There is no “type” of woman that has an abortion; the reality is that roughly one in three women will have an abortion in their lifetime. Though anti-choice activists would have us believe otherwise, abortion is a common medical procedure.

The narrative of who obtains abortions does not vary by state; what does vary are the obstacles that she must hurdle to obtain safe, legal, non-judgmental reproductive care that supports her right to determine whether or not to become a mother.

In speaking with women on the abortion fund hotline, it is notable that these women forgo paying their electric bills and rent, or go without food because insurance companies in Louisiana are prohibited from providing abortion coverage. Restrictive laws, specifically mandated waiting periods and in-person counseling, force the women with whom I speak to, to take several days off from work, often without pay, arrange child care, and negotiate transportation with someone is supportive of their choice.

Contrary to polarized and politicized rhetoric, which attempts to frame pro-choice advocates as anti-family, 60 percent of women who have an abortion already have at least one child. Fund­amentally, the pro-choice movement supports all paths to parenthood. Choos­ing when to start a family is a very important decision; the pro-choice movement be­lieves that women are capable of making that decision.

Women who cannot or do not want to continue their pregnancies face very challenging circumstances. While many may choose to seek support from partners, trusted confidants, families, and physicians, their right to decide and their ability to best care for their families and their future are caught up in a political battle waged by groups that call themselves “pro-life.”

Although some religious doctrine and political maneuvering prevent teaching age appropriate, medically accurate sexual health education, it does not mean that youth and young adults will not have sex. Instead, when young adults begin to engage in sexual behavior they may not have the tools to prevent sexually transmitted infections or unwanted pregnancy.

I am proud to be a resident of the state of Louisiana and thankful that there are facilities in my community that provide abortion services. Furthermore, I am thankful that Planned Parenthood and other OB/GYNs exist to educate women about their reproductive health, contraception, and help in planning when to start or continue to build a family.

– Jessica Kincman

This Letter to the Editor originally published in the May 20, 2013 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.

(Special to the NNPA from the Afro-American Newspaper) —“Good Morning America” host Robin Roberts has been named the most trusted woman in television, according to a new Reader’s Digest survey released last week.

Reader’s Digest teamed up with The Wagner Group, a research firm, and polled more than 1,000 Americans to discover which 200 public figures inspire the most confidence. Roberts came in at No. 12 on the list, making her the most trusted television host on the list.

The publication defined a trustworthy person as “somebody possessing integrity and character, exceptional talent and a drive for personal excellence, a strong internal moral compass, a consistent message, honesty, and leadership.” And 56 percent of Americans believed that Roberts exemplified those qualities.

“I wish my mom and dad were here to see this,” Roberts said in an interview with Liz Vaccariello, editor-in-chief of Reader’s Digest. “It would mean so much to them because all they wanted was for us to grow up to be good people.

“They didn’t care that sister is a social worker and brother is a teacher and that two of us are on TV,” she added. “All they wanted was for us to be trustworthy citizens. And there’s a responsibility that goes with that, and it’s not something I take lightly.”

Roberts started gaining national attention as an on-air personality on ESPN’s “SportsCenter” in 1990, winning over fans and also critics with her signature catch phrase, “Go on with your bad self!”, and capturing three Emmy Awards.

In May 2005, the journalist joined Diane Sawyer as co-anchor of ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

Later that year, her professional and personal worlds collided when Hurricane Katrina tore through the Mississippi Gulf Coast, her home, and Roberts traveled to the devastated area and did a series of emotional reports. In 2009 she teamed up with George Stephanopoulos, and the pair catapulted GMA to the No. 1 morning show in April 2012 for the first time in almost two decades.

But it is, perhaps, the resilience, strength and grace Roberts displayed during her public battle with cancer that has endeared so many Americans to the television host.

On the same day in April 2012 when Roberts received the news of her professional accomplishment as part of GMA’s number one ranking, she learned that although she had prevailed against her breast cancer, after being diagnosed in June 2007, the treatment had caused another serious medical problem, myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS).

“I’ve always been a fighter, and with all of your prayers and support, a winner,” Roberts told her viewers at the time, and her determination inspired many others to join the fight against MDS, a disease of the blood and bone marrow.

On the day she went public with the announcement, Be the Match Registry, the national marrow donor program, experienced an 1,800 percent spike in bone marrow donors.

In her interview with Reader’s Digest, Roberts talked about this influence she has on the public—the inner light that shines out on the world.

“Every day before I leave my apartment—after I say my prayer of protection—I ask God, ‘Please let your light shine through me.,’” she said. “And I am lucky to have the resources to shine it—be it love, unity, or resilience—onto others.”

This article originally published in the May 20, 2013 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.

I’ve often debated with myself over the obvious ramifications the hip-hop lifestyle imposes on society. Still, I proudly raise my flag and declare: I am a citizen of hip hop. But what does that mean? Does it mean I’m going to wear my pants low, love my hood and support the rap artist who is No. 1 on the charts?

No, it means I embody the five elements of hip hop: the art of MCing, DJing, Graffiti Writing, Break Dancing and my favorite Knowledge. As a citizen, I represent the betterment of the hip-hop community. I listen to and for authentic skills mixed with sensible lyrics over a complimenting beat. I dress to the occasion; OutKast describes the attitude best, “Ain’t Nobody Dope As Me, I’m Just So Fresh, So Clean.”

I stand on the principle that knowledge reigns supreme over nearly everyone. The most significant jewel I received from hip hop was when KRS-ONE’s “You Must Learn” video debuted. It spoke to my soul. He changed the way I looked at education. There is power in that.

Industry veteran DJ Sir Charles Dixon says “hip hop did not explode until it hit the Suburbs and it was the demand from the suburbs that completely changed the game.” Today, more than two-thirds of all hip-hop recordings are purchased by Whites. It is not an exaggeration to say that hip hop might have brought down more racial barriers than some of the famous Civil Rights marches of the 1960s.

