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The ‘Fight for Freedom’ bridges generations
By Paul Bridgewater
On Sunday, May 2, the
Detroit Branch NAACP will hold its 55th Annual Fight for Freedom Fund Dinner. After a year-long debate to bring health reform to the U.S., it’s fortuitous that those of us chairing the dinner are com- mitted to health and long-term care, especially among those who are underserved in our community.
We’re looking forward to
hearing keynote speaker Con- gressman James Clyburn, the Democratic whip of the U.S. Congress, who delivered the votes to pass the health reform bill.
The theme of this year’s
Freedom Fund dinner is “Jobs, Jobs, Jobs, and National Health Care: A Matter of Jus- tice, Privilege or Right.” The general chair of the dinner is Conrad L. Mallett Jr., presi- dent, DMC Sinai-Grace Hospi- tal, and I am a co-chair, along with Karen Love, vice presi- dent, Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries.
This is a tremendous op-
portunity for the Detroit Area Agency on Aging to keep the needs of older adults on the radar screen of young activists, especially those whose future career choices may impact our well being. From where I sit, a huge number of Generation X and Y members will soon be the major decision makers in business, politics, education and the non-profit sector.
The NAACP has long been
a strong advocate for health care reform, and the national organization is using online technology for health reform updates and the 2010 Census “Yes We Count” campaign. Al- ready, the NAACP has a large presence on Facebook be- cause of the 4,000 members of its youth section, and it is on the way to branding the or- ganization for the next genera- tion with expanded and active posts.
The current national
president of the NAACP, Ben Jealous, 37, is the youngest person to hold this position, and his call to social justice was initially fueled by his par- ents and grandparents. Like the president of the United
States, we’re seeing a growing number of leaders who are the right age to bridge the genera- tions.
Last year, President Barack
Obama addressed the NAACP when it marked its 100-year history at the national conven- tion in New York. He looked back at the journey that began long before the Voting Rights Act, Civil Rights Act and Brown v. Board of Education – back to an America just a generation past slavery.
He reminded the audience
of the founders of the NAACP and their understanding of how change would come. The president said, “They knew that the stain of slavery and the sin of segregation had to be lifted in the courtroom, and in the legislature, and in the hearts and the minds of Amer- icans.”
There’s no denying barriers
to our full equality still exist, yet our country is taking a giant step forward with the new health reform bill. With this reform, seven million Af- rican Americans who are cur- rently uninsured will now have access to health care, and the bill will immediately begin to lower health care costs for American families and small businesses.
Under health reform, Amer-
icans will see an immediate expansion of coverage, and some of the worst insurance industry’s practices will be curbed as consumer protec- tions are strengthened. And like no previous legislation of its magnitude, the debate over health reform has been open and accessible because of mass media and Internet technology.
The challenge now, how-
ever, is how to use today’s technology while also captur- ing the intensity of the Civil Rights Movement with its rallies, sit-ins, marches and protests. Long before cell phones, smart phones, e-mail and instant messages, a group of women, triggered by Rosa Parks, walked to their Mont- gomery, Alabama, jobs instead of taking the bus. With the organizational strategies and tactics of the NAACP behind them, one woman’s refusal to give up her seat on a bus ig- nited a movement.
Paul Bridgewater
The least we can do is
continue our support of the NAACP, beginning with our commitment to the Detroit Branch NAACP. Call me to buy dinner tickets and sit with the intergenerational freedom fighters of the Detroit Area Agency on Aging.
Together, let’s renew our
personal vows to fight for jus- tice, and let’s make the 55th Fight for Freedom Fund Dinner a catalyst for uniting the gen- erations.
Tune in to “The Senior Solu-
tion” on WGPR 107.5FM every Saturday morning at 10 a.m., hosted by Paul Bridgewater, president and CEO, Detroit Area Agency on Aging. The Detroit Area Agency on Aging is located at 1333 Brewery Park Blvd., Suite 200, Detroit, MI 48207; (313) 446-4444; www.daaa1a.org.
THE MICHIGAN CHRONICLE
April 7-13, 2010 Page C-2
Michigan recognized as a leader in cervical cancer prevention
Michigan received a “Very
Good” rating in its battle against cervical cancer in a na- tional study and continues to show itself as a leader among states in combating this dis- ease, State Senator Martha G. Scott (D-Highland Park) re- cently announced.
“Cervical cancer is one
of the only cancers that can almost always be prevented with the right knowledge and preventative steps,” Scott said. “I am very glad to see Michigan moving in the right direction and leading the battle against this deadly disease.”
