.  Besides many forms of identification can be forged, bought and sold for the right amount money.  Conservatives worry this reform will encourage further identity theft to include not just bank or credit cards but also health insurance coverage.

While the above are legitimate concerns every American should consider as we wait holding our breath on such a crucial issue, I cannot help but think about weighing out the options.  Yes there are many negatives to the reform but on the flipside, there are also positive impacts for so many individuals and families that I cannot deny the potential seen in Obama’s vision.

Part of what bothers me most is that the current system is killing people, making children and families suffer unnecessarily. So many have shared devastating stories of having to make life changing decisions based on either lack of coverage and affordability this directly contributes to weakening the infrastructure.  We need to take care of the core before thinking of anything else.  No longer should families have to be faced with losing their child because of being on a waiting list or being refused insurance due to a preexisting condition.  There must be a way to unveil the true American experience to those unable or unwilling to see exactly what is taking place around them.  It is my belief that health care reform is just the first piece in the puzzle of creating a new America one voice, one story at a time.

The View From Here – Congressman Joe Wilson: Warning Sign

Representative Joe Wilson, the South Carolina Republican who shouted “You lie!” at President Barack Obama while he addressed Congress on health care, is a prime example of a sufferer of Post-Traumatic White Supremacist Syndrome (PTWSS).  This is a condition born of the rationalizations needed for professedly freedom-loving people to use others as slaves.  The congressman’s inability to feel a need to control himself, reflects a mind-set that has been passed down through generations and is ingrained in American culture and systems.
That Wilson is not alone in his affliction is evident as Mike Madden writes on salon.com, “Overnight, he went from a little-known junior House member (and former aide to Strom Thurmond) to a celebrity, a frequent guest of Sean Hannity’s who has raised, Republicans say, nearly $2 million in the last week.”
We’re not qualified to say where Congressman Wilson would fall on a scale of PTWSS sufferers, but I’d imagine it would be below the more severely afflicted Arizona pastor Steven Anderson of the Faithful Word Baptist Church in Phoenix.   The Cleveland Leader reports that the pastor “had previously received national attention when he dedicated an entire sermon to ‘Why I hate Barack Obama.’ One of his parishioners,” of a congregation of 30 according to Fox News, “also caught media attention when he brought an AR-15 to a protest outside of a speech delivered by President Obama.”  (That parishioner was an African-American, which makes him a 10 on the Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome (PTSS) scale.  We had thought Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas owned that position but it’s hard to argue with a man carrying an assault rifle.)
We had said before that African-Americans looking for special consideration from a President Obama, if for nothing else than their all-out political support, would be disappointed and that has proven to be the case. He and his advisors know that faced with the PTWSS that permeates the culture, any help to African-Americans has to be couched in helping-all-ships-rise, rhetoric.   Even that is highly suspect and anything more will trigger right-wing radio talk show hosts like Glen Beck and Rush Limbaugh to rush in and fan any racial flames they can for their share of the market.
Certainly no one can argue that our ship isn’t in need of repair, especially after the just-released report from the Fiscal Policy Institute on what they call the “Great Recession in New York,” where they find the real unemployment rate, where the ranks of those no longer looking are added in, hitting 14.1 percent statewide and the real unemployment rate for black men reaching “a startling 27 percent.”
As programs are designed to put this force to work, is it just a potential workforce that can be used to build more of someone else’s empire, or is it a potential workforce to build  a people?   The difference is between working on a basketball arena and working on an African-American owned major hotel and convention center.  The difference is between spending stimulus paychecks on a passing material want versus saving to own property.  It’s the difference between spending money with others, versus someone who looks like you.
If the book Blueprint for Black Power by Professor Amos N. Wilson, was the basis for school curricula from K-12, what we have today would change in a generation. In order to do that, real power will have to be taken.  You know you have real power, when having listened to the ardent supporters of the opposition, you can thank them for their concerns but tell them you’re doing it anyway.  Kind of like the way they do us.
One thing is for certain, we’d better get this act together quickly.  Joe Wilson is not an aberration, he is the tip of the iceberg, he is a wake-up call. The country reflects the mood of the people, and the people are short on money and tense all over.  These are dangerous times but in going forward there is no need to reinvent the wheel.  Community builders such as decades-long worker Erma Winslow, Founder of the Bedford Stuyvesant Community Block Association, have been working in the small groups and meetings, the kind that Barack Obama probably led in Chicago, that have changed the destiny of nations and that we can use to change the fate of a people.

The Lost Report: The Commission on Students of African Descent

The existence of a school-to-prison pipeline for African-American students across the country has been well-documented by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and many others.  In fact, the largest educational sewer line is running right here in New York.   The LDF report on the problem says that “The New York City Department of Education’s ‘Impact Schools’ program is among the most aggressive and explicit School-to-Prison Pipeline policies in the country. Borrowing methodology from the New York City Police Department, schools perceived to have the highest levels of ‘crime and violence’ are labeled as ‘Impact Schools’. A report by the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy shows that the Impact Schools suffer from significant resource disparities, including severe overcrowding and lower per-pupil expenditures. Rather than address the educational inequities that contribute to negative student conduct, the policy floods these schools with police officers and surveillance equipment. As a result, an alarming number of students are removed from their schools and placed in suspension centers, alternative schools and juvenile detention facilities.” These methods of social control originate in the slave codes and the overseer’s whip.