For many like me, belonging to the Nation of hip hop instills deep pride. It makes us believe that we can be ourselves and live out our dreams. I had to have the latest, the newest, the first, the best, whatever was better than all the rest. It was motivation to be the greatest Jineea I could be with no disrespect towards or dislike of anyone else.

You had so many different types of artists speaking to different aspects of your personality. “Ladies First,” “Lean on Me,” “I Left My Wallet in El Segundo, “Sally.” From the outside looking in, I thought if these people can will their way out of the ‘hood, dream about and live an elaborate life, so could I.

Unfortunately, anybody can be an MC. Like Charles said, once the demand for hip-hop music was coming from the suburbs, the record labels responded to the demand with what they thought would earn them a percentage of this economic cash cow.

Consequently, the message was no longer important – they began creating stories and gimmicks to compete in the market. Everybody wanted in and would do whatever it took to get in. Major brands began budgeting for big paydays from hip-hop endorsements in the songs and directly from the artists. Where it was once admirable to hear about a rags to riches story, the same story manufactured just to sell records is/was an appetite for destruction.

The stories and gimmicks began to backfire when the desire for money outweighed the desire to deliver a message. For instance, the media created an illusion that there was East Coast/West Coast beef and it resulted in the deaths of two iconic figures: Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur. In this context, fantasy met real life; some people were simply playing a character and some people were dead serious. I call this the Biggie/Tupac Bait and Switch because after their deaths, no record labels wanted to take a chance. We didn’t hear a variety of artists with empowering personalities. Instead, we heard diluted messages that basically made no sense. How are you going to be a correction officer that brags about living like Larry Hoover? How does a guy kiss a guy and say he is not gay? How could you talk about the cell blocks but never been to jail?

These discrepancies caused a dilemma because hip hop once taught us how to strive to be better no matter what your circumstances. Now, no matter what your circumstances, you can strive to be a character in hip hop. The people who were once avid hip-hop fans gave up on the music. They disappeared into the ranks and took the foundation and principles with them. The momentum that created honest millionaires was replaced with nursery rhymes and class clowns. To become a millionaire now, you have to be a 21st-century minstrel show. The system that empowered us is now set up with mixed messages that stagnate us.

Everybody can’t be an MC. Everybody can’t be trusted with the power to speak and lead responsibly, especially when most people are willing to compromise their souls for success. Hip hop is a culture of people controlled by the another culture of people. The citizens of hip hop need to reclaim our role. We can’t sit by and watch greatness be destroyed by greed. We need to re-build, re-package and re-sell the dream.

Jineea Butler, founder of the Social Services of Hip Hop and the Hip Hop Union, can be reached at jineea@gmail.com or Tweet her at @flygirlladyjay.

This article originally published in the May 20, 2013 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.

Persistent ringing of my doorbell brought me posthaste to my front door where I was greeted by a frantic mother and one obviously anxious child. Though the weather was moderate, she sweated freely as she pleaded her case rapidly and with misgivings.

“Our lights have been turned off and we have no food in the house! We don’t know what to do and we’re waiting for my husband to come home from work!”

Evidently, the husband’s work was not sufficient to cover expenses, to stave off the collectors for utility bills and to keep the wolf of hunger away from the house.

Initially, I pondered the wrong move, trying to figure how I could personally help those folks who were teetering on the edge of desperation. I knew going in that my cash reserves were near zero and my debit card was hardly better. But, coming to my senses, I remembered that we are a multi-tiered team here at OMM church.

“Wait,” I told the mother, “until I call Earline Robinson, the coordinator for our parish branch of the St. Vincent de Paul Society. She will know how to resolve this.”

I explained to our sister Earline Robinson that there was a lady with me who needed to get medication from a pharmacy, that her family’s utilities had been cut off and that the family had no food. Unfortunately, it was already so late in the afternoon that all the food banks were closed for the day. However, we could go to a pharmacy.

“There is a Walgreens at Lancaster and Oakland,” Earline told me. “I can meet you and the lady there and I can write a check to cover the cost of the medication.”

“Excellent! We will see you there,” I assured her as I nodded to the lady and her young daughter. Donning my shirt and collar, I cleared the car for them to sit in comfort. We made our way to the pharmacy in good time, but we did not see Earline. Unbeknown to us, she had arrived a bit ahead of us, but was watching for us in a different section.

As it turned out, the medicine was available over the counter. The clerk alertly found the medicine that, surprisingly, cost much less than we had thought. But even that was too much for me, since I had counted my cash and distractedly left it home.

Just as Earline discovered us and was coming upon the scene, the clerk rang up the item and handed me the receipt. She had been observing me as I searched for the cash that was not there. As I tendered my debit card, she smiled broadly, looked at the lady, then looked back at me reassuringly and said, “It’s all right! I have it!”

My heart skipped a beat and I think the lady’s heart skipped a couple of beats. I thanked her profusely as did the baffled lady. In a flash, the clerk was off to complete her chores. As we turned to go, I asked, “What is her name. Call her and ask her!”

She reappeared briefly and said with a beautiful smile, “Vivian!”

We thanked her again and I told her, “Vivian, you are our angel today! You are God’s messenger to us in our time of need! Thank you so very much!”

The powerful song began to flood my mind, “All night, all day, the angels keep awatching over me, my Lord. All night, all day, the angels keep awatching over me.” My eyes began to mist over and I’m sure the lady and her daughter experienced the same.

Back at the rectory, I scrounged together some victuals such as dried beans – of which I always have an abundance – brown rice and a few other items that would sustain the family till the next day when they could access one of the city’s food pantries. Their main asset was that they still had a roof over their heads and walls to protect them.

