14 The Hampton Roads Messenger


Re: Despite ACA, Thousands Show Up at Free Health Fair


SUBMITTED BY LARA WHITLOW It is quite inconceivable to


think that affordable health care is such a hard concept for Americans to understand. While is seems like a no-brainer, affordable health care triggers controversy. It is a shame to think that most Americans go without proper care all their lives. Thank goodness the City of Anaheim and the Anekant Community Center free health fair held this past May was there to help combat that problem.


It is important to address medical


concerns, but it is just as important to look at the factors causing negative health


impacts. Often overlooked,


a major cause of health problems can be found in the condition of the environment and whether or not it is polluted. Toxic air pollution given off from a variety of nearby sources including the coal terminal, the shipyard, sewage treatment plant, industrial facilities, and I-664 impacts the Southeast Community of Newport News. High rates of asthma, bronchitis,


and other respiratory


diseases are seen in the community. Respiratory disease death rates for African Americans in Newport News, composing 77% of the population of the Southeast Community, are nearly twice the average rate in Virginia.


Our Faith


Who is Burning America’s Black Churches---And Why?


By Earl Ofari Hutchinson


The count of black churches in the South that have been torched is not the six that have been burned since the massacre of nine blacks at Charles- ton's Emmanuel AME Church, but 37. The church burnings occurred in a period of not two weeks but over 18 months. That was only the tip of the church


burning iceberg. In a six year period between 1991 and 1996, the ATF in- vestigated more than 150 churches that had been torched in both the South and the North. Some of those burned were white churches. But it was the sheer number and ferocity of the arson attacks on black churches that caught the nation’s attention and stirred alarm that black churches were being systematically targeted. The tormenting question, though, was by who and why then, and again, today? Black churches have been an inviting target for racially motivated attacks by the Klan, assorted white vigilantes and cranks during a hot button period from the early to mid- 1960s. The reason then was simple. They were the gathering place, cen- terpiece, and rallying point for the mass meetings, marches and demon- strations by civil rights leaders. Mar- tin Luther King, Jr., the SCLC, CORE and the NAACP, knew that when all other public and private facilities were barred to them for use in most South- ern cities and towns, there was always a local black church that would open


its pulpit and sanctuary to them. The price paid was steep. In less than one month in 1962, five black churches were torched in rural Georgia. The next year the nation recoiled in shock at the dynamite bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham and the murder of four black girls. But the resurgence of attacks on


black churches in the 1990s mystified many. The civil rights era of mass protests and demonstrations with black churches at the center had long since passed. So who was doing the dirty work now and why? Then Presi- dent Clinton was among those who wanted to know why and asked Con- gress for an extra $1.2 million to beef up the investigations. The money was approved. The ATF, FBI and federal prosecutors supplied a partial answer with the arrests and prosecutions of a motley assortment of suspects. They were almost always young, male, and white, and they had spouted racist sentiments, had loose ties with shad- owy hate groups. Or the perpetrators fit the textbook


category of poorly educated teens or malcontents who tanked up on booze or drugs took out their warped anger or derangement on a handy and vul- nerable target, namely the nearest lo- cal black church. Shamefully, a few of those fingered in the burning of a few churches were blacks who saw it as a chance to grab insurance money or harbored a grudge. No matter whom


The Southeast CARE Coalition, a community-based organization,


with the VA Sierra Club to launch a


campaign


has just to


gauge community


support for clean air and installation of an officially designated air quality monitor. They are currently circulating a petition for residents of Hampton Roads to sign as well as a sign on letter to Virginia Secretary of Natural Resources, Molly Ward. The sign on


letter calls for all businesses,


organizations, and churches to show their support for a community air monitor in the Southeast Community. The air monitor will help assess the levels of toxins and the sources that pollute the air. This is the next step for improving community health.