A better path to a disciplined learning environment is one that winds its way from those who taught in secret, using a tree stump for a desk, and students with literally nothing except their passion to learn.  This is the wellspring of the recommendations in the reports the Commission on Students of African Descent issued between 1994-98 to the New York City Board of Education.

We’ve reprinted this summary of the reports, because as this school year begins, we should be doing better than having our children taught only to the test and that done with armed guards walking the halls.  After the sacrifices they had made, our ancestors expected better of us.          David Mark Greaves

A Summary of the Commission’s Reports to the Board of Education of the City of New York

By Dr. Donald H. Smith

Introduction
The Commission on Students of African Descent was authorized by the New York City Board of Education, June 22, 1994, based on a resolution introduced by board members Dr. Esmeralda Simmons, director, Center for Law and Social Justice, Medgar Evers College, and Dennis Walcott, president and chief executive officer, New York Urban League. The board’s adoption of the resolution came at the urging of a number of organizations concerned with the welfare of people of African descent. Among those organizations, the African-American Leadership Summit played a prominent role.

Members of the Commission were appointed jointly by the Board of Education and Chancellor Ramon Cortines and included public school and university teachers and administrators, parents, students, representatives of civil rights organizations, business persons, corporate executives and a member of the City Council. Board members Simmons and Walcott were among the appointees. Chancellor Cortines’s successor, Dr. Rudolph Crew, later appointed additional members.

The Commission’s purpose is to make recommendations to enhance the achievement of students of African descent, to include policy recommendations in such areas as curriculum, staffing, professional development, parent involvement and resource equity.

The Commission held its first meeting November 21, 1994. Dr. Beverly L. Hall, Deputy Chancellor for Instruction, New York City Public Schools, and Dr. Donald H. Smith, Associate Provost and Professor of Public Affairs, Baruch College of the City University of New York, were elected co-chairs. Upon Dr. Hall’s assuming the Superintendency of the Newark Public Schools in 1995, Dr. Smith was elected chair and remained in the leadership until 1998 when Galen Kirkland, Executive Director of Advocates for Children, was elected chair.

During its four-year existence, the Commission has met monthly to discuss public education issues, to hear reports from various officials of the public schools, including the several chancellors and deputy chancellors, the State Education Department, university personnel and a member of the State Board of Regents, to formulate policy recommendations. The Commission has also issued position papers and press releases on such topics as school safety, school vouchers and social promotion.

The Commission has authored three reports: Professional Development for Teachers and Administrators of Students of African Descent; Curriculum and Instruction to Support Academic and Cultural Excellence; and Improving Family and Community Relationships. These topics were selected because the Commission believes that each represents a critical element in the achievement of students of African descent. Well-trained educators, familiar with and supportive of the culture of the students, curriculum which celebrates their heritage and inspires high academic achievement and family and community encouragement, are key factors in producing students who excel in school and who feel good about themselves. Students of African descent are capable of high levels of academic achievement, yet few of the children and youth of African descent reach these levels in the New York City Public Schools. They are most often relegated to the lowest-achieving, underserving schools in the city. Their schools represent the highest number of SURR (Schools Under Registration Review) schools in the state and they are taught by the greatest number of uncertified teachers. The Commission holds teachers and administrators responsible for high levels of achievement of students of African descent. The Commission insists that schools must provide educational experiences that facilitate lifelong academic, technological, psychological, cultural and physical development. The professional development we advocate for educators, the curriculum imperatives we urge and the family-community partnerships we suggest will help teachers and administrators fulfill that responsibility.

Draft copies of the reports were circulated to educators, parents, students, politicians, clergy, businesspersons, community and civic organizations. Public forums were held to receive input and recommendations from these groups, and the final reports reflected this input. The Professional Development report was printed and circulated throughout the country, including all members of the New York City Board of Education, New York State Board of Regents and superintendents of major school districts in New York State and throughout the country. Response cards were included in the mailings. All responses were favorable, with the greatest number coming from educators in the State of Texas. There has been no official response from the New York City Board of Education. The other two reports have not yet been printed for circulation. This paper synthesizes the conclusions and recommendations of the three reports.
The report discusses the urgent need for restructuring professional development, including higher education and district-level programs for educators in the New York City Public Schools. Importantly, the report develops profiles of expectations for students, teachers, principals and superintendents. In the case of students, the profile specifies the knowledge, skills, attitudes and characteristics students might be expected to have achieved by completion of the twelfth grade. For teachers, principals and superintendents, the profiles detail the kind of training and credentials these professionals should possess in order to be effective with students of African descent.

Traditional approaches to professional development have proved ineffective in meeting the needs of most students of African descent. Too often, there has been a reliance on remediation and strategies corresponding to a perceived condition of student deprivation and Hilliard’s critique of contemporary views about teaching and learning for students of African descent contends that they  are said to be more retarded, more emotionally disturbed, more learning disabled than others. Families are said to be dysfunctional, as are the communities from which students come. As a result, remedial education strategies take on the character of therapy, externally designed and implemented. Children are seen as culturally disadvantaged and distorted problem definition, and without recognition or respect for African ethnicity, it is impossible to pose valid remedies for low student achievement, including the design of valid teacher education.

