Oct. 13, 2014

Death of Thomas Eric Duncan Gives Rise to Question: Where is the Surgeon General?

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from Global Information Network

(TriceEdneyWire.com) – Almost forgotten in the panic sparked by a new Ebola infection – this time of the Dallas nurse apparently suited up properly to care for the Liberian patient, Thomas Eric Duncan, in isolation - some media houses are asking the question: “Where is the nation’s Surgeon General?”

Although primarily a ceremonial post, the Surgeon General has the power of a bully pulpit and could provide much needed reassurance that plans are coming together to stop the further spread of the virus and counteract rumor.

“Americans need to know that someone with authority is drawing information from disparate agencies tracking and countering Ebola within our borders,” wrote Jerry Lanson, professor of journalism at Emerson College.

But a candidate proposed by President Obama has been sidelined by the Republican Congress because the nominee, Dr. Vivek Murthy, apparently offended the powerful gun lobby by supporting an assault weapons ban and writing that “Guns are a health care issue.”

Kentucky Sen. Ran Paul retorted: “As a physician, I am deeply concerned that Murthy has advocated that doctors ask patients, including minors, details about gun ownership in the home… Dr. Murthy has disqualified himself from being Surgeon General because of his intent to launch an attack on Americans’ right to own a firearm under the guise of a public health and safety campaign.”

But an op-ed by News One Now host Roland Martin countered: “Murthy has no business sitting around waiting to be confirmed. The Obama administration should be raising holy hell, demanding that a pre-eminent doctor get his vote on the Senate floor.”

Two MSNBC producers weighed in with a joint editorial: “Thanks to NRA power and Senate cowardice, we are left with no surgeon general during a time when we not only have Ebola arriving on our shores but are also dealing with the mysterious Enterovirus, which is contributing to the deaths of children in the U.S.”

Meanwhile, a top U.S. health official has riled some health care experts and nurses by blaming a “protocol breach” for the new virus infection on a Dallas nurse. Hospital staff, said the experts, need better coaching on treating an Ebola patient, making sure they have the right safety equipment and know how to use it properly to prevent infection.”

"You don't scapegoat and blame when you have a disease outbreak," said Bonnie Castillo, a disaster relief expert at National Nurses United. "We have a system failure. That is what we have to correct."

More than 4,000 people have died in the worst Ebola outbreak on record that began in West Africa in March. 

Oct. 12, 2014

5 U. S. Airports to Increase Ebola Virus Screenings for Travelers from 3 African Countries
By Frederick H. Lowe

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from Blackmansstreet.Today

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Entry screenings at five airports for travelers entering the United States from Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone will be increased by two federal agencies to detect the Ebola virus, which has caused large numbers of infections and deaths in those countries.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Homeland Security's Customs & Border Protection (CBP) announced on Wednesday new layers of screening for JFK International Airport in New York, Newark Airport in Newark, N.J., O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in Atlanta and Washington-Dulles Airport.

Centers for Disease Control officials made the announcement, following the death of Thomas Eric Duncan, a 42-year-old Ebola patient from Liberia. Duncan died on Wednesday in Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, where he had been a patient since Sept. 28.

His body will be treated as hazardous and handled only by specially trained personnel, wearing protective gear. He will be cremated.

In the 12 months ending in July 2014, JFK received nearly half of the travelers from the three West African countries. Enhanced screening at JFK will begin on Saturday. The increased screenings at Washington-Dulles, Newark, O'Hare and Atlanta international airports will start next week. Over 94 percent of travelers from the three countries enter the U.S. through the five airports.

The World Health Organization, which is based in Geneva, reported in June that there were more than 600 cases of Ebola and over 390 deaths in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

The often fatal virus is transmitted from wild animals and spreads in the human population through human-to-human transmission, according to the World Health Organization.

"We work continuously to increase the safety of Americans," said Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the CDC. "We believe these new measures will further protect the health of Americans, understanding nothing we can do will get us to absolute zero risk until we end the Ebola epidemic in West Africa."
Jeh Johnson, secretary of Homeland Security, said CBP personnel will continue to observe all travelers entering the United States for general overt signs of illness at all U.S. ports of entry.

