Home Blog Page 328

Veterans Group: Military Recruitment Could Suffer as Suicide Crisis Persists

Editor, Our Time Press
-
0
Veterans Group: Military Recruitment Could Suffer as Suicide Crisis Persists

By Pinkston News Service
WASHINGTON, DC—(Pinkston News Service)—As the U.S. military continues to grapple with rising suicide rates among its service members, the head of one Veterans Service Organization warns that a failure to take care of active duty personnel and veterans could lead to a drop in military recruitment. And if that happens, “that becomes a national security problem,” said Mission Roll Call Executive Director Cole Lyle. He discussed the issue earlier this month on an episode of the Coffee with Closers podcast. 

“If people don’t believe that they’re going to be taken care of while they’re on active duty and mothers and fathers don’t believe that their sons and daughters are going to be taken care of when they get off active duty, they’re not going to support them joining the military. And if we get into another major war or something, there’s a very real possibility where they are [our military] not going to be able to recruit enough people,” said Lyle. He also noted that military service is becoming a “family business.” According to a Pew Research Center survey, close to 80% of veterans “have an immediate family member who served in the military.”

The nonprofit, nonpartisan Mission Roll Call (www.missionrollcall.org) advocates on behalf of more than 1 million veterans at the federal level. Suicide prevention, better access to healthcare and addressing the unique challenges facing Tribal and Rural veterans are its top priorities, according to the group’s website. Lyle, a Marine Corps veteran who served in Afghanistan and has been open about his own struggles with post traumatic stress, was instrumental in getting the national Puppies Assisting Wounded Service members (PAWS) Act signed into law last year. The PAWS Act requires the VA to implement a grant program to pair service dogs with eligible veterans. 

Approximately 17 U.S. veterans die by suicide every day, according to the the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Last year, a study by Brown University’s Costs of War Project found that more than 30,000 active duty personnel and veterans have died by suicide since 9/11, which is  four times the number of service members killed in combat operations during this same time period. 

To address the military suicide crisis, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced in March an independent commission to assess the state of the government’s suicide “prevention and response activities.” 

“One death by suicide is one too many. And suicide rates among our service members are still too high. So, clearly we have more work to do,” said Secretary Austin according to published news reports at the time the commission was announced.

Veterans who are interested in sharing their concerns with Congress or who are in need of assistance, can contact Mission Roll Call at: https://www.missionrollcall.org/get-involved

Dr. Brenda M. Greene on Ntozake Shange

Brenda Greene
-
0
Dr. Brenda M. Greene on Ntozake Shange

and the Broadway Revival of “for colored girls who have considered suicide /when the rainbow is enuf”

By Dr. Brenda M. Greene
Renowned poet, playwright and novelist Ntozake Shange’s Obie Award-winning choreopoem for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf, first produced in 1974, boldly defined what it meant to be a woman of color in the 20th century. After playing at The Public Theater, the play opened on Broadway in 1976. It has now been revived on Broadway by dancer, choreographer, director, and dance educator Camille A. Brown. I had an opportunity to see this stirring and dynamic production on Opening Night, Wednesday, April 20, 2022.


As I sat in the audience watching the play, I was reminded of the feelings that first arose in me when I saw the play at The Public Theater in 1975. I knew the women on that stage. They were my high school and college friends. They represented all hues and body types. Their joys, tears, pain, frustration at men and relationships represented what we encountered as young Black women who came of age in the late 1960s and 1970s. These sister friends were not concerned with being silent and were bold in sharing our stories and our secrets. Ntozake Shange exposed those stories and reminded us of the value of storytelling and that in the midst of pain, loss, grief, and abuse we would have joyful moments and we would survive.

Poster of the National Black Writers 2019 Biennial Conference, curated by Dr. Brenda Greene.


I also thought about the criticism that was directed at Ntozake when the play came out. Like Michele Wallace, the author of Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman, which came out in 1978, Ntozake was accused of only portraying stereotyped renditions of Black men. Wallace argues that the patriarchy, sexism, and racial politics manifested during the Black Arts and Black Power Movements had silenced and marginalized Black women. The work of the late professor and feminist scholar bell hooks, known for titles like “Ain’t I a Woman” and “All About Love,” was also viewed as a critique of the Black male. In Ain’t I a Woman, hooks argues that many Black women refused to participate in the feminist movement because “casting a vote for feminism was casting a vote against Black liberation. hooks advocates that Black women who are feminists are pioneers. She recounts how Black people in America have been traumatized and subjected to hopelessness, powerlessness, and despair and argues that the movement forward in the struggle for liberation requires a radical vison of social change rooted in a love ethic that will convert, as it did with the Civil Rights movement, masses of people, Black and non-Black. She notes that by choosing to embrace the love ethic as practice, we choose to work collectively for the survival of the beloved community. Ntozake Shange’s choreopoem embodies these values. She lays the foundation for scholars and Black feminists who advocate for the agency of Black women.