Approaches emphasizing remediation and/or treatment of  these interventions have failed to contribute in a substantial way to the attainment of academic excellence overall. In addition, notions of student deprivation and risk are philosophically at odds with the conviction that despite research evidence to the contrary, educational practices often serve to perpetuate the pernicious myth that students of African descent cannot be held to the highest standards of academic success. The assignment of the least-qualified teachers to schools with a majority of  students of African descent, and the disproportionate numbers of students of African descent trapped in provide a stark measure of the low level of expectations of what students can achieve.

Students of African descent make up more than half the enrollment of New York City’s Public Schools. Their collective educational experiences are replete with many examples of outstanding achievement, of perseverance and determination, and of hard work. But the educational experiences of students of African descent also reflect a tragic story of reports institutional paralysis in the face of the need for change. The themes of this story are neglect, apathy, indecision, inadequate funding for educational and cultural programs, and the well- entrenched legacy of enslavement, racism and low expectations regarding what students can accomplish.

That so many students have achieved success in the public schools is a mighty testament to their resilience and strength. Yet, in spite of these successes, public education has exacted a heavy price from the great majority of our children. They have learned, through years of exposure, to master challenging course content. They have learned African heritage is neither valued nor respected; through years of inculcation, that their culture is not considered worthy of inclusion in the curriculum; that the content and methods of education bear little relationship to their life outside the classroom. They have been taught that they must suppress most expressions of their cultural heritage in the classroom.

Recommendations
 The Board of Education should reorganize professional development at the Central office. Adequate funding and staffing must be provided. The Board of Education and the Chancellor must give direction and resources to the professional development training in the 32 community school districts, as well as high school superintendencies and citywide programs. Central to the professional development of teachers, principals and students is significant knowledge of the history and cultures, and, in the cases of Caribbean students, languages of students of African descent.

 The Chancellor should meet with deans of education at CUNY, Columbia, Fordham, Bank Street,  New York University and St. John’s to discuss the reconstitution of their undergraduate and graduate programs, with special emphasis on the above-described history, cultures and languages of students of African descent. The Board of Education should establish programs to help teachers obtain certification.

 Special efforts should be made to increase substantially the numbers of teachers and administrators of African descent. Particular attention should be given to the recruitment of educators with Caribbean heritages. The Board of Education should redistribute resources so that elite schools such as Bronx High School of Science and Stuyvesant do not receive a disproportionate share while schools with greater needs are deprived.

 The Board of Education should utilize the richness of community resources to supplement classroom instruction. This would be particularly helpful to deal with a population of schools whose staffs lack the linguistic skills to deal with a population of nonnative speakers of English or non-standard English.

The report argues that the achievement of students of African descent can be improved through partnerships between families and communities in collaboration with the schools. The report provides current information about New York City families of African descent; describes the long and painful struggle fought by parents to gain respect and recognition for themselves, their children and their communities and influence decision making within the New York City Public Schools; and makes recommendations for improving and strengthening relationships between schools and families.

Research has shown that students at all grade levels do better academically and have more positive attitudes toward school when their parents support and encourage school activities. For example, in Family Life and School Achievement: Why Poor Black Children Succeed or Fail (1983), Reginald Clark studied low-income families of African descent, all of whom lived in Chicago public housing projects during the 1970s, and compared data from households whose students were successful in school compared to households whose students were not successful. Clark concluded that parental beliefs regarding their own role in their children’s schooling, parental expectations for students’ behavior at home, the regular occurrence of family discussions on school issues, the extent to which students completed homework, and the extent to which parents participated in home social activities with their children were all positively related to high educational performance. These values were far more important than characteristics such as family income, ethnicity, parental education and parental marital status. Clark believes activities and overall cultural style, not the family units’ composition or social status, children for academic, social and cultural competence.

Other researchers have found that parental alienation from schools is a factor contributing to diminished performance by children of African descent. James Comer, Yale psychiatrist, asserts: social and cultural gap between home and school may lie at the root of the poor academic performance of these [poor, minority] children. poor parents of African descent in New Haven, Comer concluded:

The need for parental participation is greatest in low-income and minority communities, or wherever parents feel a sense of exclusion, low self-esteem and/or hopelessness. Parents are the first and most important models and teachers of their children. If parents feel excluded, of little value and hopeless, they will be likely to transmit these attitudes to their children. Such attitudeshave behavioral consequences that are the opposite of what is necessary for good school learning  or the achievement of long-range goals.

Educational reformers are increasingly more convinced that closer relationships among families, schools and communities are essential for improving student achievement and the quality of education offered in public schools. Communities serve as a third overlapping sphere of influence along with the family and school on children’s development, learning and success in school and later life. School staffs need to find ways to work more closely both with parents of color and with parents with little formal education and their community organizations and resources. Community organizations and institutions can provide valuable information and services needed by children, families and schools.