Travelers from the three West African countries will be escorted to area set aside for screening. CBP staff will observe individuals for signs of illness. Medical personnel will take their temperatures with a non-contact thermometer.  If a traveler has a fever, which may reveal a possible Ebola virus, he or she will be evaluated by a public health officer in a CDC quarantine station.

Oct. 12, 2014

Ferguson October In Full Swing as Thousands March for Justice
By Kenya Vaughn

Thousands marched in Saturday's "Justice for all March" down Market Street to Kiener Plaza. The event was part of the #FergusonOctober event. The march started at 15th and Market and ended with a rally at Kiener PHOTO: Wiley Price/St. Louis American

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from The St. Louis American

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - “People have been saying that this generation is dead and useless – and that they weren’t about anything. But I never gave up on them,” said legendary St. Louis activist Percy Green. “Certain things come along and the trigger one’s consciousness – and this is what we get.”

Even though he was far from in the forefront as more than 3,000 marched down Market Saturday morning as part of what is now known as Ferguson October, Green was hard to miss.

As the sea of people marched down towards Kiener Plaza, he gleamed like a proud father on more than one occasion – nodding with approval as they chanted and showcasing a permanent grin.

“I knew that it was just a matter of time before something like this would occur, because history has dictated that for us,” Green said. “It’s just like we know rain comes from a cloud – it doesn’t come from a clear blue sky – but every cloud doesn’t bring rain. Sooner or later the clouds will bring rain…and this is the rain.”

The seeds he planted a generation before as an activist sprout through the young people that continue to take to the streets in the wake of the death of Michael Brown’s death on August 9.

On this day all walks of life – including the AFL-CIO, the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU), affiliate unions and constituency groups – joined them for the "Justice For All" march.

“We think that it’s a beautiful thing for all of us to come together to fight for justice for Michael Brown – but also for economic justice,” said Lew Moye, president of CBTU’s St. Louis chapter. “One of the main problems that we have in Ferguson and in other parts of North County is the lack of jobs. And this incident has shined a light on that. And the other thing that we have out there is the lack of blacks in government and that shined a light on that as well.”

Like Green, Moye was in the shadows watching as a proud elder who laid the foundation for what he saw the young people leading a movement for justice in the name of those who had become casualties of what many referred to as “police terror.”

“The more we get out here in the streets and demonstrate and put a focus on it, the more we will be able to do to turn this situation around,” Moye said.
They were two of dozens of civic leaders and activists who respectfully let the young people have their moment in the forefront of a movement started as a small relentless few in the streets of Canfield Green Apartments.

Many were out the night before both in Ferguson and in South City. They relied on the familiar chants as they made their way down the march route.

“Hands Up, Don’t Shoot,” and “This is what democracy looks like,” “Hey hey, ho ho these killer cops have got to go” were among the most popular, as was the call and response“What do we want…Justice,” When do we want it…Now.”

Their voices were strained and hoarse by the time they approached the podium for the rally that followed the march. But the energy and fervency were unscathed.

“We know that police brutality is a generational problem,” Tef Poe said. “My father combatted it, I’m combatting it and I’m here today to make sure that my kids don’t have to go through the same thing. Today officially marks 64 days since we lost our brother Michael Brown Jr. Every day we have been in the streets fighting for Mike Brown and all of the countless victims in our community.

He and the others promised not to be moved.

“This is not a fly by night moment. This is not a made for TV revolution,” Poe said. “This is real people standing up to a real problem saying ‘we ain’t taking it no more.’ We’re fighting for our lives.”
A movement ordained by blood.

“It’s essential for us that you recognize that this moment cannot end here,” said Montague Simmons, president of the Organization for Black Struggle. “Your participation was consecrated by blood sacrifice that goes back generations. The building behind you… nearly 200 years ago, Dred Scott’s life was ruled worth three-fifths of a human being. Police terror began before slavery ended. They didn’t value black lives then and they don’t value black lives now.”

After a musical interlude featuring protest music that ranged from Marvin Gaye’s “Inner City Blues” to Fela Kuti’s “Zombie,” Simmons was one of the group of individuals who reinforced that what they had done for the sake of Michael Brown – including the march they just completed- was the beginning of the movement and not the culminating activity.