Earline Robinson was scheduled to meet with them the following morning in order to take care of their utilities bill. That happened in timely fashion as Earline led the family through the assistance routine of the St. Vincent de Paul Society. One misfortune is that our funds are nearly depleted after helping just one or the other needy family.

Earline teams with Ruby Rob­in­son and Peter Roehl to do what angels like Vivian do on the spur of the moment. However, this Christ-like work is not without its hazards.

Helping the needy is not only a ministry but an art as well, for the great danger in helping others is that we may help in ways that create dependence and enable harmful habits.

Painfully, while hoping to be ministering assistant angels, we must often weigh the pros and cons before jumping in to help a person or family. Coupled with experience, patient observation and listening usually enable us to discern who really needs us, for the greedy generally separate themselves from the needy by bad attitude and ingrown habits.

It is of infinite interest that, in describing the Last Judgment in Matthew 25:31-46,

Jesus confines the criteria for his judgment to, “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.”

This article originally published in the May 20, 2013 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.

Today, the Attorney General’s Office filed a court order signed by T-Mobile and effective nationwide that will ensure the company clearly communicates the limitations of its new “no-contract” wireless service plans and allows customers duped by the deceptive ads to exit their contracts with no penalty.

“As Attorney General, my job is to defend consumers, ensure truth in advertising, and make sure all businesses are playing by the rules,” Ferguson said. “My office identified that T-Mobile was failing to disclose a critical component of their new plan to consumers, and we acted quickly to stop this practice and protect consumers across the country from harm.”

T-Mobile recently launched a new type of wireless service plan, claiming to offer “no restrictions,” “no annual contract” and no requirement that the consumer “serve a two-year sentence.” However, this new plan does not include a phone. Instead, the company provides the option for consumers to purchase a phone at a monthly rate over a two-year term. They also offer the opportunity to bring your own phone or pay the entire cost of the phone up front.

After an investigation of the company’s practices, the Attorney General’s Office learned that the company failed to disclose that customers who purchase a phone using the 24-month payment plan must carry a wireless service agreement with T-Mobile for the entire 24 months — or pay the full balance owed on phone if they cancel earlier.

Consumers who cancel their wireless service face an unanticipated balloon payment for the phone equipment – in most cases higher than termination fees for other wireless carriers depending on how early they cancel. Instead of a “two-year sentence” for wireless service, consumers face a different two-year “sentence” to avoid a lump-sum balloon payment for the phone.
• T-Mobile cooperated with the Attorney General’s Office in signing an Assurance of Discontinuance (AOD) filed in King County Superior Court today. Under the AOD, the company agrees to stop:
• Misrepresenting that customers can obtain wireless service and telephone equipment without restrictions; and
• Failing to disclose that customers who terminate their T-Mobile wireless service before their device is paid off will have to pay the balance due on the phone at the time of cancellation.

All consumers who purchased T-Mobile service and equipment between March 26 and April 25, 2013, may obtain a full refund for their telephone equipment and cancel their service plans without being required to pay the remaining balance owed on their devices— as long as the customer cancels his or her service per the terms of the agreement.

The company is required to contact consumers who purchased telephone equipment under the terms of their new business plan to advise them of their right to cancel and obtain a refund. Consumers can call T-Mobile at 1-877-746-0909 for more information or dial 611 from their T-Mobile telephones.

The company also agrees that it will:
• Not misrepresent customers’ true obligations under the terms of its contracts for the sale of service or equipment;
• Make clear the consequences of cancelling T-Mobile service, including restrictions or limitations on cancellation; fees and costs; and early termination fees;
• More clearly state in all advertisements the true cost of telephone equipment, including the requirement the customer carry a wireless service agreement for the life of the 24-month financing plan;
• Instruct representatives to fully disclose obligations under the terms of its contracts, including developing a “Frequently Asked Questions” page; and
• Train customer service representatives to comply with the settlement within 21 days of signing.

This article originally published in the May 20, 2013 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.

When Beyoncé Knowles sang the Etta James song “At Last” at President Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration, the song could have had several meanings. At last we have an African-American president? At last, the muscle of the Black vote has been flexed? At last, there is some hope for our country to come together with the mantra “Yes, We Can”.

Watching the President and First Lady Michelle Obama slow dance to the romantic standard reminded us that African American families have not often been positively depicted. This attractive image of an intact Black family had come “At Last”. Thus, the song was symbolic of what many folks, and especially African Americans, believed about the Obama presidency.

Some of us blindly believed that with an African American president opportunity had come “At Last.” Some believed it so fervently that the least criticism of President Obama, no matter how mild and how lovingly conveyed, could cause you to be run out of the race. An alumnus of Morehouse College, the Rev. Kevin Johnson, the selected baccalaureate speaker at his alma mater, wrote an opinion piece that was mildly critical of President Obama. As a result, the former director of the White House Initiative on HBCUs and new Morehouse President John S. Wilson, Jr. changed the format of baccalaureate to a panel, not one speaker, as is customary.

The purpose of baccalaureate is to have one speaker to focus on the spiritual dimensions of graduation. There is no way that Rev. Johnson would deliver a political speech. Still, he was essentially disinvited from the baccalaureate because of his views.

President Obama is the president of the United States of American, not the president of Black America, we are often reminded. Yet, it seems that African Americans have been kicked to the curb in terms of focus and attention. Other groups – the LGBT community, the Latino community – have been mentioned explicitly. However, on African American issues, our president has been silent.

Now, some African American people are crooning “At Last.” Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx has been nominated to serve as Secretary of Transportation. If confirmed, Mayor Foxx, an outstanding an eminently qualified candidate would join Attorney General Eric Holder as the second African American to serve in a regular cabinet post.