Although parent involvement is widely acknowledged to be an important factor in children’s achievement and the operation of schools, few comprehensive parent-involvement programs have been implemented. There are many different reasons why few teachers and administrators take any action toward this goal, even though most seem to agree that increased parental involvement is desirable. First, very few professional educators ever receive any formal education or training to help them work with families and so while they express support for partnerships, many don’t know where to begin or what to do. Second, unless improved schools are participating in a specially funded initiative, they rarely receive additional resources to support any parent-involvement activities. In New York City, money for public education has decreased at the same time that pupil enrollment is growing. For education professionals, spending money for parent-involvement activities has lower priority than using within the scarce funds for new textbooks or additional staff to reduce class size. In addition, many educators already feel overburdened and are concerned that increased parent involvement will mean more work for which they will not be compensated. Finally, many educators are reluctant to give up any formal power or authority to parents who want to participate as equal partners in school governance or decision-making.

Unfortunately, stereotypes and false assumptions about families of African descent exist and influence educational thinking and planning, thus making it difficult for educators to respect and accept parents as equal partners in educational endeavors. The history of relationships between parents of African descent and the New York City public schools has been especially painful.

The historic exclusion of and apparent disdain for parents of African descent by the New York City Public Schools finally reached a crisis and open rebellion by African-American parents in 1966. The Board of Education had promised to promote integration by building new intermediate and high schools in fringe areas shared by white and black neighborhoods. When the Board opened a new school, I.S. 201, in the middle of Harlem, parents and community exploded. Despite decades of demanding integrated schools, accompanied by several citywide boycotts, it became obvious to parents that the Board of Education had no plan to desegregate the public schools and probably had little interest in improving education for their children. Out of community rage, the Community Control Movement was born. Instead of trusting the Board of Education to improve their schools, parents and communities of African descent demanded that they be given control of their schools. As a result, three experimental community-control school districts were established, I.S. 201, Two Bridges and Ocean-Hill Brownsville.

In 1969, the state legislature decentralized the New York City Public School system, creating 32 community school districts which were given primary jurisdiction over elementary and junior high schools. High schools and certain citywide programs remained under the Central Board. Though the intent was apparently to make the school system more responsive to the concerns of local communities, the increase in parent involvement failed to occur at a significant level. For one thing, the Central Board continued to determine and control community district finances. In addition, parents were frustrated as they sought to influence community school board elections, which were controlled by special interest groups in and outside of the community.

The distrust and animosity among parents of African descent, community groups and the public school system which escalated during the 1960s, continues to exist today. In public h with hearings and meetings held by different organizations across the city, parents of African descent still report that school employees systematically resist their efforts to be informed and involved.

Parents of African descent still struggle with wide-scale institutional racism as well as individual acts of discrimination by the school system. Three reports by ACORN, a community activist group, document how parents of color are frequently denied information about school programs, that they were treated differently than white parents seeking the same information or opportunity to enroll their children in special programs. The work of the ACORN researchers makes it clear that both policies and practices discriminate against parents of color and their children in the New York City Public Schools. New legislation was enacted by the New York State Legislature in 1996 amending the law which had governed the New York City Public Schools since the school system was decentralized in 1969. The new law requires that every school have a parent association. In addition, each community school district, high school region, and the citywide special education district is required to establish a Presidents’ Council, composed of presidents or designated parent members of each parent association in that district or region, to ensure that parents are represented on a district and regional basis. Yet such an effort to empower parents hardly addresses the de facto discrimination which exists within the system.

There have been Central Board initiatives to involve parents. Chancellor Richard Green established the first Office of Parent Involvement in the late 1980s; the OPI was given cabinet-level status by Chancellor Joseph Fernandez and was combined with the Office of Student Advocacy and the Office of Community School District Affairs. In July 1996, the present Office of Parent Advocacy and Engagement was created under Chancellor Rudy Crew to intensify the work done with parents to help children become academically successful. Parent Advisory Council, a citywide parent group composed of Presidents’ Council representatives from each community school district, high school superintendencies and citywide special education, meets monthly with the Chancellor and Board of Education administrators. The report also lists a number of community organizations and resources which serve as parent advocates. It remains to be seen whether the 1996 state legislation and the various efforts of the Central Board will result in parents having real power in school decision-making. The Commission on Students of African Descent will continue to monitor parent and community partnerships and their effect on the education of children of African descent.

Recommendations
 The Board of Education should provide staff development for teachers and administrators to acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to work with parents. This
would include knowledge of the history, cultures and languages of the communities.
 The Central Board should provide parent associations with clerical and other assistance which will permit associations to conduct effective outreach and communication that will assist working parents to be involved in a meaningful way.
 The Central Board should facilitate the involvement of community-based organizations which, in turn, can support school and parental efforts to improve schools. Community organizations also provide a range of services that support families and that foster readiness to learn in children.
 The Central Board has the responsibility to implement the training of parents in all schools to be advocates for the improved learning of their children. The training should be planned and conducted with the involvement of school-parent associations. Such training should be conducted at the beginning of each school year and be reinforced throughout the year.
The Central Board should address discrimination and institutional racism. An analysis of recent reports, such as those done by ACORN, makes it clear that the institutionalized racism which has plagued the system since its inception, still exists and, as times change, has even taken on new forms. Failure to address these issues will result in continued strained, even painful relations among parents and community groups and the public schools.
The central thesis of this report is that students of African descent must receive instruction by means of a curriculum that stimulates high academic achievement and at the same time corrects omissions, distortions and untruths about their history and culture. High standards for learning must be accompanied by curricular and instructional practices that enable students to develop high levels of academic knowledge and social skills and that help to cultivate both knowledge of and respect for the integral role that Africa and people of African descent have played in the story of civilization. This role does not diminish the contributions of other regions and peoples. The centrality of Africa and its Diaspora in world civilization is a legacy that has been stolen from all in the last 300 years. It is this stolen legacy which robs not only students of African descent, but all students of the true history of the world’s development. For students of African descent, the restoration of their history is an essential element in the development of self-esteem, a belief in the worthiness of their ancestors, in their families and communities and in themselves as capable worthwhile individuals.

