To Be Equal 
October 4, 2025

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - “What is at the center of this fight? … 20 million Americans are going to see their health care costs skyrocket. Fifteen million people are going to be jettisoned from Medicaid. They're going to decimate Medicaid. This is historic. This has not happened in U.S. history. In addition, your hospitals were shut down. Nursing homes shut down, clinics.” – U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro

If the Affordable Care Act’s enhanced premium tax credits are allowed to expire, premium payments for the more than 20 million Marketplace enrollees will more than double in 2026.  At least 4 million Americans could lose health care coverage altogether.

If the healthcare cuts in the “Big Ugly Bill” are allowed to stand, 700 rural hospitals – one in three – could shut down, and another 15 million Americans could become uninsured.

Legislation pending in Congress could prevent this catastrophe and end the government shutdown that is devastating families and communities across the country.

It’s no wonder the Trump administration and its allies in Congress would rather fear-monger with lies about undocumented immigrants than confront the facts.

The fact is, as long as the shutdown continues, local communities are losing access to over $60 billion in federal funding, jeopardizing essential services and infrastructure.

The fact is, veterans are being denied transition assistance, career counseling, and outreach. Families aren’t even able to place headstones at their loved ones’ graves in veterans cemeteries. Active-duty military families, many of whom already struggle to make ends meet, are working without pay, making it harder to cover basic living expenses.

The extremists in the White House and Congress are willing to deny nutrition assistance to mothers and children who rely on the WIC program … to withhold surgeries and treatment from patients at military treatment facilities … to delay progress on life-saving research and public health initiatives at the NIH and CDC … to disrupt Social Security and Medicare services for seniors and vulnerable populations … to jeopardize the health and safety of our workforce while Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspections are ceased.

And all of this is happening in defense of an crusade to strip health insurance from millions of working-class Americans and leave vast swaths of the country without access to critical care.

To be clear: unauthorized immigrants are ineligible to purchase health insurance on government exchanges established by the Affordable Care Act. They are ineligible for Medicaid, Medicare and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. The legislation that could prevent the health care catastrophe and end the government shutdown does not make them eligible for these programs.  Anyone who claims that it does is not telling the truth.

The government shutdown is not simply a conflict between conflicting political ideologies. It’s a conflict between fact and falsehood. It’s a conflict between responsible stewardship of public resources and a reckless grasp of those resources for billionaires. We can continue to fuel bitter partisan division while working Americans continue to lose ground to the wealthiest among us, or we can work together toward and equitable, stable, and healthy future.

April 3, 2025

Tracie Gardner, executive director, National Black Harm Reduction Network

NEW YORK, NY – In a drive to curb a decade-long rise in drug overdose deaths in Black populations, a “You Have the Power to Save Lives” campaign has been launched in seven U.S. cities, urging community leaders to collaborate with public, civic, clergy, and other local influencers to promote access to the lifesaving, overdose-reversing medication in their neighborhoods.  

The core message and call to action is for Black leaders and communities to talk about and carry naloxone, taking power into their own hands to save a life. A ZOOM press conference and rally was held today with media and community, civic, and government leaders from the target cities. A video of the press conference will be available after the event HERE.     

The campaign also released a report consolidating recent evidence that illustrates the need for urgent action to save lives, finding:  

• Overdose is the leading cause of preventable death for Black adults in the United States, surpassing gun violence and car crashes. In many cities, older Black men are four times more likely to die of overdose than other men in their age group.  
• Overdose rates in Black communities have been rising for the past ten years, but have skyrocketed since 2020, when overdose rates in the Black population overtook rates in the white population.  
• In the vast majority of states where recent data is available by race, Black communities suffer higher fatal overdose rates than white populations.  
• Nationwide, there has been a recent 24% decline in overdose deaths, but data suggests the number of deaths in Black communities remains disproportionately high and calls for equitable investment and focus on health interventions to address this problem.  
• Increasing community-based naloxone access is an impactful way to reduce overdose deaths: Most overdoses occur in the home; up to 40% of overdoses are witnessed by someone who could have intervened if the naloxone were on hand.  

Supported by public health organization Vital Strategies, with funding from the Elton John AIDS Foundation, the “You Have the Power to Save Lives” campaign includes more than a dozen community groups, health organizations, and local government agencies. Their efforts focus on establishing new naloxone distribution points in Black communities—including firehouses, neighborhood gathering spaces, and local health providers—to reduce the stigma around carrying naloxone and empower individuals to save lives in the event of an overdose. 