If you are interested, please


send your name, title, organization, and contact information to Kendyl Crawford at kendyl.crawford@ sierraclub.org or Skye Whitlow


at


whitlowls@vcu.edu. Clean air is vital to public health and ensuring everyone can enjoy outdoors and breathe clean air is a matter of justice. With your help, we can tackle the effects of these pollutants and clean up the air in Newport News as well as begin addressing some of the issues that preliminarily and disease.


contribute to sickness teamed


grassroots up


Volume 9 Number 11 Your Opinion Matters Diabetes FROM PAGE 7


serious medical problems. Heat, stress, high blood sugar, and some diabetes medicines such as metformin can cause you to lose fluid, which increases the chances you'll become dehydrated.


Keep something containing sugar with you at all times, in case you develop dangerously low blood sugar (hypoglycemia). You may not be able to check blood sugar levels, so know the warning signs of low blood sugar.


Pay special attention to your feet.


Stay out of contaminated water, wear shoes, and examine feet carefully for any sign of infection or injury. Get medical injuries.


treatment quickly for any


Planning for Emergencies Prepare an emergency supply of


food and water. Include an adequate supply of medicine


supplies in your emergency


and medical kit,


enough for at least three days and possibly more, depending on your needs. Ask your doctor or pharmacist about storing prescription medicines such as heart and high blood pressure medicine and insulin. Plan how you'll handle medicine that normally requires refrigeration, such as insulin. Check expiration dates on all medicine and supplies often so that you can change medicine and medical supplies in your emergency kit, to ensure they stay up to date. Keep copies of prescriptions and other important medical information, including your health care provider’s phone number,


in


kit. Keep a list of the types and model numbers of medical


your emergency devices you


use, such as an insulin pump, in the emergency kit.


If you have a child with diabetes who is in school or daycare, learn the school's emergency plan. Work with them to ensure your child will have needed diabetes supplies in an emergency.


treatments, such as dialysis, talk to your service


emergency plans. Make an emergency plan for you


and your family.


Always wear identification that says you have diabetes.


If you take insulin, ask your doctor during a regular visit what to do in an emergency if you don't have your insulin and can't get more. If you take other medicines for diabetes, ask your doctor what to do during an emergency if you don't have your medicine.


If you need regular medical provider about their


July 2015


Aftermath of Birmingham Church Bombing, 1963. Photo courtesy of the Equal Justice Initiative's History of Racial Injustice, based in Montgomery, Ala.


the perpetrator was and their motive, the church burnings came against the backdrop during this period of fresh attacks launched by conservatives on affirmative action, voting rights, and the resurgence of hate groups and anti- government militia groups. That same racially charged climate and the tensions it ignited repeats itself again today. The Charleston massa- cre was the most heinous and horrific atrocity, but it was also the latest in a train of race tearing events in the past year. The mass agitation over the po- lice killings of and assaults on unarmed young black males, and increasingly females. There's been the relentless as- sault by ultra conservatives on voting rights protections, college affirmative action programs, and the open and sub- tle vicious racial harangue and hector- ing of President Obama by some Tea Party extremists, and unreconstructed bigots. Much of that hate is well evi- dent in the nonstop race baiting digs, slurs, and putdowns of blacks on web- sites, chat rooms, and in social media. Add to that, the conflict over the removal of the Confederate flag from


statehouse in South Carolina and other places in the South. The backlash has been fierce with record breaking sales of the flag and loudly touted plans by the Klan to hold rallies and marches with the clear message to legislators to keep hands off the flag. Investigators have been quick to


say that they have found no evidence of a conspiracy, let alone a racial mo- tive, in the church burnings. And that it's way too soon to even intimate that any of the church burnings were a hate crime. Almost certainly, there will be some arrests in the burnings. That again will provide at least a partial an- swer whether the burnings were done by crackpots and malcontents or or- ganized racial hate mongers. No mat- ter what investigators ultimately find about who is burning the churches and their motives for doing so, the horrify- ing fact is that black churches a half century after the peak of the 1960s civil rights battles still remain the one black institution that is America’s in- viting target for attacks—whatever the reason.


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