Academic and cultural excellence are the twin pillars of healthy intellectual development.
Cultural excellence must include a focus on the centrality of African history, culture and civilization as a basis for modern society; the valuation of the culture and learning styles of students of African descent; and the alignment of curriculum content, materials and instruction with accurate scholarship. The curriculum must help students to examine the truth about history and culture, and about inaccuracies, and provide an understanding of the historical violence to which people of African descent have been subjected. Throughout America’s history, schools and “so-called” scholars have helped to shape negative racial stereotypes and images of people of African descent. In the introduction to Rethinking Schools: An Agenda for Change (Levine, et al, 1995), the editors write:

Public education in our country has been marked by a cruel gap between rhetorical commitment to democratic ideals and practices that foster intolerance and inequality. This disparity results from both the failure of schools to educate against prejudice and discrimination that emerge from the larger society, and their active complicity in reproducing unequal relationships. Rigid ethnic, racial and gender roles and stereotypes have frequently been promoted by school cultures and curricula.

Schools perpetuate historical and cultural inaccuracies regarding the alleged superiority of some groups and the alleged inferiority of others. In particular, schools reinforce the myth that Africans and people of African descent have contributed little to world civilization.

Varied and numerous attempts to redress historical inaccuracies and racial biases in the curriculum have usually been met with vigorous resistance, for example in the cases of the Curriculum of Inclusion and One Nation, Many Peoples, both attempts by the New York State Education Department to create new elementary and secondary school frameworks, well-financed campaigns were orchestrated to prevent the State from making the changes suggested by the task forces which created these reports.

Despite the preponderance of scholarship to the contrary, Africa and its Diaspora have been consigned a peripheral place in the story of civilization. Many critics of an African- centered approach to teaching and learning attack the scholarship which underlies the approach without acknowledging the many distortions, omissions and untruths pervasive in the existing curriculum. Rather than to convey respect for the role that Africa has played in world civilization, school curricula and the media have often portrayed Africa and African culture with disdain. Africa has been called the “dark” continent. In this context, the people of African descent frequently viewed themselves and are viewed differently than they would be if the truth about Africa were acknowledged and affirmed.

Not only in New York City and in New York State, but throughout the nation curriculum and instruction must undergo major revision to the benefit not only of students of African descent but all students. America will never realize its potential to be a great nation until it can come to grips with the disparity between the noble goals and preachments of its sacred documents, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and the actual practices of racism and discrimination in the society, mirrored and fostered in the schools’ curricula.

Recommendations
 The Commission expects that all educators and school personnel who serve students of African descent have high expectations for their students as academic achievers and for themselves as adults capable of instructing high levels of achievement.

 The Commission endorses the recommendation of the National Alliance of Black School Educators Task Force on Black Academic and Cultural Excellence that a study be conducted of the school curriculum systematically and in detail in all subjects and grade levels to determine if the treatment of Africa and its diaspora is truthful, appropriate and adequate in light of recent scholarship.

 Information concerning Africa’s primary role in developing civilization, in science, mathematics, religion, politics, and the arts should be interspersed throughout the school curriculum, not solely as a separate, subordinate appendage.

 The Commission recommends that the Board of Education compile and examine the data reflecting the extent to which students of African descent are suspended, referred for disciplinary action, and placed in remedial and special education classes. Further, the Board of Education should intervene when there is evidence of inappropriate policies and procedures.

 The Commission recommends a more extensive system of diagnostic testing to ensure that students are not inappropriately referred to special education. The report of the National Alliance of Black School Educators’ Task Force on Black Academic and Cultural Excellence underscored the importance of considering linguistic patterns as a variable in evaluating the validity of testing programs.

 The Board of Education should also convene a task force to conduct a review of research on effective strategies and approaches to ensure academic and cultural excellence. Promising models and strategies should be disseminated throughout the system. The Board should also undertake pilot projects to replicate, document and disseminate successful models and approaches.

 Throughout the city, there are numerous examples of individuals who possess the knowledge, skills and attitudes required to bring out the best in students. Often, these individuals labor in anonymity. The Board of Education should undertake to identify educators and schools with a demonstrated record of fostering high levels of academic and cultural excellence among students of African descent in order to develop a pool of resources for school improvement.

 All children need role models in the school who reflect the diversity of the city and nation. The New York City Schools Chancellor should implement initiatives to recruit educators of color at all levels of the public school system.