“We are cautiously optimistic about declining overdose death rates, but we also know that deep disparities remain and that progress against overdose has not included all communities,” emphasized Daliah Heller, Vice President for Overdose Prevention Initiatives at Vital Strategies. “The rising number of drug overdose deaths in many Black communities underscores the urgent need for strategies that help communities promote better health outcomes. Expanding the availability of naloxone is one of the strategies we consider a high priority.​​” ​  

M​a​rc Morial, President of the National Urban League, applauded the “You Have the Power to Save Lives” campaign, adding that naloxone access is critical to reducing overdose deaths. “We fight by passing this knowledge on. Too many people are gone, and too many families have been devastated. It must be stopped so our communities can thrive.” Morial said. “Let’s make friends and families aware that this life-saving medicine is available so we can save our loved ones.”  

Naloxone is a life-saving medication that reverses ​the effects of ​an ​opioid-related ​overdose within minutes​. Available over-the-counter as a nasal spray, naloxone is a safe and easy-to-use medication.  Opioids relieve pain by attaching to and activating specific receptors in the brain. Naloxone reverses opioid overdoses by blocking the receptors and preventing opioids from attaching. Naloxone ​can be purchased over the counter at pharmacies and is available for free through community distribution sites. It ​can be administered ​as​​​ a nasal spray without any specialized training.  

Data from the seven target locations demonstrates why naloxone is needed in these cities:  

ALBUQUERQUE: New Mexico's drug overdose death rate has been one of the highest in the nation for most of the last two decades. In Bernalillo County, there were 70.2 overdose deaths per 100,000 Black residents from 2017 to 2021, compared to 34.7 white overdose deaths per 100,000. Link: https://ibis.doh.nm.gov/indicator/view/DrugOverdoseDth.Cnty.RacEth.html  

DETROIT—In Michigan, the rate of overdose death was three times higher for Black individuals than for white individuals, and Black men and women were nearly half of the state’s overdose deaths, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. In 2023, one in five Michiganders lost to overdose lived in Wayne County, where the Black population dies from overdose at twice the rate of white residents. Link: https://www.michigan.gov/opioids/category-data   

DURHAM—In Durham County, Black people account for only one-third of the county's total population but nearly two-thirds of all overdose-related hospital admissions, according to 2024 data from the state's Department of Health and Human Services.  Link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1kSGLLgnUKFTQHyqEk8pBoyyrXgn739lI  

LOUISVILLE— In Kentucky, overdose deaths increased by 12% in the Black population from 2021 to 2023 while decreasing by 11% in the white population over the same period. Overdose fatalities in 2023 were 50% higher for Kentucky's Black population than for the white population. Link: https://governor.ky.gov/attachments/2023-Drug-Overdose-Fatality-Report.pdf  

MILWAUKEE— Death rates among Milwaukee's Black community saw an overall decline in 2024 but remained twice as high as death rates among white Milwaukeeans, according to city data.  Black Milwaukeeans accounted for 42% of all overdose deaths in Milwaukee County despite being only 27% of the county population.  

Link: https://county.milwaukee.gov/EN/Strategy-Budget-and-Performance/Vision/Strategy-Dashboard/Overdose-Data 

NEWARK— Black residents accounted for more than 60% of all overdose deaths in Essex County in 2023. The rate of overdose death was three times higher among the Black population in the county than the white population. Link: https://www.nj.gov/health/populationhealth/opioid/sudors.shtml  

PHILADELPHIA— In Philadelphia, the rate of overdose deaths in the Black population was almost twice the rate in the white population in 2023. Further, the rates of overdose death in North and West Philadelphia, both Black neighborhoods, are among the highest in the city, according to the Philadelphia Department of Public Health. Link: https://philadelphiapublichealth.shinyapps.io/philastats/  

Tracie M. Gardner, Executive Director of the National Black Harm Reduction Network,​ said that the​​ “You Have the Power to Save Lives” campaign​ is urgently needed to ​be widely utilized by community and grassroots leaders to curtail overdose deaths.  

“To bring persistently high overdose rates in​​ Black populations down, we can draw upon the strengths, values, and beliefs within our communities,” maintained Gardner, whose organization is a key partner in the campaign. "One of the legacies of the war on drugs is stigma and mistrust. We’re proud that the campaign is built in partnership with Black community champions and will reach into communities through talk shows, community newspapers, church bulletins, and neighborhood hubs to promote lifesaving naloxone.”  

