[Durham INC] Proposal for Black Academy in Durham NC

[Will Wilson]

The situation facing the nation's poor is a nation-wide, state-wide, and
county-wide disgrace. Poor, black males face the greatest challenge --
no doubt about it. Just one huge example for any doubters: here's a plot
of 2005 US mortality rates by gender for blacks and whites. A national
disgrace.

The single gender academy devoted to suspended minority students sounds
like an intriguing idea, but it came up so recently that I, for one,
don't know much about it. Do we have more than 500 suspended minority
students, and, if so, what are we doing for the remainder?

I've always thought that "progressive" meant having a concern for the
health and economic development of our nation's poor, and having a tax
system that has higher wealth folks pay progressively more on a
percentage basis for those needs. If so, I'm a progressive.

As a nation, we need to help poor kids and families, and that's why I
supported Obamacare, and still do despite the flaws needed for passage.
A critical part of Obamacare was the Medicaid expansion, which, in our
state would have provided health care for half a million North
Carolinians. We know who is to blame for it's rejection in NC. Maybe you
can blame bad election outcomes on progressives, but progressives didn't
reject the Medicaid expansion.

And just like we don't enough health care or provide medicines to poor
folks, we don't provide healthy environments for poor folks. Illnesses
like respiratory problems (asthma, pneumonia, etc) and heart attacks are
partly due to heat and poor air quality. Just like we need to work to
get poor folks medicine to treat some diseases, or lifestyle changes
like the ones pushed by Michelle Obama, we need to create communities
with better air quality.

A push for urban trees isn't a push for urban trees, it's a push for
better health. Durham has higher temperatures, lower air quality, and
fewer trees right where the poorest citizens live. More vegetation,
fewer parking lots, less traffic, better housing can all increase air
quality for our poorest citizens. It's an issue that's only about trees
in the way that the drugs that treat HIV is only about the drugs: Equal
access to health needs.

Like I said, the situation with our nation's poor is a national disgrace.

Will Wilson

On 6/24/2013 2:16 PM, Darius M. Little wrote:
> Thanks Carl - and Dick.
>
> Where are all of the "progressives" .....people are always
> progressive until we start specifically address Black issues.  I'm
> starting to understand Lavonia Allison more and more these days:
> progressives will fight for a tree, a dog, a cat, the environment and
> everything else....but when we start specifically discussing any bold
> effort to reduce adverse results in the Black Community, liberal
> folks suddenly become concerned with funding.
>
>
> -------------------- Darius M. Little Executive Business Consultant
> and Strategic Marketing Analyst
>
> (web) www.linkedin.com/in/dariuslittle
>
> *A MANTA Verified and Approved Industry Leader in Strategic Business
> Consulting*
>
> http://www.manta.com/c/mtlwj1m/little-s-business-consulting
>
>
>
> "And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye
> shall receive." [Matt 21:22]
>
> -----Original Message----- From: Carl Kenney <revcwkii at hotmail.com>
> Sender: inc-list-bounces at rtpnet.org Date: Mon, 24 Jun 2013 17:49:42
> To: Richard Ford<rbford at aim.com>; Intern Neighborhood
> Council<inc-list at rtpnet.org> Subject: Re: [Durham INC] Proposal for
> Black Academy in Durham NC
>
> _______________________________________________ Durham INC Mailing
> List list at durham-inc.org http://www.durham-inc.org/list.html
>
> _______________________________________________ Durham INC Mailing
> List list at durham-inc.org http://www.durham-inc.org/list.html
>

-- 
http://www.biology.duke.edu/wilson/
New Book: http://www.constructedclimates.org/
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: AgeMortality.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 7328 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://rtpnet.org/pipermail/inc-list/attachments/20130624/dd05f6aa/attachment.pdf>