 Students of African descent speak a number of languages and dialects. Nonnative English-speaking students often require support that is beyond their school staff to provide. The communities from which these students come offer a rich though underutilized educational resource that can provide various assistance and support. The Board of Education should research and publish a directory of community organizations and institutions that can be utilized by educators to respond to the unique needs of students whose first language is not English.

 Currently, there exists a dual system of public education in New York City. One system, ÿincluding the elite schools (for example, Bronx Science and Stuyvesant), receives a disproportionate share of resources. Another system is characterized by substandard physical plants, outdated textbooks and curricula, and inadequate laboratory facilities. The Board of Education should immediately redistribute funding and other resources to insure that schools with the greatest need receive the greatest level of support. Schools should offer all students the opportunity to take rigorous courses in mathematics, sciences and computer technology.

 The Board of Education should support efforts to identify curricula which accurately encompass the contributions of Africa and Africans throughout the Diaspora and distribute this material as part of professional development activities.

 The Board of Education should ensure that teachers, administrators, parents, students and others receive information about the new standards and how they will help students to achieve academic and cultural excellence.

The Road to Health Care Reform: The Human Right To Quality Care

This issue of health care reform in recent weeks has become so politically charged and divided.  I believe this divide represents a great disparity between the “haves” and “have nots”.  Many people worry the reform in the wrong hands cannot possibly work but also will lead to many falling through the cracks.  For one, issues of elder care as our population ages needs to be addressed.  Still, there is a matter of cost. Conservatives believe the reform will tax us too much (at least 50%), but also give the government power over who lives and who dies.  There will be the forgotten.  Still, have the conservatives put a face on health care reform?  Do they know how reform may bring about a change so grand no one can possibly understand its impact?  It has never been tested at this level and we will never know unless we try.

Meanwhile, young working families struggle to put food on the table and purchase “Back to School” supplies.  Many worry about their jobs and the rising cost of gasoline.  Also, many are living the nightmare of a broken system that does not value the right to quality health care and makes access to such care frustrating and tedious.  So this week before I put a face to health care reform, I ask the following question: When did health care stop being a human right? Why are there no options in the existing system for the poor and working classes?  What is wrong with the option of having a choice instead of being forced into subpar insurance coverage like the high-deductible plans many working class Americans are offered?  Affordable coverage means taking the risk you will never be chronically ill but what about those who fall into a large demographic of people with preexisting conditions?  Many conservatives state that Health saving accounts (or HSAs) can work.  I don’t think they understand.  Most Americans do not have savings, nor do they have the income to save and some even struggle to eat.  Many working families are surviving just above the poverty level.  Conservatives believe that charities can aid in the health care dilemma by filling in the gaps of private insurance.  Do they not know that many charities are already overburdened?  Many do not think the system is broken and nor do they think health care is a right for all Americans because it is not addressed in the Constitution. Still, do not the building blocks for American government and law come from the tenants of Judeo-Christian belief systems?  Does this not mean we must as a society take care of each other, especially those less fortunate and do good deeds?  Still I believe life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, the essence of our forefathers’ message, suggest the right to good health.  Access to health care should be an inalienable right, a fundamental value for this nation to embrace.  Instead, many people disagree that health care coverage is indeed a right but instead a choice.  For many, they believe it comes down to an option like any other insurance.  You choose to insure your car, your life, why not your health? Point taken: Many believe health care should stay out of the hands of government.  Health care and the choices it represents should be in the hands of families or, in other words, the consumers.

Rev. Sophia DeWitt, Director of Health, Housing and Senior Services Ministries, Fresno Interdenominational Refugee Ministries (FIRM, Inc.) expresses her concern over the attitude toward health care as being a privilege. “From a faith perspective, I would say it is immoral because it denies human dignity to so many, rations care based on income and costs lives– and yet our political system is totally incapable of solving the problem.”  Our existing systems do not want health care in the hands of people but rather big, moneymaking corporations.  Still, the liberal view also has drawbacks to the reform because it seems too socialist.  Regardless, the chances of the reform passing are small because the legislation lacks the language to define who will benefit from such reform.  Truly, this issue is not about fancy words or which side of the political coin is right; it is about families torn apart every day by real-life altering health care decisions and a system that does not focus upon those who really need quality care. These people are out there, each with a different story of how the current health care system has failed them.  They may be your neighbors or even a family member.

Picture this: You have been sitting in a hospital emergency room for three and a half hours with a sick child running a fever, a child with a history of infection to his central line.  The situation: You have no private health insurance coverage because you are a single mother taking care of two disabled children and therefore are unable to work.  You are at the mercy of government health care programs like Medicaid. Imagine also: You have been evicted from your apartment because your landlord does not like the fact there is a constant stream of health care professionals coming in and out of your home to take care of your son, who is deathly ill.  To further the nightmare: You are now on a waiting list to travel to Boston for further testing of your son’s gastrointestinal tract.  Mind you, the doctors have taken a tissue biopsy sample twelve weeks ago.  They said the sample was sent to Germany; you have not received any results.  Still, you wait to go to Boston and your son in the meantime has repeated infection after infection affecting his ability to maintain a healthy weight.  When he should be playing and enjoying the sunshine, he must sit in his “chair” to receive the nourishment and medical treatment he needs to stay alive.  And still you wait for Boston.  Next, you were told there may be a problem getting to Boston because you have a car, an old hand-me-down clunker.  Owning a car disqualifies you from free medical transportation via government guidelines for income.  Unless he is in the hospital, you must find your own transportation.  Your brother has agreed to drive to Boston but now you’ve found out that the Ronald McDonald House, where you have stayed in Albany, the Boston chapter only caters to parents of cancer patients.  Where will you stay in Boston where the less expensive motel is $150 a night?