Kimberly Douglas, a mother from Bowie, Maryland, whose son died from a drug overdose, is a strong advocate for the campaign. “Nearly two years ago, I lost my 17-year-old son, Bryce, to a drug overdose. Now, I search for other mothers who have lost their children.

Talking helps relieve the hollowness left by this loss. But it’s difficult to find other Black mothers willing to acknowledge and share their grief. Black women are celebrated for our resilience, strength, and ability to overcome adversity. But this has been a lonely journey for me.” 

Douglas started a Facebook group, Black Moms Against Overdose, seeking a safe place for Black families whose loved ones overdosed.  

“I am participating in this campaign by Vital Strategies to urgently increase awareness of the need to make naloxone, the life-saving medication, more accessible in Black communities,” Douglas said. “At the core of this campaign are personal stories, like mine, of individuals directly affected by overdose deaths.  We can make a difference. Bryce will not walk through my front door again, but we can ensure that more sons and daughters make it home.” 

Go to YouCanSaveLives.org for more information about the “You Have the Power to Save Lives” campaign and how you can get involved. 

About Vital Strategies: 

Vital Strategies is a global health organization that believes every person should be protected by a strong public health system. Our overdose prevention program works to strengthen and scale evidence-based, data-driven policies and interventions to create equitable and sustainable reductions in overdose deaths in several U.S. states and local jurisdictions. 

About the National Black Harm Reduction Network​: 

The National Black Harm Reduction Network is dedicated to advancing harm reduction principles that optimize health and wellness for Black people who are disproportionately harmed by public health initiatives, the criminal legal system, and drug policies. Learn more here.  

Jan. 6, 2025

Dr. Tisha Lewis Ellison with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. "Tom" and Lucille Lewis. Mr. Lewis, a retired DC police officer and founder of D.C.'s Fishing School and Mrs. Lewis, a former DC business owner, were committed to hospice at the same time. 

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Growing up in her Northwest Washington, DC, neighborhood, Tisha Lewis’s mother would often call her a Daddy’s girl.

“I was always hanging on to his leg or standing on his feet as he walked,” she recalled fondly in a recent interview. “Even as an adult, up until his passing, he would still greet me with, “Hey Sugar’”.

But as she grew up through her teen rebellion stages, went away to college and ultimately earned a doctorate degree in reading, she grew extraordinarily close to her mother. “She became my very best friend and my confidant…She was so much closer to me than any other woman that she was the matron of honor at my wedding.”

Actually, the loving relationship she had with both of her parents – Mr. and Mrs. Thomas “Tom” and Lucille Lewis - was what any adult daughter would want and admire. That loving relationship is why Dr. Tisha Y. Lewis Ellison, Ph.D. (Tisha) was shattered when her mother, a healthy woman who was the faithful primary caregiver to her sickly father, broke the news to her that she had been diagnosed with stage four colon cancer.

Mrs. Lewis had nursed her husband through three bouts of cancer among other illnesses. “Dad had always had health challenges. He was always going to the doctor. And Mom was always by his side,” Tisha recalls.

So, because of her mother’s terminal illness, the next two years were harrowing. Especially heart-rending was when Tisha decided to take a leave of absence from her tenured professorship at the University of Georgia to become a caregiver to both of her parents at the same time.

“They were both admitted to home hospice care in Oct. 2019. I remember that dreaded day when my family removed their king-sized bed so that they could put in two hospital beds. That was so devastating and traumatic. This was going to be our new normal.”

Despite round the clock help from professional caregivers, her aunts and her older brother, Patrick (Issa), Tisha wanted to be sure her parents were getting the very best care. They had also designated her as their power of attorney. Before taking the leave of absence, “I would go back and forth between DC and Atlanta. It was just incredibly difficult.”

With Tisha by her side, Mrs. Lewis died on Nov. 20, 2019, within a year of being diagnosed with the colon cancer. Her father died from artery blockage and Alzheimer’s dementia only 15 months later. They had been married 50 years.

Meanwhile, the community, their church family, loved ones and friends rallied around this couple, known widely for their monumental public service. Mr. Lewis, a retired D.C. police officer, social worker and ordained minister, was founder of The Fishing School, a now 34-year-old non-profit after school program in Northeast D.C., that teaches underserved children how to excel through education. Mrs. Lewis was a seamstress and tailor, who for 29 years ran her tailor shop, Japats, on D.C.’s Georgia Avenue. From her business, Mrs. Lewis contributed the first $1,000 toward her husband’s renovation of a former crack house to start his dream, The Fishing School. The program received a visit and commendations from President George W. Bush in 2001.

