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
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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