This is Sarah and Sheldon Wagner’s story.  Sarah Wagner of North Creek, NY has a chronically ill son named Sheldon, who without everyday medical care would die.  Sheldon will be four years old on October 8th and he has been hospitalized eighteen times this year for numerous infections including staph.  He has been sick since birth.  The doctors do not know exactly what is wrong with Sheldon, just that he has trouble eating normally. He has a central line, which feeds him and provides regular medications to his circulatory system.  This central line has been problematic because it is prone to infection but Sarah has been told without this device, he would die.  Sarah asks Sheldon, “Are you my wonder boy, my gadget boy?” because without the innovation of medicine Sheldon would not be here. His gadget needs constant medical attention from daily caregivers. While the year is not over, it is not unusual for Sarah to drive nearly two hours from her home in the Adirondacks to Albany, NY so that Sheldon can receive the best of pediatric care at Albany Medical Center.  In June, while most children were enjoying summer with an ice cream cone or riding bikes in the park, Sheldon was in isolation from visitors and the outside world so that he did not catch any more contagions.  Many times, Sarah has traveled in the middle of the night to a hospital with her mother or brother for reliable transportation but mostly moral support.  This situation has become her life.  For the sake of Sheldon’s health care, she has sacrificed her own well-being.  This situation has presented a strain emotionally and financially upon her family.  While Sarah receives public assistance, she is unable to work as Sheldon’s primary parent.  With the support of her family and continued treatment, Sheldon is able to be home until they leave for Boston on September 13th.

Sheldon has an endearing spirit, a radiant soul that touches all who visit.  His laughter is infectious and he’s got the talent for numbers.  He could be a future NASA rocket scientist.  Sheldon never questions the treatment, sometimes he is frustrated but he always has a smile for you.  Never is it, “Why did this happen to us” or “Why is my little boy so sick?” but really Sarah is more concerned with “What can I do to help my son get better?”  Like any parent in the same circumstances, she must trust the knowledge of Sheldon’s doctors but mostly she must play by the rules of Medicaid.  It seems this creates a whole new meaning to red tape and redundancy.  She has had to make some drastic decisions alone for Sheldon’s sake but many have been at the mercy of the Medicaid system and what that system has been willing to provide for Sheldon. She must ask questions and make sure all of Sheldon’s needs are met.  If this means calling the doctor’s service at four in the morning, she does it.  Still, this whole situation comes back to the waiting list for the Boston visit.  If Sheldon was the son of a doctor, lawyer, senator or even a celebrity, do you think he would have to wait?

While Sarah may not fully understand the health care reform, she understands that there must be a better way to ensure that every person in America receives quality care and is treated equally.  When asked if a public option might help someone like herself or Sheldon, she agrees that just talking about health care is the catalyst for change.  “The first step is admitting there is even a problem,” she says.

Brooklyn Health Reform Panelists: Stand Up and Demand Better Health System or Indifferent Policymakers and Money Interests Will Stand For You

When Fannie Lou Hamer said she was “sick and tired of being sick and tired”, she could not have imagined then that 40 years hence there would be a Black president in the White House drafting prescriptions for the nation’s ailing systems.  Now there is.  And he is.  But is relief in sight?

“Dr.” Hamer and her famous statement came to mind last Sunday during remarks by Dr. Shadidi Beatrice Kinsey, Founder, P.E.A.C.E. Health Center, during the 10th Annual Health Activist Award Program sponsored by The Family and Friends of Dr. Mutulu Shakur at 966 Fulton Street in Brooklyn.  The award, given this year posthumously to Churne Lloyd, honored Dr. Mutulu Shakur (father of Tupac), whose primary work has been in the area of health. He is a doctor of acupuncture and was a co-founder and director of two major institutions devoted to improving health care in the Black community (See article in future issue.)

Dr. Kinsey’s rousing Asante Sana opened the event and an informative discussion “The Health Care Reform Bill: What Does It Mean to Us” moderated by Dr. James C. McIntosh, President, CEMOTAP,  ensued with panelists Councilman Charles Barron, 42nd CD, and Harlem attorney Ajamu Sankofa, co-founder, PHIMGC (Private Health Insurance Must Go! Coalition).

The health reform discussion touched on far-ranging aspects of health care in the U.S. where 50 million people have no insurance, 25 million more are underinsured and existing programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Children’s Insurance are “under attack,” and budget cuts have reduced access. Topics ranged from President Barack Obama’s health reform strategy/tactics; the history of African Americans’ health struggles; the involvement of money and corporate interests to the language of health care and the need for individuals everywhere to demand change and get “sick and tired of being sick and tired.”