It is a painful story that has slowly culminated into an unexpected blessing to Tisha and to anyone grieving after caregiving.

She had purchased a 1,000 piece puzzle during the Covid-19 pandemic. Someone had told her how calming it was and the puzzle business was thriving across the nation because of the national quarantine.

“It helped me to relax. It helped me to focus. I wasn’t thinking about my parents and sometimes I did. Sometimes I cried on those puzzle pieces. I always said if these puzzle pieces could talk, the things that they would say…I would have my hot tea and sometimes I would listen to music while I was puzzling. And sometimes it would be quiet. It just made me feel calm, peaceful.”

That particular puzzle was of a Black woman with a wrap around her head, similar to Nefertiti. Then, one evening, while watching a TV show about entrepreneurship, she began to think of her hobby as a self-taught landscape photographer and all of the pictures she’d taken in her travels.

“And then I thought, I will use the pictures from my landscape photography. I will generate them into puzzles and I will sell them.” With that epiphany, Perfect Peace Puzzles was born. She began selling – not only her landscape photos – but even custom-made puzzles from any submitted photo, even pictures of loved ones who have passed away.

Tisha participated in a Griefshare online group for over two years and received counseling from a private therapist. But it’s been largely her Christian faith and the puzzles that’s comforted her best during her personal and private time, she said.

Grief is inevitable when loved ones pass away. But there are ways to maintain good mental health while going through it. Caregiving experts offer a string of from trauma and grief. They include, expect a range of emotions, be patient with yourself, find a good listener, and don’t blame yourself.

Tisha cautions that, based on her experience, grief therapy is often an ongoing self-care activity, one that may need to be revisited during anniversaries of the death, birthdays, and during family holidays, for example, or even during deaths of other loved ones.

In fact, just as she had made significant progress two years following her parents’ death; she was hit with yet another unexpected tragedy. Her brother, Patrick (Issa), who lived in the home with her parents, died suddenly of a stroke in September of 2023 at the age of 54.

Patrick’s death led her to return to Griefshare even as she continued the puzzling. His death reminded her of the death of her eldest brother, Jason, from colon cancer in 2015 at the age of 47.

Ironically, Tisha came to the end of the Nefertiti puzzle only to discover that the very last piece did not fit. So, it still sits, with a hole in it, a missing piece, just like the empty place left in her life by her deceased loved ones, an empty space she now fills by serving others.

"I have recently accepted a position on the board of my father's Fishing School," she said. "It's somewhat healing to continue my parents' beautiful legacy of community service. Through Perfect Peace Puzzles, we've offered free Grief and Loss webinars and plan to hold one on November 8th. Additionally, by being transparent and vulnerable with my students about grief, loss, and self-care, they have shared their own personal struggles with me, which has enabled me to better serve them pedagogically. In becoming more aware of these feelings and experiences of grief and loss, I’ve also discovered sprinkles of joy – knowing that life continues as I care for my family.”

 Dec. 22, 2024

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - New Age Palm technology and microchipped hands are the growing wave of the future but so are aged old Biblical prophecies of “The Mark of the Beast.”

Burgundy Waller, recently known as “the Chip Girl’’ in her Tik Tok videos, has recently created a social media stir of three million followers by demonstrating how a microchip about the size of a gain of rice implanted in her hand serves as a key to unlocking doors, closets, and storage areas in her Las Vegas mansion.

While chipped hands might sound new, between 50,000 to 100,000 people globally are using implanted microchipped as credit cards, or to store their medical and health information, gain access to gyms, use public transportation, says the Journal of Hand Surgery.  Furthermore in 1998, a British Scientist, Kevin Warwick( Captain Cyborg)  made headlines using a hand implanted micro-chip to operate doors, lights, and heaters around his office at the University of Reading.

For consumers looking for  a non-surgical way to free themselves of the hardship of  reaching  in their wallets for plastic or tapping their phones on scanners,  Amazon is also rolling out a plan which allows  customers to simply hover their palms over an Amazon One device to pay their bills.  On May 24, 2024,  Amazon and its company -owned Whole Foods, introduced palm technology that can be used for payments in over  500 stores.  

Amazon uses consumers’ palms and their underlying vein structure to create a palm signature, which is produced  with the help of generative AI and verified by Amazon One scanners for  things like retail purchases and age verification. Amazon One scanners, once limited to Amazon stores, can now also be found in  third-party locations including stadiums, airports, and fitness centers. The new app lets users sign up for Amazon One through their phones instead of having to visit a physical location to take photos of their palms for enrollment.