Similarly, the nomination of Congressman Mel Watt to lead the Federal Housing Finance Agency is a step forward. FHFA regulates Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and allows Congressman Watt the opportunity to implement some of the Obama initiatives on homeowner recovery from the Great Recession. The raging right has already come after Congressman Watt. The Daily Caller (a political blog) has reported an unsubstantiated claim by former presidential candidate Ralph Nader that the Congressman disrespected him in a letter. Nader has never produced the letter. Thus, the purpose of the claim is to besmirch FHFA nominee Congressman Mel Watt.

If Watt is confirmed, this represents a step forward for both President Obama and for African American people, and for the entire nation. The issue is, of course, confirmation. Will the White House Congressman, be able to garner the votes Watt needs to be confirmed?

What does the White House gain or lose if Watt is not confirmed. The “At Last” segment of the African American community will credit the president for making the nomination, even if not confirmed. The more critical segment of the African American community will view the ways the White House embraces this nominee, and question commitment. Ask UN Ambassador Susan Rice knows what it feels like to be dropped, when Senate confirmation seemed unlikely.

During President Obama’s first term, his inattention to the African American community was understandable, though not acceptable. He was busy straddling lines, seeking compromise, and leaving a legacy of health care reform. African Americans were patient in the hope that “as last” African Americans would get recognition in his second term. After all, as a lame-duck president, he has much to gain, and little to lose in rewarding his most loyal constituency. At last some of us have our disappointment confirmed. Our president’s inaugural speech mentioned every community except the African American community.

President Obama and his supporters should not be thin-skinned. Philadelphia’s the Rev. Kevin Johnson should not be “disinvited” from the Morehouse baccalaureate. Nor should a panel dilute his message, when the tradition is to have a sole speaker. Johnson is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Morehouse College, who deserves to be treated with respect. His column pointed out realities – President Clinton appointed seven African Americans to his cabinet, President Bush, four, and President Obama, just one. Congresswoman Marcia Fudge, who leads the Congressional Black Caucus, in a letter to President Obama, wrote, “The people you have chosen to appoint in this new term have hardly been reflective of this country’s diversity.

Are the Foxx and Watt appointments a response to criticism? Based on their appointments, should Black folks sing “at last” or “not yet”?

Julianne Malveaux is a Washington, D.C.-based economist and writer. She is President Emerita of Bennett College for Women in Greensboro, N.C.

This article originally published in the May 20, 2013 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.

(Special to the NNPA from Our Weekly) – Common knowledge holds that African Americans are reluctant to take part in clinical trials for the pharmaceutical industry, and some say for good reason. Such horrific experiences as the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male have made many African Americans wary of such testing.

The Tuskegee study was an infamous 40-year experiment carried out by officials from the U.S. Public Health Service from 1932 to 1972. It involved 600-some poor, mostly illiterate Black sharecroppers in Macon County, Ala., many in the late stages of syphilis. Three hundred ninety-nine of the men had the disease (201 were part of a control group), but were led to believe they were receiving treatment for “bad blood.” They were never told they had syphilis and had no idea of the severity of their condition, for which there was no known cure. In reality, they were not being treated at all and there was never any intention by those leading the study of curing them. They were being used as human guinea pigs to observe what the long-term effects of the disease would be on Black males.

In the late stages, syphilis can damage the brain, nerves, eyes, heart, blood vessels, liver, bones, and joints. Symptoms include difficulty coordinating muscle movements, paralysis, numbness, gradual blindness, and dementia. This damage may be serious enough to cause death.

In return for their participation, the test subjects received free “healthcare,” meals and burial services. U.S. Public Health Service officials also carried out similar experiments on human subjects in Guatemala.

On May 16, 1997, President Bill Clinton formally apologized for the experiment. “The United States government did something that was wrong—deeply, profoundly, morally wrong. It was an outrage to our commitment to integrity and equality for all our citizens . . . clearly racist.”

Oddly, Black doctors and nurses were involved in the study, though not in control, and it was done on the campus of the famed Tuskegee Institute. The Black professionals also never revealed to the men what was going on.

By the time the experiment was concluded, 28 men had died from the disease, another 100 from related complications, 40 of their wives had been infected, and 19 children had been born with congenital syphilis. Penicillin became available as the standard treatment for disease before the end of World War II and more than two decades before the end of the study, but the men were deliberately denied the drug.

The last survivor of the experiment, Ernest Hendon, survived until 2004 and died at age 96. Among many African Americans, the idea of clinical drug trials invokes the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, in which poor Black men participated in a research study for 40 years without ever being told they had syphilis,” wrote Tennessee State Rep. Antonio Parkinson in a guest editorial for the Memphis Commercial Appeal in 2012. “This atrocity led to additional infections and untreated cases of syphilis, and many of the participants died,” Parkinson wrote. “That study, and the distrust it helped create, had a significant impact on the participation of African Americans in clinical drug trials in the 40 years since its end.”

Even before the Tuskegee study, 10 Black elementary schoolchildren in 1927 became the unwitting subjects of an experiment by local healthcare officials to remove ringworms. The children, residents of Lyles Station in Gibson County Indiana, were subjected to massive dosages of radiation. One of the victims, Vertus Hardiman, experienced the slow dissolving of his skull, producing a massive hole in his head, a condition he lived with until his death in 2007. [See story, “Radiation and the young: like sheep to slaughter,” OurWeekly, April 21, 2011.]

Still, there are indications that the distrust of such studies may be changing. According to the University of Florida, many Black Americans are open to the idea of participating in clinical trials. Researchers talked to nearly 6,000 people in five cities: St. Louis, Mo.; Davis, Calif.; Ann Arbor, Mich.; New York City; and Rochester, N.Y.,” said a statement released by the school. “Interviews were held in places such as barbershops, parks, bus stops, churches, grocery stores, laundromats and health fairs. The results showed that 91 percent of Black Americans who were interviewed expressed an interest in participating in medical research, compared with 85 percent of whites, 84 percent of Hispanics and 79 percent of Asians.”

