Commentary by Black Kos Editor JoanMar
I am still talking about the the Democratic Party Convention of August 2024. I thought 2004 and 2008 were two of the most memorable and impactful conventions ever, but there was really only one star then. In contrast, the 2024 convention was jam packed with one powerful speaker after another. There were many memorable speeches any of which could have easily been the headliner for the whole conference. We have spoken about the brilliance of Michelle Obama’s address, with it’s eloquence and the mastery of her delivery; Barack Obama brought back memories of those good ol’ days of soaring, inspirational oratory. Hillary Clinton gave a speech for the ages, while Sen Elizabeth Warren, visibly touched by the outpouring of appreciation from the audience, was on message. Josh Shapiro, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jasmine Crockett, and Gabby Gifford all understood the assignment and delivered the goods. And, of course, there was the majestic acceptance speech from Madam Vice President herself.
Today, however, I’d would like to focus some attention on one address in particular: the speech from Senator Raphael Warnock.
I don’t mind admitting that I feel personally wounded by the actions of those who so openly and unapologetically choose to turn a blind eye to the injustices faced by some of our most vulnerable and our most defenseless. I am majorly turned off by those who willfully choose to see no evil, hear no evil, and to be dumb when it comes to the welfare of certain of our children. I’m profoundly disappointed by people whom I have thought to be honorable and compassionate showing not one iota of concern, of empathy for the plight and suffering of some of our children. For me, their silence, their inaction, and their refusal to engage with these issues raises serious questions about their moral compass.
And that was my frame of mind as I watched Senator Warnock take the stage some two weeks ago in Chicago. The senator, a renowned preacher, knows more than a little something about delivering powerful sermons, and this time was no exception. He went where most feared to tread and did it in a manner that only the most degenerate among us would find objectionable.
I found the whole speech to be Obamaesque, but the closing paragraph had me tearing up.
And in a strange way, the pandemic taught us how. A contagious airborne disease means that I have a personal stake in the health of my neighbor. If she’s sick, I may get sick also. Her healthcare is good for my health. I’m just trying to tell you that we are as close in our humanity as a cough. I need my neighbor’s children to be okay so that my children will be okay. I need all of my neighbor’s children to be okay. Poor inner city children in Atlanta and poor children of Appalachia. I need the poor children of Israel and the poor children of Gaza. I need Israelis and Palestinians. I need those in the Congo, those in Haiti, those in Ukraine. I need American children on both sides of the track to be okay, because we’re all God’s children. And so let’s stand together. Let’s work together. Let’s organize together. Let’s pray together. Let’s stand together. Let’s heal the land.
Some years ago, I came to understand the profound significance of Dale Carnegie’s advice to remember that, “A person’s name is the sweetest and most important sound in any language.” No, Senator Warnock did not read out the names of the tens of thousands of the dead, dying, or suffering children from the world’s trouble spots. He only had 14 or so minutes. But he did recognize them. He did give voice to their unending pain and the unending grief of loved ones left behind. He did let them know that they were not forgotten.
My dad discovered strength in the broken places. A power made perfect in weakness. And so I’m convinced tonight that we can lift the broken even as we climb. I’m convinced tonight that we can heal sick bodies. We can heal the wounds that divide us. We can heal a planet in peril. We can heal the land.
We can and should strive to protect and heal all of our children. Amen.
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News round up by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
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When four gunshots rang out one summer in Brownsville, a group of people ran toward the sound to prevent any bloodshed — but they weren’t police officers.
This group, known as violence interrupters, is part of an experiment designed to place community members on the front lines, deescalating situations that law enforcement would typically respond to first.
They are the focus of “Policing Our Own,” a forthcoming documentary by screenwriter and filmmaker Dante DeBlasio. DeBlasio, 26, says he wanted to shine a light on these violence interrupters to showcase the power of alternative approaches to reaching the community.
“It’s not just about community members responding to calls for help; it’s about offering on-the-ground resources too — everything from access to therapy to helping people register to vote,” DeBlasio says in an interview with theGrio.
In the 18-minute documentary, DeBlasio highlights how NYPD officer Terrell Anderson developed the Brownsville Safety Alliance (BSA) program, which allows violence interrupters to take over certain police calls.
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Few places on Earth are more familiar with the deadly consequences of extreme heat than countries in Africa. Heat kills crops, spoils food and medicines, and makes it impossible to work, study or sleep. As the planet warms, the number of days when people on the continent will be exposed to excessively high temperatures is set to rise. How will they keep themselves, their food and their medicines cool?
One answer is air-conditioning, which Lee Kwan Yew, Singapore’s founding father, once credited with changing “the nature of civilisation by making development possible in the tropics.” Yet air-conditioning, while cooling people, worsens global warming through power use and refrigerant leakage and by warming the area around air-conditioned buildings. It also remains inaccessible to most Africans. Only half the population has grid power. Even where it is stable, the cost of running an air-conditioner is forbiddingly high, partly because lax regulation means most are energy-intensive and inefficient. Only 5% of African homes have a unit, a percentage that has barely budged in two decades.
As temperatures and incomes rise, that number is likely to rise, and efforts are under way to make air-conditioning more sustainable. Yet given the unstable grid, lack of money and the need to limit emissions of greenhouse gases, other ways of keeping cool will be needed, too.
For now, much climate-friendly innovation is concerned not with cooling people, but with ensuring that heat does not spoil their food and medicine. Cameroon and Sierra Leone use solar-powered fridges to keep vaccines and other temperature-sensitive medicines stable. Combined with battery storage, they stay cool even when there is no sun or alternative power supply. Some freeze water into an ice lining, meaning they do not even need batteries. Supplied to the Democratic Republic of Congo during the covid-19 pandemic, they can now be used for mpox vaccines.
Similar efforts are under way in agriculture, where up to 18% of harvests are currently lost to insufficient cold storage. Some startups are offering farmers space to rent in solar-powered cold rooms. SureChill, a British-based maker of solar-powered fridges, offers a cheap pay-as-you-go plan for the use of its $800 fridges, as long as farmers prove that they will generate income from their use.
When it comes to keeping people cool with limited or no air-conditioning, building design is essential, particularly in dense cities. Nearly 60% of Africans will probably live in cities by the end of the decade. Around 70% of the buildings that are likely to exist on the continent by 2040 have yet to be built, according to the UN. That provides ample room for incorporating simple, cheap and sustainable building practices, such as building walls with mud brick or insulating them with charcoal, and making window shades from cheaper woods, such as eucalyptus. For existing houses, coating roofs in reflective white paint can reduce indoor temperatures and also cool the urban environment, as long as buildings are painted in clusters.
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At the site of a race massacre that reduced neighborhoods to ashes a century ago, where murals memorialize a once-thriving “ Black Wall Street,” one African American mother strives to keep others from dying as they try to bring new life into the world.
Black women are more than three times as likely to die from pregnancy or childbirth as white women in Oklahoma, which consistently ranks among the worst states in the nation for maternal mortality.
“Tulsa is suffering,” said Corrina Jackson, who heads up a local version of the federal Healthy Start program, coordinating needed care and helping women through their pregnancies. “We’re talking about lives here.”
Across the nation, programs at all levels of government — federal, state and local — have the same goals to reduce maternal mortality and erase the race gap. None has all the answers, but many are making headway in their communities and paving the way for other places.
Jackson’s project is one of more than 100 funded through Healthy Start, which gave out $105 million nationally in grants this year. Officials call Healthy Start an essential part of the Biden administration’s plan for addressing maternal health.
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