I had an opportunity to interview Ntozake Shange in her Bedford Stuyvesant home in 2010. When I asked her why was it so important to write this choreopoem celebrating the voices of Black women? She responded with, “It’s difficult to approach. I wrote 20 poems over a period of two and a half years. They were poems I read at readings, in different arrangements and with different nuances, dancers and musicians. We were able to discover elements in the poems and in the music and dance that allowed us to present it to one audience. I had developed an audience in the San Francisco Bay area, but it never occurred to me that it was going to the world. It was going to my community which I was a part of and where I felt I belonged. I think some of the confidence and the buoyancy of the language comes from that feeling. And I never felt like we had to do anything else. We had this to do. And that was what I could do and that’s what I did.”


The Center for Black Literature celebrated the life of Ntozake Shange at the National Black Writers Conference 2019 Biennial Symposium, “Playwrights and Screenwriters at the Crossroads.” Ifa Bayeza, playwright, producer, novelist, and sister of Ntozake Shange was the keynote speaker. Bayeza told the audience that Ntozake came from a family of storytellers and she described Ntozake’s journey as a poet and playwright and her belief in activism, serving her people, and using music, dance and poetry to represent this commitment.

Camille A. Brown’s revised dynamic Broadway production celebrates the power of the word. As audience members, we empathize with the performers and we see the value of the oral tradition. We feel the emotion of their struggle as they express the desires, pain, grief, loss and joy of Black women. Their cacophony of voices finds strength and support in the collective community.


Award-winning arts marketing consultant Donna Walker-Kuhne, president of Walker International Communications Group, states, “The play is amazing, the staging, choreography and direction. The feminism encapsulated by the women is powerful.”


Jamila Ponton Bragg, of JamRock Productions and one of the producers of the play states:
“I was blown away at how beautiful the production looked on stage. Camille Brown, a director and a choreographer, energized Ntozake Shange’s words by using color and movement to accent the actor’s excellent delivery of her timeless play. It was also wonderful to see the way she used movement to bring the play into the 21st century–the dancing felt like it was lifted from a recent video or an NYC club. I am proud to be part of the producing team and bring a modern version of this classic work to the Broadway stage.”


Ntozake left us with a strong message. She showed us the way forward and the path for how we triumph, survive, and heal. Healing involves remembering as Toni Morrison reminds us in her essay on “The Site of Memory.” We witness the women who must remember in order to heal. We acknowledge their pain, joy, and passion. Through a laying of the hands. they form a “ring dance” a traditional ritual rooted in the African aesthetic of the Black community. As the play closes, the women cry out, ‘I Found God in Myself.” We are bystanders, observing their transformation and the acceptance of the sacred within themselves.


Dr. Brenda M. Greene, professor of English is Founder and Executive Director of the Center for Black Literature and Director of the National Black Writers Conference at Medgar Evers College, CUNY. Founded in 2002, the mission of the Center for Black Literature at Medgar Evers College, CUNY (CBL) is to expand, broaden, and enrich the public’s knowledge and aesthetic appreciation of Black literature by people of the African Diaspora.

For more information on the Center for Black Literature:
-Twitter: www.twitter.com/center4BlackLit
-Instagram: www.instagram.com/center4blacklit
-Facebook: www.Facebook.com/CenterforBlackLiterature
-YouTube: http://bit.ly/cblyoutube
-Email Newsletter Sign-Up: https://bit.ly/cblnewsletter
Website: centerforblackliterature.org

For Broadway revival ticket information: telecharge.com
forcoloredgirlsbway.com

 Kentuckian Charles Booker seeking to defeat Sen. Paul Rand

Editor, Our Time Press
-
0
 Kentuckian Charles Booker seeking to defeat Sen. Paul Rand

Former Kentucky state representative Charles Booker, 37, husband and father, is working hard to move Sen. Paul Rand, R.-Ky, out of office. Running as a champion for working families, Booker spoke at the 2022 Annual Hillbilly Days Festival in Appalachia’s Pikeville, Kentucky, last weekend.  He said this week, “I am honored. This moment was proof that we’re building a movement from the hood to the holler.”  Each year the iconic festival brings in over 100,000 people.  (Photo: Courtesy, charlesbooker.org)

What’s Going On – 4/28

Victoria Horsford
-
0

SPRINGTIME/2022
NYC: Mayor Eric Adams, no longer Covid quarantined, is back to his 24/7 governance of NYC with matters like public safety, education, health, and homelessness among his top priorities.

