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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (March 8, 2017)
Page 2 The Skanner March 8, 2017 Challenging People to Shape a Better Future Now Opinion Bernie Foster Founder/Publisher Acknowledging Unprecedented Support for HBCUs Bobbie Dore Foster Executive Editor T Jerry Foster Advertising Manager Christen McCurdy News Editor Patricia Irvin Graphic Designer Melanie Sevcenko Reporter Monica J. Foster Seattle Office Coordinator Susan Fried Photographer 2016 MERIT AWARD WINNER The Skanner Newspaper, es- tablished in October 1975, is a weekly publication, published every Wednesday by IMM Publi- cations Inc. 415 N. Killingsworth St. P.O. Box 5455 Portland, OR 97228 Telephone (503) 285-5555 Fax: (503) 285-2900 info@theskanner.com www.TheSkanner.com The Skanner is a member of the National Newspaper Pub lishers Association and West Coast Black Pub lishers Association. All photos submitted become the property of The Skanner. We are not re spon sible for lost or damaged photos either solicited or unsolicited. ©2017 The Skanner. All rights re served. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission prohibited. Local News Pacific NW News World News Opinions Jobs, Bids Entertainment Community Calendar RSS feeds COMING IN APRIL: THE WAKE OF VANPORT MOVIE SCREENING AT THE HOLLYWOOD THEATRE he Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. routinely would remind those of us who worked for the Southern Christian Leadership Confer- ence (SCLC) during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s about the vital importance of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). As we celebrated Black History Month 2017, Dr. King’s admo- nition concerning the endur- ing need for HBCUs should be reaffirmed every month. Dr. King once emphasized, “The function of education is to teach one to think inten- sively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character that is the goal of true educa- tion.” Dr. King was a graduate scholar of one of the leading HBCUs, Morehouse College, in Atlanta, Georgia. He was not only an intellectual ge- nius and spiritual leader, but also had an enormous moral character that kept SCLC’s leadership on the front-line of civil rights social transfor- mation. There should be no rational debate about the contempo- rary necessity to support the sustainability of the nation’s HBCUs. Yet we live in times where too many people have been misled to lean on the un- fortunate and unstable walls of irrationality, divisiveness and the absence of truth. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. NNPA President and CEO As we continue to posit and emphasize, there is a glar- ing need to demand intellec- tual honesty in all matters pertaining to the pursuit of freedom, justice, equality and empowerment for Black America and all others who struggle to improve the qual- “ dom’s Journal” on March 16, 1827 in New York City. Hon- esty, integrity, and publish- ing the truth without fear of consequence have been the hallmarks of the Black Press in the United States for nearly two centuries. We have neither reluctance nor hesitation, therefore, to acknowledge the strategic and unprecedented support that the Charles Koch Foun- dation and Koch Industries have given to Historically Black Colleges and Universi- ties via the United Negro Col- lege Fund (UNCF) and Thur- The funding of HBCUs is a crucial matter that transcends the partisan divide between the left and the right ity of life for all humanity. When it comes to the crucial funding of HBCUs, this is a matter that transcends the partisan divide between the left and the right. Truth is nonpartisan. Truth is therapeutic. Substantial efforts to increase higher education opportunities for Black Americans and others should not get mired down in contradictory and self-defeat- ing political discourse. March 16 will mark the 190th anniversary of the Black Press in America since the first publication of “Free- good Marshall College Fund (TMCF). Recently, one of the single largest financial contribu- tions to TMCF, $25.6 million, was made by the Charles Koch Foundation and Koch Indus- tries. These funds are dedi- cated to establish and develop TMCF’s Center for Advancing Opportunity. “There are thousands of fragile communities across the United States where there are tremendous barriers to opportunity,” said Dr. Johnny C. Taylor, Thurgood Marshall College Fund’s president and chief executive officer. “It’s important to recognize that lasting change to strengthen these communities must be- gin at the local level. So, we are proud to come together with the Charles Koch Foun- dation and Koch Industries to help members of these com- munities identify and study the challenges most signifi- cant to them.” The Center for Advancing Opportunity will focus on