However, the statement also acknowledged that although many African Americans were willing to be part of tests, they were often left out.

“For years, African Americans have been underrepresented in research,” said lead investigator Linda Cottler, chair of epidemiology at the University of Florida College of Public Health and Health Professions and the College of Medicine. She said it was important to have African Americans participate in these trials.

“If we’re not getting the participation of diverse groups when we’re studying medications or interventions, then we don’t know how those treatments will work in real life in different populations,” Cottler explained. “It’s very important for people to have a voice and be represented.”

Crystal Kendrick, president of The Voice of Your Customer, a certified minority-owned marketing firm that specializes in reaching out to diverse populations, believes there are several reasons why a disconnect exists between African Americans wanting to be clinical trial candidates and the pharmaceutical industry.

Her company has extensive experience working with the African-American community and health issues. Since 2007, the company has completed at least 10 studies with African Americans regarding their healthcare. Many of these studies include questions regarding participation in medical research projects.

Kendrick, a resident of Cincin­nati, believes the legacy of the Tuskegee experiment is still a major barrier.

“A small but significant percentage of African Americans (especially males) are concerned that medical research is a conspiracy to reduce the number of African Americans in the country,” said Kendrick. “Others believe that medical research confirms that there is little concern for the African-American male population, and that they are disposable. A small percentage of African Americans also think that white men created HIV and intentionally injected Africans to either study the virus in human life and/or to reduce the African population.”

Neven Gibbs, a retired drug counselor from Washington state, said the Black community has a good reason to be concerned about drug testing. He is also wary.

“I have no desire to be a lab rat for live testing,” he said. “There again look to historical drug-testing and mind-control experiments of the 1960s as one example,” Gibbs said “The recent Iraq War Desert Storm is another example. Most of the people who received vaccinations and questionable drugs were not expected to survive the war.”

Many troops who served in the first Gulf War came back home with physical problems that have been traced back to a multitude of sources such as exposure to nerve agents, exposure to oil fumes and pesticides. According to the Boston Herald, between 175,000 to 210,000 are suffering from Gulf War syndrome. The Herald added that many of these soldiers were given pyridostigmine bromide pills, to ward off nerve agents.

Joyce Riley, spokesperson for the American Gulf War Veterans Association, is one who was affected by the inoculations. Riley, a former flight nurse in the Air Force Reserve, said that during the build-up to the Gulf War she received 10 shots in one day. Six months later she became ill from a nerve disease similar to multiple sclerosis.

Riley eventually had to leave her job as a nurse and the Air Force. And when she applied to the Veterans Administration for help, she was told that she had not been in the military long enough to qualify. She was also told by conventional medical practitioners that there was nothing that could be done for her condition, and is now relying on alternative medicine.

Riley said that she never actually served in the Gulf, so her illness cannot be attributed to other causes such as toxic fumes from oil well fires or exposure to nerve agents. But she is convinced that she was experimented upon.

Riley now hosts a radio show called “Hour of Power,” which deals with cover-ups and alternative medicine. She has also produced a documentary called “Beyond Treason,” which deals with the government’s history of cover-ups and experimentation. She gives DVDs to anyone planning on enlisting in the military.

She offers this warning to people who are thinking of joining up: “If you are willing to be an experimental guinea pig, go ahead and join up,” Riley said.

Although such fears are still prevalent among African Ameri­cans, Kendrick says that the pharmaceutical industry is also reluctant to engage African Americans.

“Another challenge is that many of the medical research firms do not engage the African-American community, employ significant numbers of African Americans to work for their companies and do not have relevant marketing campaigns targeted to African Americans with well-respected spokespersons,” she said. “Many of the company names are not familiar to the African-American community and thus African Americans are less likely to trust the company or the project.”

The technological gap may also be another issue, Kendrick added.

“Many of the medical research firms have highly-technical registration processes that typically require timely access to email, computers, Internet and telephone connections,” she said. “Some African Americans are not as comfortable with the electronic registration processes and may only have a limited amount of time to use public resources. Completing the registration processes in a timely manner can often be a challenge.”

In addition, geography may also be a reason why African Americans are not called into these studies. Kendrick pointed out that many of these research facilities are located in suburban areas.

“These communities are not easily accessed by public transportation and can sometimes be difficult to access by car, if the participant is not familiar with the area,” she said. “Also, some of these communities are not as welcoming to African Americans so some simply choose not to visit the locations.”

However, it may all boil down to a lack of effort on the part of the drug industry. Kendrick said that her company has found that many research companies are just not reaching out to the African-American community.

“In general, we have found that so many organizations say that it is difficult to attract and recruit diverse populations for medical research projects and other opportunities,” Kendrick said. “Because this is a common misbelief, many project leaders simply accept the fact that African Americans and other diverse populations will not participate in the medical research and just move forward with their projects. Participation of African Ameri­cans in medical research will only increase when project leaders begin to demand their participation. Doing so will spur creative recruiting practices, engagement and marketing approaches that resonate with the African-American community.”

Gibbs warned that there are several down sides to drug testing. “Death, deformities, decreased health, reduced longevity, anal leakage, to name just a few side effects,” he said.

But there is also an upside: “… early identification of side effects, effectiveness, dosage requirements, genetic differentiations,” Gibbs said. This is important in the African-American community, which often has different reaction to drugs than other races.

Gibbs said that African Americans who decide to participate in clinical trials need to do their research and also consult a medical professional.

“Be knowledgeable about the reliability and veracity of the tester,” he said. “Know where [the drug] comes from, what it is being used for and what aftercare policies are before participating. There are benefits and down sides so be sure it is moderated by a personal physician who can act when there is the possibility of disreputable practice. Some of those (studies) up into the 1970s would test a drug or disease then close their doors leaving the subjects to either die or find other medical help to recover.”