Following are excerpts from Dr. Kinsey, Councilman Barron’s, Attorney Sankofa and Dr. McIntosh’s statements and exchange:

DR. SHADIDI BEATRICE KINSEY
The Black Congressional Caucus published a study in 2003; they found there are 15 leading causes of death in the U.S. and African Americans led in 11 categories. Lord knows what it is now six years later. We’re in a health crisis, and along with the problem of medical apartheid, as Harriet Washington pointed out in her brilliant book (Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to Present), how is this answered?

DR. JAMES C. McINTOSH
Why should a revolutionary organization be talking about health?  Well, why shouldn’t they?  We die in larger numbers – more than any other groups: HIV/AIDS, lung disease, cancer, heart disease, homicides, accidents, suicides, strokes, diabetes, kidney disease.  Look at the list and you will see that just by modifying five or six things, mainly what we take into our body, you can eliminate these things.  Eliminate drugs, cigarettes, alcohol, all impact on anything else you might have, and if you’ve caught a disease, they make the situation worse. Eating improperly – salt, sugar, cholesterol – plays a role in cancer, kidney disease, diabetes.  You will never get certain types of diabetes, which is wiping people out,  if you don’t go above your ideal body weight.

Disrespect and settling disputes through violence start homicides.

Go to the Internet; look at the top 10 rap songs; take the  top 10 rap songs, 8 or 9 of those songs will provoke one of those risk factors that are responsible for the top 10 killers of black people. One of the songs will promote all eight risk factors. In my study, with country songs, it’s reversed; nine out of ten songs do not promote risk factors; just one did.  We certainly need to pay attention to the complexities of the issue of health care (from a larger perspective).

Councilman Charles Barron:
America has the largest private health care system in the world, the most expensive in the world and one of the worst in terms of quality.

When there are homeless people in America which has a $4.2 trillion economy, and we can’t afford education and healthcare, the real crisis is in this system that looks at profit over people. The health care crisis is but a symptom of a deeply rooted illness in America called capitalism.  As long as we keep dealing with the symptoms, we will all be sick, even when they pass this health care reform.  America needs a radical change in government – which is the reason we should not be afraid to talk about Revolution.

We have a Mayor who should have been on the front page of the newspapers with his statements that health care execs are not making enough money.  Executives making $10million to $40million a year are making a lot of money.

This is a monopolistic capital system, where they try to monopolize certain industry.  There are two companies (controlling most of this); and they are trying to consolidate.  They have the ability to drive costs up.

Healthcare is not affordable, not accessible, not high quality.  So what can we do about it.  Under the private insurance system, prices are high; premiums are doubling, tripling.   Everything’s going up but your salary.  You may have a plan but you have to pay a deductible, which doesn’t cover everything. So now we are debating what the best payer system is.

One answer is Single Payer which means the government will be the Single Payer for health care delivery for the middle class and below, for those who cannot essential services.  Right now – without it, the health industry can do whatever they want; they can raise prices.

Congress says their needs to be more transparency, oversight.  Everything the government does is messed up; they need to trim the fat and work on the fraud. They say Social Security isn’t working?  Oh, yes it is.  If the government would stop taking money out of the account and using it for other things, then it would work.

A lot of this has nothing to do with health care at all; it has a lot to do with politics.   If a healthcare bill passes now, the Democrats will increase their numbers in the House and the Senate.  If they fail, the Republicans have a chance.

They’re saying a lot of stuff, going into the dumpster to distort things and it’s working because it has people thinking some of the foolishness is true.

Not doing Single Payer? Try Public Option. Put it out there on the table.  Public Option will keep prices under control, but insurance companies say they’re going to hurt us because that’s what they don’t want.

Meanwhile, this is the first time in the history of  this country where a health care reform option has passed in three committees in the House and by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
But the Senate Finance Committee – (the last committee to clear health care before its taken up on the Senate Floor) is backing back away from that, favoring something called Co-op, where nonprofit insurance companies are owned by its members, the same people insured by the company.  Not like the old way where private insurers answer to investors.

Bottom of Form

President Obama is trying to get a nonpartisan agreement.  But they’ve got the vote; it’s just a matter of telling the head of the Senate and the head of the House to get it passed.

That is why we need a better system.  Both parties are controlled by white men, who have inordinate amount of power in the House, Senate and around Barack Obama. And in every party there are conservatives, liberals, centrists, moderates.

So the talk will continue, and there will be a lot of it about single payer,  public options, coops and how we’re going to pay for it all.

How do we pay for it?  Simple: raise millionaires’ taxes by 1.5%.  Another way: those making $350,000 or more, should write off 28% of their charitable contributions, not 35%.  Place a small tax on stock transfers and transfers of bonds.

I personally am for the Single Payer plan, but I think health care, the utilities, and even the auto industry should be nationalized.  Think about it:  No private company should be giving us what God gives us, and make billions of dollars off of utilities like electricity.  These things happen in other countries.

You would be surprised what could happen, here. We would move towards progressive taxation and, finally, regulation.

This is not difficult at all; it’s just common sense.

(Health Forum Panel discussion highlights will continue next week, September 3, with the presentation of Attorney Ajamu Sankofa’s comments and assessments.  Also, Next week, Barron’s thoughts on Foreclosure, Bailouts, Wall Street, and Obama, as presented at the last Sunday’s Health Activist Awards Program, will be included in the Barron, Part II article, originally announced for this issue.)