education, criminal justice, entrepreneurship and other issues the affect the quality of life in African American com- munities. The center also will create research think tanks on HBCU campuses, provide academic scholar- ships, establish graduate fellowships and render grants to selected HBCU facul- ty members. As a proud graduate of the flagship HBCU Howard University, I have witnessed firsthand the advantages and enormous value of prima- ry research accomplished by Howard and other HBCU centers of research power, in- genuity and innovation. The proposed TMCF Center for Advancing Opportunity is a welcomed development that the National Newspaper Pub- lishers Association (NNPA) salutes and applauds forth- rightly. Saving Hearts and Lives in the African American Community O ur heart is the engine that keeps our body running. That’s why problems with the heart — such as coronary artery disease, high blood pressure or heart failure — can sig- nificantly impact a person’s well-being, and, at worst, be life-threatening. During February, American Heart Month, we were able to shine a spotlight on heart disease, the leading cause of death for men and women in the United States. For African Americans, it’s also a time to raise awareness of how car- diovascular disease dispro- portionately impacts mem- bers of the Black community. Indeed, nearly half of African American adults suffer from some form of cardiovascular disease, compared to about a third of Whites, according to the American Heart Associa- tion. This trend stems in part from the fact that African American men and women are more susceptible than other racial and ethnic groups to a number of health condi- tions that increase the risk of heart disease, including high blood pressure, obesity and diabetes. African Americans can take several small steps to manage these conditions and reduce their likelihood of experiencing cardiovascular Patricia A. Maryland, Dr.PH NNPA Columnist problems, including adopting a healthy diet, exercising reg- ularly and avoiding smoking. But improving heart health in the African American community means more than “ rican Americans might carry a gene that makes us more prone to heart problems, en- suring that our family, friends and neighbors take advantage of regular preventive screen- ings is critically important to identify their risk as early as possible. The fact remains that African Americans are less likely to get screened for high cholesterol or have their blood pressure under control — despite being 40 percent more likely to have on heart-healthy living and counseling—is critical for pa- tients. The lack of such care may be one reason African Americans experience high- er readmission and mortality rates than white patients in the year after a heart attack, according to the Congres- sional Black Caucus Health Braintrust. For our part, healthcare pro- viders must make it our mis- sion to remove barriers for African American patients to preventive services, spe- cialized care and effective follow-up pro- cedures for heart health. And we must also partner with patients to determine a strategy that can help them effectively monitor and control their conditions. At Ascension, we are acutely aware of the challenges that keep minority patients from accessing healthy heart care. That’s why we recently es- tablished an ambitious goal: to eliminate race-, ethnicity- and language-based (REaL) disparities in preventable hospitalizations related to heart failure by 2022, as well as to achieve a significant re- duction in heart failure ad- missions rates for Medicaid patients in our network. While care access plays a role in explaining heart health disparities, African-Americans also face unequal outcomes when they do seek medical treatment for heart conditions taking care of ourselves as individuals; it requires a con- certed effort by policymak- ers, healthcare providers and community leaders to address social and environmental bar- riers and champion proactive strategies for heart health. Only with contributions from all of these stakeholders can we build a culture of health to counter heart disease among African Americans. Improving access to preven- tive cardiovascular care is our chief priority in the fight for African American heart health. As epidemiologists continue to study whether Af- heart-threatening conditions such as hypertension, accord- ing to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. While care access plays a role in explaining heart health disparities, African Americans also face unequal outcomes when they do seek medical treatment for heart conditions. For example, re- ferrals for cardiac rehabil- itation are given to African American patients at a sig- nificantly lower rate than their White peers, according to the American Heart Jour- nal. This follow-up care — exercise training, education