January 20, 2016 The Skanner Page 3
News
“(African Americans)
tend to lose vision at
quicker rates at younger
ages than other people
do,” Parikh said.
It is not clear why Black
people are at higher risk.
Parikh said right now
there are studies look-
ing into the optic nerves
of people with African
ancestry to see if these
Parikh likened glaucoma
to other chronic diseases,
such as diabetes, where
treatments are focused
on management rather
than curing.
The most important
treatment is early detec-
tion of the disease. This
is difficult to do — early
warning signs are often
subtle and easy to miss.
Parikh likened Glaucoma to
other chronic diseases such
as Diabetes where treat-
ments are focused on man-
agement rather than curing
nerves are different than
those in White, Asian or
Hispanic peoples.
Glaucoma is a con-
dition where the optic
nerve is damaged due
to fluid pressure that
builds up in the eye. Un-
der normal circumstanc-
es, the eye continuously
produces a fluid that cir-
culates and flows out of
the front part of the eye.
In glaucoma, the fluid
leaves the eye at a slower
rate which damages the
nerve.
Parikh said this nerve
damage is progressive
and irreversible — once
vision has been lost it is
gone.
“Whatever vision loss
from nerve damage, we
can’t recover any of it.
We can’t do any surgery
to fix the nerve, we can’t
do surgery to bring vi-
sion back,” she said.
There has been exper-
imental research to re-
generate the optic nerve,
but viable treatments are
many years away.
Glaucoma treatments
aim to prevent further
damage. Practices in-
clude eye drops, oral
medications and surger-
ies to open eye drainage.
Flint
An early symptom of
glaucoma is trouble see-
ing in the dark. Another
early indicator is trouble
seeing areas to the side of
one’s vision.
Parikh urges against
trying to visually self
diagnose glaucoma. She
said most people will not
be able to pick up the op-
tical cues of the disease
in the early stages.
“It is not until the nerve
becomes really damaged
that people have prob-
lems seeing from the
glaucoma, by that point
there has already been
a significant amount of
damage,” Parikh said.
The best early detec-
tion is through an eye
screening with an oph-
thalmologist. Using an
Opthalmoscope,
the
doctor can look directly
through a dilated pupil to
observe the optic nerve.
This test is the best way
to diagnose and monitor
Glaucoma. Eye doctors
can also check eye pres-
sure levels and perform
visual field tests.
The American Acad-
emy of Opthamology
recommends screening
exams for everyone over
the age of 40.
Gavin Hoffman (as Joe Gargery), Dana Green (as Mrs. Joe) and Stephen Stocking (as Pip) star in “Great Expectations” at Portland Center
Stage, which opened Jan. 16 and runs through Feb. 14 on the U.S. Bank Main Stage. Adapted for the stage by Lucinda Stroud (from
Charles Dickens’ classic coming of age novel) and directed by Jane Jones, “Great Expectations” tells the adventures of the Victorian
orphan Pip. As a boy, Pip has three encounters with people that will change his life: the escaped convict Magwitch, the bewitching
and cold Estella, and the unhinged Miss Havisham. When Pip comes into an unforeseen fortune and begins the life of a gentleman his
past is not so easily left behind, and the surprising adventures of his new life are decidedly unexpected. For more information or to
purchase tickets, visit www.pcs.org.
Breakfast
cont’d from pg 3
continued work for racial justice.
The annual breakfast celebrates
the legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Lu-
ther King, Jr. Event sponsors
present scholarships to deserv-
ing students and a Drum Major
for Justice award is presented.
Bonner said that, as a youth, he
looked around and saw African
Americans sharecropping in cot-
ton fields for poverty wages.
The moment when he noticed
the difference between what he
learned in school and what he
saw around him constituted a
“paradigm shift,” he said Monday
morning.
He became a nonviolent activist
at the age of 16. You can read the
text of Bonner’s speech online at
theskanner.com.
Bonner said another paradigm
shift came when an organizer
from the Student Nonviolent Co-
ordinating Committee came to
Selma in 1963 and spoke to him
and a friend to persuade them to
get involved in fighting segrega-
tion.
At first, Bonner said, he wasn’t
convinced nonviolent direct ac-
tion was a good idea. Then the or-
ganizer asked if he’d ever heard of
Gandhi.
When Bonner and a friend said
yes, the organizer asked if they
“
created human beings is God, and
we, too, are God. Human being
shave segregated themselves not
just racially, but spiritually, iso-
lating themselves and failing to
recognize our connectedness.
“You and I are one. We know we
are one.”
The moment when he noticed the differ-
ence between what he learned in school
and what he saw around him constitut-
ed a ‘paradigm shift’
could name the man who killed
Gandhi. They said no.
The organizer asked the same
questions about Jesus Christ.
Gandhi and Christ made history
because they were men of love.
The men of hate who killed them
were forgotten.
“Basic Christian doctrine teach-
es that humans are made in the
image and likeness of God,” he
said. The star dust energy that
The Skanner Foundation’s 2016
Drum Major for Justice Award
went to Eddie Rye, Jr. Rye, of Se-
attle. Rye was instrumental in re-
naming Seattle’s Empire Way to
Martin Luther King, Jr. Way and
in organizing the city’s first MLK
celebration in 1983. The Seattle
celebration Monday included a
march of thousands from Gar-
field High school to the Federal
Building downtown.
cont’d from pg 1
agement.
“I’m sorry most of all that I let you
down,” Snyder, whose administration
is engulfed in criticism, said in address,
as hundreds of protesters demonstrat-
ed outside the Capitol. “You deserve
better. You deserve accountability. You
deserve to know that the buck stops
“
Great Expectations
local authorities and volunteers have
been distributing lead tests, filters and
bottled water.
Snyder aides pledged that by the end
of the week officials would visit every
household in Flint to ensure they have
water filters.
Democrats said Snyder only recently
This is the kind of disaster, the kind of failure
to deliver basic services that hurts people’s
trust in government
here with me. Most of all, you deserve
to know the truth, and I have a respon-
sibility to tell the truth.”
The lead— which can lead to behavior
problems and learning disabilities in
children and kidney ailments in adults
— has left Flint residents unable to
drink unfiltered tap water.
The National Guard, state employees,
admitted the magnitude of the fiasco, at
least three months too late.
“This is the kind of disaster, the kind
of failure to deliver basic services that
hurts people’s trust in government,”
House Minority Leader Tim Greimel
said.
Flint Mayor Karen Weaver refused
to call for Snyder’s resignation while
at the U.S. Conference
of Mayors meeting
in Washington, D.C.,
saying investigations
should go forward.
She said she wants
Snyder to give Flint
“the services and the
money, the funds that
we need to address
the population.”
“People have said
how they want things
handled with him,”
Weaver said Wednes-
day. “I’m staying fo- Protestors rally outside of the state Capitol during Michigan Gov. Rick
cused on what I need Snyder’s State of the State address on Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016, in Lansing,
to get from him right Mich. With the water crisis gripping Flint threatening to overshadow
nearly everything else he has accomplished, the Republican governor
now.”
In his speech, Sny- again pledged a fix Tuesday night during his annual State of the State
der committed $28 speech.
specialists, testing and monitoring —
million more in the
short term to pay for more filters, bot- on top of $10.6 million allocated in the
tled water, school nurses, intervention fall.
SEAN PROCTOR/THE FLINT JOURNAL-MLIVE.COM VIA AP
“
cont’d from pg 1
PHOTO BY PATRICK WEISHAMPEL/BLANKEYE.TV COURTESY OF PORTLAND CENTER STAGE
Glaucoma