Michigan received 16 out
of 22 points, the same as it received in 2009, in “A Road- map for Success: The State of Cervical Cancer Prevention in America 2010” report by Women in Government, a non- profit, bi-partisan organization representing women state leg- islators. In Michigan, the inci- dence of cervical cancer is 7.1 per 100,000, with a mortality rate of 1.8 per 100,000 and a screening rate of 80.1 percent percent.
Nationwide, the report
showed that states are making progress in the fight against cervical cancer, and there has been a steady decline in mortality rates from cervical cancer and in the number of cervical cancer cases due to better screening processes and HPV vaccines.
All of the findings are pub-
lished in “A Roadmap for Suc- cess: The State of Cervical
Cancer Prevention in America 2010.” This report is the sixth and final state-by-state com- parison report released by Women In Government and is designed to highlight the tremendous strides that have been made to battle cervical cancer since Women In Gov- ernment took up the initiative six years ago.
“We continue to look for-
ward to the day when the elimination of cervical cancer is a reality,” said Mary Brooks Beatty, president of Women in Government. “Continued efforts are needed to ensure that all women have access to the most appropriate cervical cancer prevention technolo- gies, including the HPV test and the HPV vaccine.”
Cervical cancer is the
second most common cancer in women worldwide. In the U.S., the American Cancer Society estimates that 11,270 women will have been diag- nosed with cervical cancer and 4,070 women will have died of the disease in 2009. Cervical cancer is caused by high-risk types of HPV (human papillomavirus). HPV is a very common sexually transmit- ted infection that three of four adults will have at some time in their lives. Most of these infections go away on their own without treatment. Infec- tions that do not go away on their own can lead to cervical cancer.
A Pap test is the tradi- tional method used for cervi-
cal cancer screening. An HPV test identifies women who are infected with high-risk types of HPV that could potentially lead to cervical cancer. Clinical studies suggest that screening with both a Pap test and an HPV test offers women aged 30 and older the best protec- tion against cervical cancer. An HPV vaccine is now FDA- approved for girls and young women ages 9-26.
It has been shown to be
100 percent effective in women not previously infected at pre- venting infection with the two types of HPV that cause ap- proximately 70 percent of all cervical cancers. HPV vaccina- tion does not protect against all the HPV types that can cause cervical cancer, mean- ing that women who have been vaccinated still need to be screened to protect against the HPV types that are not cov- ered by the vaccine.
Women in Government is
a national non-profit, bi-par- tisan organization of women state legislators providing leadership opportunities, net- working, expert forums and educational resources to ad- dress and resolve complex public policy issues. For more information, visit www.wom- eningovernment.org.
To access a copy of “A Road-
map for Success: The State of Cervical Cancer Prevention in America 2010,” please visit http://www.womeningovern- ment.org/prevention/state_ report/2010.
Spectrum Health receives special award
Spectrum Health Grand Rapids has
received the 2010 HealthGrades Pa- tient Safety Excellence Award placing it among the top 5 percent of United States hospitals for patient safety.
Spectrum Health Grand Rapids is
one of only 238 hospitals in the coun- try to receive this designation. Spec- trum Health has received the award in three of the past four years.
“Spectrum Health is committed to
delivering quality health care safely and consistently,” said Matt Van Vran- ken, executive vice president, Spec- trum Health, and president, Spectrum Health Hospital Group. “Our patients expect and deserve nothing less.”
Spectrum Health Grand Rapids also
received the 2010 HealthGrades Dis- tinguished Hospital Award for Clini- cal Excellence in January, one of only 154 hospitals in the nation that have maintained this high quality of care for three consecutive years.
Spectrum is one of only 74 hospitals
in the nation to receive both the Dis- tinguished Hospital Award for Clinical Excellence™ and the Patient Safety Ex- cellence Award in 2010.
The seventh annual HealthGrades
Patient Safety in American Hospitals study analyzed nearly 40 million hospi- talization records from approximately 5,000 hospitals nationwide that partici-
pate in the Medicare program. Participation in the HealthGrades
study is not voluntary, and hospitals cannot choose to opt out of the analy- sis.
The seventh annual HealthGrades
Patient Safety in American Hospitals Study applies methodology developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Agency for Health- care Research and Quality to identify the incidence rates of 15 patient safety indicators among Medicare patients at virtually all of the nation’s nearly 5,000 nonfederal hospitals.
For more information, visit www. spectrum-health.org.
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