Education Chancellor David Banks consistently talks about his vision for NYC public schools. He wants the city’s 1.1. million students to be literate by the third grade, revisiting phonics and the reading tool. He plans to expand the Talented and Gifted Programs, to schools in the five boroughs. Stuyvesant/Brooklyn Tech/Bronx HS of Science will no longer be exclusive gateways to the nation’s top colleges. Great cities are impossible without good public education systems.

Hizzoner announced the Doula and Midwifery Initiatives to address health care disparities in maternal deaths and infant mortality, widespread among city’s Black women and Latinas. The Initiatives will fund training of doulas to serve women in public and private facilities. Again, Adams called attention to the financial and management burdens placed on city’s small homeowners.

NYS: The 2022 Primaries. Recent statewide Siena Poll shows that 44% of the electorate like Governor Kathy Hochul but 57% disapprove of her job performance, finding her weak on crime and the economy. Who will she name Lieutenant Governor since her first choice Brian Benjamin was forced to resign? Whose name will appear on the now-delayed Primary ballot since Benjamin was the person designated by Democrats? Latinos have been screaming about exclusion on the NYS ballot: Ana Maria Archila, supported by the World Families Party, an ally of gubernatorial hopeful Jumaane Williams and former NYC Councilwoman Diana Reyna, an ally of gubernatorial hopeful, Congressman Suozzi. The LG line is separate in primary. Either woman could win primary and be on the November ticket with Governor Hochul.

THE NATION/WORLD
French President Emmanuel Macron was re-elected April 24, with a 58/42 % margin against far right contender, Marie Le Pen, in a race which pundits said would be close. The Le Pen agenda for France would have been a sharp turn to the right, with close ties to Russia’s Putin, and possible NATO withdrawal. There are parallels between the 2022 French and American elections.

Students of American government and its sharp, dysfunctional divisions should read the book, “The Right: The 100 Year War For American Conservatism” by Matthew Continetti. Conservatives will spend $141 million in 6 states to retake the House and US Senate. Is US electorate aware that the country is veering right to an autocratic state?

Last year, 18 Republican-dominated states passed laws that make it harder to vote, which will impact the Black, Brown, GenX and GenZ electorate. Democrats have a huge problem as effective communicators, unable to articulate their accomplishments, which could impact any November election victories. Cedric Richmond, Sr. Advisor to President Biden and Director of White House Office of Public Engagement, exits to work full time for the Democratic National Committee.

THE WORLD
US War and Peace brass, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Anthony Blinkin visited Ukraine President Zelensky, whose country was invaded by Russians two months ago. Austin convened a meeting in Germany on 4/26 with 40 world allies to discuss Ukraine military options with Russia since diplomacy has stagnated. Austin said, “We are going to keep moving heaven and earth” to support the Ukraine military. How did WWI begin? With the assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, while on official business to Sarajevo? And there is talk of President Biden visiting Ukraine. Not wise!

ARTS CULTURE
FILM: The 29th Annual NY African Film Festival is back, unspooling works by African Diasporan filmmakers, from May 12 to June 2, at Lincoln Center, the Maysles Documentary Center in Harlem and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Feature film, FREDA, set in Haiti about one family’s dilemma coping with relentless violence, opens the Festival, which is the brainchild of Sierra Leone- born Mahen Bonetti. Visit Africanfilmny.org for calendar of events.

MUSIC: The Rome Neal Quintet plays opening night at Brooklyn’s latest entertainment venue, The Betty Carter Auditorium, housed at the Major Owens Health and Wellness Center, located at 1561 Bedford Avenue, on April 30, the last day of Jazz Appreciation Month and the last day of the Central Brooklyn Jazz Consortium’s 23rd Annual Festival. Visit eventbrite.com//the-rome-neal-quintet or info@majorowenscenter.com

BOOK WORMS: Elizabeth Alexander’s new book, “The Trayvon Generation,” in an earlier incarnation was a NY Review of Books essay about America since the Trayvon Martin tragedy. Alexander was the 2008 inaugural poet for President Barack Obama’s swearing-in ceremony. She is president of the Mellon Foundation.