Parkinson said that there are valid reasons why African Americans need to get involved in clinical trials. He pointed out that many of the clinical trials focus on diseases that are common in the African-American community.

“Of the 3,700 clinical trials conducted in our state [Tennessee] since 1999, nearly one-third—more than 1,000—took place in Memphis. Nearly two-thirds of those trials focused on six major diseases: diabetes, heart disease, cancer, asthma, mental illness and stroke,” Parkinson said. “The effects of many of those chronic diseases on African Americans are well-documented. We are nearly twice as likely as Caucasians to develop diabetes. We are at greater risk for major complications from diabetes, including kidney failure and amputations. One in four African-American women older than 55 years is diabetic.”

“We must also acknowledge that there is a need for more African Americans willing to participate in the clinical drug trials that could provide insight into treating the diseases that hit us hardest,” said Parkinson’s editorial. “Here in Memphis, institutions like Baptist Memorial Hospital are vital partners in conducting such research. Meharry Medical College, a historically Black medical college in Nashville, conducts clinical re­search while working with University Medical Center to identify African-American candidates for additional trials.

“Participation in clinical drug trials is part of a larger effort that includes breaking down barriers to quality health care, closing gaps in education and income, and making healthy food accessible and affordable.”

This article originally published in the May 20, 2013 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.

WASHINGTON (NNPA) – When a Baltimore grocery store employee fingered 26-year-old Michael Austin for the murder of a security guard in the spring of 1974, Austin didn’t even match the police sketch. The wanted suspect was less 6 feet tall and Austin was the size of a small forward in the NBA. The only other evidence linking him to the crime was a business card with the name of an alleged accomplice, a man who was never found.

The store owner, who was positive Austin wasn’t the shooter, was never called to testify during the original trial and Austin’s defense attorney never called a single witness to back up Austin’s alibi that he was at work across town when the crimes were committed. A year later, Austin was convicted of first-degree murder and robbery and sentenced to life in prison on the eyewitness account of the grocery store employee, a college student, according to the prosecution, and a drug addict and high school dropout.

Austin spent half of his life behind bars for a crime he didn’t commit, only gaining freedom through a New Jersey-based lawyers’ group that works to free the wrongfully convicted. The grocery store employee died of an overdose in 1997, but not before he told family members that he lied about what he saw during the murder and sent an innocent man to prison. In December 2001, Austin was granted his freedom. Three years later, Austin won a $1.4 million settlement from the state of Maryland.

Michael Austin’s story was chronicled in The National Registry of Exonerations, a collaborative effort between the University of Michigan law school at Ann Arbor and the Center on Wrongful Convictions at the School of Law at Northwestern University in Chicago. An updated registry of features stories of the wrongfully convicted and was recently released.

According to the report, Blacks account for nearly half (47 percent) of all known exonerees in 1989, and whites made up nearly 39 percent of all known exonerees. When the updated exoneration report was released in April, 57 percent of the known cases that occurred in 2012 involved Blacks.

Samuel Gross, a law professor at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and the editor of The National Registry of Exon­erations said the 10 percent increase for Blacks was striking, but it’s too early to draw any firm conclusions. Gross said that he continues to learn about new cases that occurred in 2012. In last year’s report released in June 2012, the registry found that 50 percent of the all known exonerees were Black.

“It’s striking and if it stands up and it repeats in another year or two it will be an important trend,” said Gross.

According to the registry report, 52 percent of the wrongful conviction cases involved perjury or false accusation, 43 percent involved official misconduct and 41 percent involved mistaken eyewitness identification.

The majority (57 percent) of all known exonerations were in homicide cases and 47 percent of those cases involved Black defendants and 37 percent involved whites. Blacks accounted for 63 percent and whites 18 percent of those wrongfully convicted of committed robberies.

“Homicide and robbery, sadly to say, are crimes that African Americans are heavily overrepresented in the prison population,” said Gross.

The report found that “African Americans constitute 25 percent of prisoners incarcerated for rape, but 62% of those exonerated for such crimes.”

Faulty eyewitness identification continues to drive the high rate of Blacks involved in adult sexual assault exoneration cases. Gross said that this is likely because of problems associated with cross-racial identification.

“White people don’t have the type of experience living with and distinguishing members of other races as minorities do,” said Gross. “There is also a long terrible history of racial discrimination in the prosecution of African Americans for rape when they are accused of raping white women and that may be a factor here, too.”

According to the National Registry of Exonerations, a majority of the cases (52 percent) involve witness making a false accusation or committing perjury. Forty-one percent of the cases involve faulty eyewitness identification.

“As a group, the defendants had spent nearly 11,000 years in prison for crimes for which they should not have been convicted – an average of more than 10 years each,” stated a report by The National Registry of Exonerations released in April.

These are often the most productive years of a person’s life and the reason why many criminal justice advocates say that seeking compensation for wrongful convictions is the only chance that exonerees have in regaining a foothold in a world that is often much different than how they left it.

“Unfortunately, many of our clients have been in jail for decades and often these were the best years of their life; the years where you can go to school and get an education, years where you can build a career and learn how to do a job,” said Paul Cates, communications director for the Innocence Project. “When they get out after 15 or 20 or 25 years, it’s very difficult to enter the job market without an education and without any marginal skills.”

Cates said that, when the government confines someone for those lengths of time, they definitely deserve to be compensated. Cates added: “It’s particularly true when you consider that they have no way of making a living once they’ve been released.”

Despite the proliferation of crime shows depicting the use of DNA in solving murders and proving innocence or guilt of a suspect, DNA testing is becoming less of a factor in wrongful conviction cases, because it is often initiated before cases go to trial.

“DNA evidence can be very persuasive to courts and to judges and to prosecutors, because it’s a very definitive proof of innocence,” said Cates. “But in all these other cases where this evidence is not available, it’s really hard to prove when someone has been wrongfully convicted and the court system doesn’t make that easy.”