Along with the excitement over the new hand developments, however, are the aged-old prophesies about a controversial “Mark of the Beast.”     The Mark of the Beast refers to Biblical references that during the last days of history a mysterious  autocratic and diabolical Anti-Christ leader would rise to rule over an evil empire where Christians who do not bare his mark on their hands would perish because they would be denied life sustaining goods such as food or medicines. Although mostly ignored by mainstream news, social media are roaring aloud that in the future the hands of Christians whether chipped or scanned could  play a role somewhat like the Star of David was used by the Nazis to identify Jews for death during the Holocaust.

The specific reference of the Mark is found in Revelation 13:16-17:  ‘He caused all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the  666 number of his name.”

 The story of  the Mark and its role in today’s technology was featured in my    recently published book entitled the Rise and the Fall of the Techno-Messiah: Artificial Intelligence and the End Times. This writer described how some respected theologians give credence to the Mark of the Beast prophesy  as part of their eschatological doctrines dealing with the Second Coming of Christ in the Last Days of history.

Consider the warning of J.F. Walvoord the late president of the Dallas Theological Seminary:  “There is no doubt that with today’s  technology a world leader in total control, could keep a continually updated census of all persons and know precisely which people had pledged their allegiance to him and who has not. It is highly likely that chip  implants, scan technology, and biometrics will be used as tools to enforce restrictions on buying and selling without  the Mark.”

Too often when the End Times and the Mark are discussed it is usually contained in only conservative white institutions.  Black churches and seminaries, however, also  teach and preach the  End Times prophesies  resulting in the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.   The recent pandemics, the possibility of nuclear wars, cataclysmic weather events, such as the frequency of hurricanes and flooding  all fit in this apocalypse scenario.

In fact, this writer, an African-American woman is among those who  have taught on the End Times, including the Mark of the Beast at Calvary Bible institute in Washington D.C. Although it is surprising to some, there are 1,845 prophetic references to the Second Coming of Jesus, a factor of eight to one  over references of His First Coming.  In Fact, Scriptures show Jesus speaking of  His return 21 times.

The Mark of the Beast and the spirituality around it have also made its way into political circles. Mark Cole, a former member of the Virginia House of Delegates, once introduced a proposal to prevent corporations from forcing employees to submit to implants.  He also said his  concerns were also based on  the Book of Revelation which deals with the Mark of the Beast.  Referring to the microchips, he argued,” they just  might be that mark.”    

Aside from the spiritual considerations, today, since the  FDA (Food and Drug Administration) approved an implantable chip last year, the chips are gaining respectability and will one day  be as commonplace as using Sirius to order dinner.

The most popular microchips use radio-frequency identification technology which for decades were used for tracking animals.  It works like a barcode label to identify vehicles, animals, and luggage tags.  This technology can be  used to monitor patient health,  locate missing people, track people under house arrest, and trace valuable items.  As  people become  more comfortable with internal devices such as pacemakers, birth control rods and nerve stimulators implanted in their bodies, the fear factor is diminishing.

In fact, microchipped hands could easily become an obsession, especially among those who see tattoos as fashion statements.  On the plus side, the happily chipped person could glide through customs and waiting lines with a flip of the hand, have instant medical and education information in hand and , abolish the need  to carry keys, remember passwords or even carry a wallet.

Microchips could speed the screening of passengers for air travel,  subways could use  them to collect fares. Bars could use microchips to “card” underage drinkers without concerns about fake IDs. An implanted microchip could also be used to ward off voter fraud or increase it by denying those without the chip the right to vote.

While the future for chipped  or scanned hands seems dazzling, there are other considerations, such as how long it would take for criminal enterprises to learn how to gain access to personal information by hacking off chipped hands of victims or hacking into their programs which continues to beguile users.

The peer reviewed Journal of Hand Surgery also recently warned that current implantation is typically not performed in a medical environment. “Implantation of these devices in humans can result in complications, such as infection and tendon attrition, and the relevant safety implications have not been extensively studied.” 

 It looks like speed,  convenience of micro-chips and palm technology, along with more safety guardrails could one day overrule fears of invasion of privacy and health concerns.  As for the speculation of Bible believers about the eventual rise of an evil empire and the Mark of the Beast this is also a story that will be continued.  

Dr.  Barbara Reynolds is a  journalist, who was a writer on the editorial board of USA TODAY for 13 years and is the author of eight books, including the memoirs of Coretta Scott King and her latest book, The Rise and Fall of the Techno-Messiah: Artificial Technology and the End Times.

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