Will Smith’s memoir, WILL, topped the NY Times best seller list last week. Wonder who gets the film rights. Smith was sited in Mumbai India. Is he there for spiritual retreats and meditation? Is he scouting locations for a new film venture under his Overbrook Entertainment production company umbrella, valued at $800 million. Perhaps, a future Namastes for Chris!

MEDIA: Guess who dons Vogue Magazine’s May cover, “Oh Baby! Rihanna’s Plus One,” in a red jumpsuit by Alaia, is written by Chioma Nnadi with photographs by Annie Leibovitz. Story is titled “Mother Superior” with Rihanna in designer pieces by Marc Jacobs, Rick Owens, Dior, and Balenciaga.

APRIL/MAY OUTINGS
The Frederick E. Samuel Community Democratic Club, FESCDC, hosts its Spring Fundraiser at the Grand Slam Banquet Hall, located at 3534 Broadway, corner of 145 Street, Manhattan. Event honorees are Aliyyah Baylor, Make My Cake, CEO as outstanding Entrepreneur and June Moses, President of the 135 St Apartments Tenants Association, for community service. This FESCDC event is center of gravity for Harlem politicos Keith Wright, NY County leader, Virginia Fields, former Manhattan Boro Prexy. Visit Fredsamsdemocraticclub.com

The Harlem campus of the Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine hosts its “Heroes Made Here” fundraiser, honoring Dr. Maurice Wright, MD, Chief Medical Officer of NYC Health and Hospital, and Walter Edwards, Full Spectrum real estate developer. May 10 at 5 pm. at 230 West 125 Street, Harlem. NYC Mayor Eric Adams will attend as an honored guest and will deliver remarks. Fundraiser proceeds will benefit Touro’s scholarship fund. Call 646.981.4516 or email beth.portnoy@touro.edu.

A Harlem-based strategic management consultant, Victoria can be reached at victoria.horsford@gmail.com

How the Supreme Court Could Make Your Life More Dangerous

Editor, Our Time Press
-
0
How the Supreme Court Could Make Your Life More Dangerous

By Robert Reich, https://robertreich.org/

Your life could get a lot more dangerous. Republican appointees on the Supreme Court seem poised to strip away basic safety standards for our workplaces, our food, our air and water.

Congress gives federal agencies the authority to enact regulations that protect us in our daily lives. Congress defines the goals, but leaves it up to the health and safety experts in those agencies to craft and enforce regulations. 

I know regulations don’t sound very exciting, but they’re how our government keeps us safe.

Remember when lots of romaine lettuce was recalled because it was causing E.coli outbreaks? That was the Food and Drug Administration protecting us from getting sick. 

Working in a warehouse? The Occupational Safety and Health Administration sets standards to ensure you don’t breathe in dangerous chemicals like asbestos. 

Enjoying the fresh air on a clear, sunny day? Thank the Environmental Protection Agency for limiting the amount of pollution that can go into our air.

These agencies save lives. Since OSHA was established a half-century ago, its workplace safety regulations have saved more than 618,000 workers’ lives.

Republicans have been trying to gut these agencies for decades. Now, with the Supreme Court’s right-wing majority solidly in place, they have their best chance yet.

In January 2022, the Supreme Court blocked OSHA’s vaccine-or-testing mandate from going into effect, which was estimated to prevent a quarter-million hospitalizations.

The Court claimed that Covid isn’t an “occupational hazard” because people can become infected outside of work, and that allowing OSHA to regulate in this manner “would significantly expand” its authority without clear Congressional authorization.

This is absurd on its face. Section 2 of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 clearly spells out OSHA’s authority to enact and enforce regulations that protect workers from illness, injury, and death in the workplace. Congress doesn’t need to list every specific workplace hazard before OSHA can protect workers.

What this ruling tells us is that the Republican appointees on the Supreme Court are intent on gutting the power of agencies to issue regulations.

This term, the Court will also hear a case regarding the EPA’s authority to enforce the Clean Water Act. If the Court undermines the EPA’s authority, it will put our environment – and our health – at risk. Remember when the Cuyahoga River caught on fire because it was brimming with oil, acid, and factory chemicals? That’s what we may be returning to.

And what’s next? Will they gut the Federal Trade Commission and put us all at risk of being defrauded? Target the Securities and Exchange Commission and deregulate the financial sector, sparking another financial crisis?

Beware. If Republican appointees on the Supreme Court succeed in gutting regulatory agencies, we all lose. This agenda is anti-worker, anti-consumer, and anti-environment. The only thing it’s good for is corporate profits.

Robert Reich is Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center. He served as Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration.

1...327328329...1,289Page 328 of 1,289