Two leading government health care agencies recently presented differing opinions on the effects swine flu is likely to have this fall. One group believes it will lead to up to 90,000 deaths. The other thinks the number will be much lower. The confusion and different viewpoints aside, swine flu is a serious illness and we must work to control its spread. The President’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology released a report that says that over 50 percent of the population will contract swine flu this season, with up to 1.8 million ending up in the hospital for treatment and up to 90,000 actually dying from the disease.
One of the more pernicious myths surrounding the debate over health care is the oft repeated claim that conservatives do not want reform. Nonsense! What we do not want is the warm bucket of snake oil currently being sold to the American people by this administration. Conservatives have long argued for the need to reduce mandated benefits, reduce the reliance on third party payers and get rid of public policies that hinder entrepreneurship and innovation. This is the kind of reform conservatives want—the right kind of reform.
(NNPA)—Regardless of all the legal and moral arguments for and against the death penalty in America, there is one thing we all can agree on—no one should ever be put to death for a crime he or she did not commit. On Aug. 17, the United States Supreme Court in a 6-2 ruling upheld that principle by ordering a federal district court in Georgia to hold an evidentiary hearing in the case of Troy Anthony Davis. For 18 years, Davis has been challenging from death row what he and his many supporters claim is his wrongful conviction in the shooting death of off-duty Savannah police officer, Mark Allen MacPhail in August of 1989. There is no physical evidence linking Davis to the crime and since his conviction, seven of the nine witnesses have recanted their testimony. Several of them have implicated the prosecution’s lead witness as the actual killer.
(NNPA)—When I started my academic career at Brandeis University just outside Boston, Ted Kennedy was in the Senate, but had established little fame. Twenty years later, I came back to Boston, or rather Cambridge, as a Fellow at the Kennedy School at Harvard and then, Ted was becoming a legend for standing up to Ronald Reagan’s attempt to roll back the clock on the civil rights era. In those years I paid a great deal of attention to his leadership. His speeches on the floor of the Senate became the place where he trained his unbridled anger at those who would seek to block children’s health care legislation, or the minimum wage for the poor, or funding for Title 9 that supported female sports in school or discrimination against the elderly or those with physical handicaps. Yes, he did roar: pointing his finger at his adversaries, turning red as he pounded his lectern, generally raising hell as an unrepentant liberal. Who would do this today?
We are no longer surprised when rumor, embellishment and outright lies seem to have a longer and stronger life than the truth. In today’s anyone-is-a-pundit society, where opinions are as plentiful as ashcans, the steady attacks on Barack Obama have become almost their own industry. No wonder Fox News Network can boast that it had some of the highest ratings of any television network. But the persistence of the zealots who claim that Barack Obama is not qualified to be president of the United States because he was not born in the United States defies even that kind of explanation.
Dear Editor: On Aug. 14, another African-American institution, Dwelling House Savings and Loan, the only minority-owned and operated financial institution in Pittsburgh was closed to the regret of many. Dwelling House Savings and Loan and its predecessor, with a history of more than 119 years in the Hill, have helped more African-Americans and poor people buy their homes than many realize. In fact, many people would not be homeowners (my wife and I included) if Dwelling House did not exist. Many people who could not get mortgages from White institutions had their dreams realized at Dwelling House.
(NNPA)—Some of the nation’s blue chip companies—many that rely on African-American consumers for a significant portion of their profits—advertised on right-winger Glenn Beck’s incendiary program on Fox TV. They include Procter & Gamble, Kraft Food, ConAgra (maker of Healthy Choice foods), Clorox, UPS, the U.S. Postal Service, Honda, General Electric, Travelocity, State Farm Insurance, Geico, Farmer’s Insurance, Pfizer, Walmart, Best Buy, Office Depot, Radio Shack, Sprint, CVS, Red Lobster, Nestle, Progressive Insurance and pharmaceutical companies Roche and Sanofi-Aventis (maker of Plavix). Beck touched off a firestorm when he labeled President Obama “a racist” who has “deep-seated hatred for White people.” ColorOfChange.org, an Internet-oriented Black grass roots advocacy group, quickly organized a petition drive urging advertisers to stop sponsoring his show.
Senator Jim Ferlo was the only local politician to question how and what benefits G-20 brings to Pittsburgh. There is no question that a number of persons echo the same sentiment, but they whisper the question. In my estimation Ferlo has always been a stand- up guy that we could always count on so this week’s column is a salute to a true champion of the people. I went to Ferlo’s Butler Street office hopeful that he would be available and he was. The first question that was asked, “In what part of Pittsburgh were you born?” He replied, “I was born in upstate New York.” I had forgotten he was not a native Pittsburgher.
In the interest of full disclosure, I am a huge Philadelphia Eagles fan. For most of my adult life I watched football but didn’t have a real team that I followed consistently. On any given Sunday I’d just root for whatever team had a Black coach or a Black quarterback. So a couple of years ago, when Rush Limbaugh attacked Eagles QB Donovan McNabb, I knew that was going to be my team and I haven’t missed a game on either television or radio in about five years. Two weeks ago, the Eagles shocked the sports world and a lot of mainstream media by signing former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick to their roster. Vick had just been released after spending two years in jail for running a dog fighting ring along with some of his relatives. In addition to having lost over $130 million in pay and being suspended from the NFL, he’s become public enemy No. 1 in the eyes of group of Americans who think his crimes are so heinous that he doesn’t deserve to play professional football again.
(NNPA)—During the fierce battle with the Amalekites, when Moses raised his hands the Israelites won, but when he tired and dropped them, his enemies won. So Moses’ brother Aaron and Hur, a friend, stood with Moses and kept his hands raised until their side had the victory. In this fierce battle over health care, African-American religious leaders must not only pray but also get in the battle and support their brother President Barack Obama so he will not become overwhelmed by his enemies and lose this battle and the war. This battle is about health care reform, but the war is much greater. As Rush Limbaugh and the political right have made clear, the war is the defeat of the Obama presidency and the destruction of all avenues of help and prosperity for the poor and middle-class Americans.