That could be changing. According to the registry report, for the first time, law enforcement officials cooperated in the majority of the known cases that freed the wrongfully convicted in 2012.

Revisions to state policies involving post-conviction DNA testing, greater oversight of convictions in prosecutorial offices, and the evolution of law enforcement practices could have contributed to the increase, according to the study.

“It’s pretty clear that we make mistakes as you would expect from any human system and we should acknowledge that and that’s becoming more widely understood and accepted,” said Gross. “The more realistic we are in understanding that we do mistakes, the better we’ll be at identifying them and preventing them.”

This article originally published in the May 20, 2013 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.

Consider this: It’s spring 2025 and Louisiana officials are preparing to open three diversions on the lower Mississippi River so fresh water and sediment can reach wetlands struggling to stay ahead of sea level rise.

But the river has dropped to a record low, and the Port of New Orleans warns that taking so much water from the river will ground ships downstream of Venice.

At the same time, salty Gulf water moving upstream against the low river threatens municipal water supplies, as well as cooling intakes at oil refineries, chemical plants and power stations. They want the diversions to stay shut.

Meanwhile, all three uses of the river could be disrupted when Arkansas opens a structure on the river to send millions of gallons of water to western states willing to pay top dollar to relieve a drought devastating farms and cities.

So, who makes the call on what is the most important use of the river water?

If that happened today, no one.

“Right now, there is no one authorized to make that call,” said Mark Davis, Director of the Institute on Water Resources Law and Policy at Tulane University. “Nobody has been told, ‘You’re the referee on using this river.’”

It turns out the Mississippi River, with a watershed critical to the economic life of 31 states, has no single working water budget, but instead is tapped on a first-come basis.

While some rivers, most notably the Colorado, have long been subject to legal agreements parceling out water to its users, the Mississippi has been left to a laissez-faire style of management: Each state takes what it wants as the river flows inside its borders.

That lack of oversight, long an economic concern for southeast Louisiana, is growing into a mortal fear due to this scientific consensus: The region’s only hope of staying above the 4.3 feet of sea level rise expected by century’s end is to get the river’s fresh water and sediment back into the region’s sinking marshes.

That means the river’s water and sediment are now considered life-saving resources. And having 30 different, self-interested management plans preceding Louisiana’s needs could be a prescription for disaster, coastal scientists say.

“We’ve been living with a management system for the river developed in the 1930s, and that’s not the world the river has to serve today,” said Paul Kemp, a geologist and coastal researcher at Louisiana State University. “There are many more users, and different users than we had in the 1930s.

“And I think recent events are helping convince more people we need a new type of management for the river.”

ONE RIVER, MANY USES
Two of those events are the mounting impacts of climate change and Louisiana’s Coastal Master Plan.

As predicted by climate scientists, global warming is now bringing stubborn droughts to the Great Plains states and wild weather swings to the half of the country drained by the Mississippi River.

A historic Mississippi flood in 2011 was followed by a historic drought in 2012. Industrial plants went from sandbagging property to closing down because the river was too shallow to ship their goods. By the end of last summer, calls rose in Mississippi River states for a management plan to help users prepare for and reduce the cost of those extremes.

Meanwhile, a lingering drought has southwestern states talking again about tapping the Mississippi.

On the southern end of the river, Louisiana’s 2012 Coastal Master Plan would pour those resources into sinking wetlands basins with as many as nine diversions, some of which could move as much as 250,000 cubic feet of water each second.

Those plans worry many other users even though they, too, need the coast restored to prosper.

The Port of South Louisiana, which includes New Orleans and Baton Rouge, is the nation’s largest, a vital economic driver for many states upstream. Shipping interests that rely on the port want assurances that diversions will leave enough water in the river to float their vessels.

Communities and industries that rely on the river’s fresh water need to know that they’ll have water to supply their drinking water and cool their machinery.

The fishing industry needs to know how and when its prey will be affected by those new waves of fresh water moving through the basins.

But the river that offers the coast new life also poses problems. For decades, the way that northern farms have used the river has harmed Louisiana.

Dams built on the Missouri River for irrigation and power blocked about 40 percent of the sediment load that had been building southeast Louisiana when Europeans arrived. As a result, the state now has less time to save the coast; the pace of subsidence and sea level rise soon will make the problem too large and deep for the available supply of raw material.

Meanwhile, the nitrates, phosphates and other pollutants from crop fertilizers and livestock runoff drive the dead zone that extends thousands of square miles along the coast, posing a threat to the seafood industry. And recent research shows that those same river-borne pollutants can cause marshes to collapse, adding to the state’s coastal erosion.

So changing how states to the north use the river, and how much of it they use, is important to Louisiana’s future.

HOW TO “SPEND” THE RIVER WATER
The budget concept evolving among Louisiana’s coastal policy experts doesn’t resemble a budget most people would recognize, such as prioritizing spending based on available assets.

“That,” Kemp said, “is an outmoded way of thinking about river use.”

Instead, scientists and policy experts stress a different approach.

“We have to move beyond who gets first call, and look at the river as one system that has many needs,” said Kemp. “There are ways to make these different uses not just compatible, but complementary.”

For example, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has three missions on the river: maintaining navigation, providing flood control and, most recently, restoring the ecosystem. Rather than parcel out how much water goes to each purpose, Kemp said, they could complement one other.

“When the river presents a flood threat we can open the diversions, lessening the flood threat by removing water while we’re building wetlands at the same time,” he said. “And when the corps needs to dredge to keep the shipping lanes open, it can dispose of that material in a way that helps rebuild wetlands.”

Louisiana coastal advocates also say that states along the Mississippi have to stop looking at the river as a local resource and begin viewing it as an organism that can’t fully serve any state if its coastal end isn’t healthy.

For instance, if Louisiana doesn’t have the river material to rebuild its southeast coast and protect the Port of South Louisiana from frequent closings, every state upstream is hurt as well, Davis said.

“If you don’t have a river that works for navigation in the long-term, I don’t think you have a river that works for the farmers and the other [industries] that need the river to ship their goods to the world,” Davis said. “And if the river isn’t working for those states to send their goods south, you don’t have a river that works for New Orleans and other communities in this region whose economies depend on a healthy port.

“Similarly, if you don’t have a river that essentially helps sustain communities and keeps them reasonably protected from floods, then you don’t have a river that works.”

Louisiana’s working-together theme is also grounded in political reality, Davis said. There’s no chance that the dams on the Missouri will be torn down to increase the sediment supply to Louisiana. Or that the powerful, multi-state farm lobby would support tough regulations on fertilizer use and livestock operations.

“But we can show that the economics of fertilizer use say if it’s in the river, somebody is paying for something they didn’t need,” said Davis. “So I think there has to be an approach to the use and management of fertilizers that keeps it on the field, where it’s intended to be.”

Developing this management plan for the river should be an urgent priority for Louisiana and the entire Mississippi River drainage, Davis said, because it will be essential to saving the state’s coast and ports.

Any management plan for the river will have to be based on the “needs of this coast and everything it serves,” he said.

“And that is based on the realization if you do not have a functioning mouth and delta on this river, you do not have a functioning river.”

The above article was reported by The Lens, an independent, nonprofit news site in New Orleans. It appears in the May 20, 2013 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.

ATLANTA, Georgia (Special to the NNPA from The Final Call) — Food safety advocates are outraged over revelations that U.S. Congress and President Barack Obama approved an act that includes a provision purporting to strip federal courts of the ability to prevent the spread of genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

The provision in the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2013 requires the U.S. Department of Agriculture to issue temporary permits allowing the continued planting of GMOs by farmers, even when a court rules that the agency erred in its environmental impact review of the GMOs.

The provision, which activists call the Monsanto Protection Act, is one for which the multinational corporation Monsanto has been lobbying Congress for at least a year. The legislation passed the U.S. House of Representatives on March 6 and the Senate on March 21, with Obama signing the legislation five days later on March 26.

Revelations of the provision, which was buried in the 587-page spending bill (HR 933, under Division A, Title VI, Section 735), have increased public awareness and interest in the issue of GMOs in the United States.

The provision states that if “a determination of non-regulated status … is or has been invalidated or vacated, the Secretary of Agriculture shall, notwithstanding any other provision of law, upon request by a farmer, grower, farm operator, or producer, immediately grant temporary permit(s) or temporary deregulation in part.”

Industry control
U.S. Senator Jon Tester, a Democrat from Montana and one of the only family farmers in Congress, spoke out against the provision on the floor on the Senate.

“The United States Congress is telling the Agricultural Department that even if a court tells you that you’ve failed to follow the right process and tells you to start over, you must disregard the court’s ruling and allow the crop to be planted anyway,” Sen. Tester said.

“Not only does this ignore the constitutional idea of separation of powers, but it also lets genetically modified crops take hold across this country, even when a judge finds it violates the law,” Sen. Tester said, describing the issue as “once again, agribusiness multinational corporations putting farmers as serfs.

Meanwhile, activists are holding Senator Barbara Mikulski, a Democrat from Maryland, partially responsible, as she was the committee chair who allowed the amendment and could have addressed the provision in congressional hearings

In a statement, Sen. Mikulski’s spokeswoman, Rachel MacKnight, defended her. “Senator Mikulski understands the anger over this provision. She didn’t put the language in the bill and doesn’t support it either.”

“As chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee, Senator Mikulski’s first responsibility was to prevent a government shutdown. That meant she had to compromise on many of her own priorities to get a bill through the Senate that the House would pass,” spokeswoman MacKnight said.

Because the provision is temporary, it will likely come up for reauthorization in September 2013, an opportunity for public opposition that activists are relishing.

“The USDA has working mechanisms in place to allow for partial deregulation for those crops,” Colin O’Neil, director of government affairs for the Center for Food Safety, noted in an interview with IPS.

“At best, it’s unnecessary and duplicative. At worst, it takes oversight away from the USDA and puts it in the hands of the industry,” Mr. O’Neil said of the provision.

The center has concerns about how the USDA has used temporary deregulation in the past, such as with genetically modified sugar beets. Both genetically modified alfalfa and sugar beets have been held up in court in the past over National Environmental Policy Act challenges.

“While we have argued that the USDA isn’t adequately protecting farmers and the environment, the rider will essentially prevent the USDA from safeguarding farmers and the environment because it forces the agency to comply with industry demands,” Mr. O’Neil said.

Future benefits
Monsanto has proposals for numerous GMO crops in the pipeline that could be affected by this rider.

“I think the Monsanto Protection Act and how it was passed and how it was slipped into law is just another example of how this company operates, how they manipulate our democracy, and they buy off our elected officials,” Dave Murphy, founder of Food Democracy Now, told IPS.

“This is another example of how … they choose to operate within the rules of a democratic society. They’re like the mafia, they go in and write the rules the way they want them to be,” Mr. Murphy said.

“Monsanto really did themselves a major disservice by slipping this into a continuing resolution,” he said.

Monsanto, which does derive benefit from the provision, responded in a statement, saying its critics have an “interesting narrative, worthy of a B grade movie script.”

“Virtually none of the people protesting actually read the provision itself. Those who did, found a surprise: It contains no reference to Monsanto, protection of Monsanto, or benefit to Monsanto. It does seek to protect farmers, and we supported the provision,” Monsanto wrote.

Senator Roy Blunt, a Republican from Missouri, inserted the provision, or “rider,” into the spending bill, according to Politico. Monsanto is based in St. Louis, Missouri.

This article originally published in the May 20, 2013 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.