Guests came from around the nation – and the world – to speak in solidarity with those who were still relentlessly pursing justice for Michael Brown and shedding light on the tragically dysfunctional relationship between law enforcement and the communities they serve.

Chicago, New York, Ohio, Miami and even Palestine were represented in the list of speakers designated to give the briefest of remarks.

“Palestinians and Palestinian allies have traveled from all over the country to be here with you today in solidarity, because we realize that none of us is free until all of us are free,” said Suhad Hatib on behalf of the country. “And because we know that black liberation in this country will lead to liberation for us all.”

Also among the panel of young speakers was Marshawn McCarrell of the Ohio Student Association. They have been protesting in the name of John Crawford, the young man who was killed by police in a Beaver Creek, Ohio Wal-Mart while holding a toy gun four days before Michael Brown was shot down in Canfield.

“We’re happy to report that we recently shut down the Beaver Creek police station,” McCarrell said. “We won’t find justice until we can fundamentally shift the relationship between law enforcement and our communities.”
Green was probably somewhere smiling, knowing that Ferguson and the St. Louis area – where he had been on the frontline decades before – had a hand in demonstrations around the nation and the world.
“This is fantastic – this is the way it ought to be,” Green said. “I’m just so glad that I lived to see this happen.”

As people stood talking about lives lost at the hands of law enforcement (which has grown to include Vonderrit Myers in South City just a few days ago) and the action they were committed to taking to making these tragedies the exception to the rule, attention was drawn to the Kiener Plaza fountains that ran red to celebrate the St. Louis Cardinals’ reaching the playoff season.

“Those red fountains are freaking me out because I’m thinking specifically of the blood that was shed by those who were auctioned on those steps,” Simmons said. “I’m thinking about the blood that soaked into the ground in Canfield. I’m thinking about the blood that was soaked into the ground in north city. I’m thinking about the blood that was soaked into the ground in South city this past week.”

He urged them to let the blood – both symbolic and actual – be a catalyst for their action.

“This moment only becomes a movement with you,” Simmons said. “It takes you organized, it takes you activated – it takes every one of you in the streets. If this moment is to be the transformative movement that it can be, we’ve got to make the cost of black life too high for them to take it.”

Oct. 12, 2014

Secret Service Failures are Cause for Concern After Numerous Extremist Plots
By Richard Cohen

NEWS ANALYSIS

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from the Southern Poverty Law Center

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - With its recent bumbling, the long-respected U.S. Secret Service is beginning to look like the Keystone Kops. But there’s nothing funny about the agency’s security lapses, particularly for the nation’s first Black president, a man who is the target of enormous rage on America’s radical right.

For those of us who monitor racist and antigovernment extremists, it’s not surprising that, as The Washington Post reported, President Obama has faced three times as many threats as his predecessors. After all, ever since he arrived on the scene as a serious presidential contender, he has been portrayed by even “mainstream” commentators and politicians on the right as nothing less than an existential threat to America – a Manchurian candidate who sympathizes with terrorists, a Marxist intent on installing a totalitarian government.

Some of the Republican Party’s most prominent politicians have engaged in the demonization of Obama as “the other.” Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, for example, has said Obama exhibits “Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior.” And former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu has said he wished Obama “would learn how to be an American.”

Nothing in his political record remotely supports the characterization of Obama as anything but a mainstream politician, of course, but the purveyors of extremist propaganda have found a robust market for it on the country’s reactionary right, including fringe elements of the Tea Party. To this segment of the American public, Obama is more than a left-of-center president. He symbolizes the changing face of America, the growing diversity that will result in non-Hispanic whites losing their majority status around the year 2043 – and with it, perhaps, White hegemony.

This is why we have seen, as illustrated by the persistent claims about the provenance of Obama’s birth certificate, a stubborn refusal among many on the right to accept his legitimacy as president. And it’s why we’ve seen the emergence of eliminationist rhetoric, such as when angry opponents shouted “Kill him!” at a political rally in 2008 and when effigies of Obama appeared hanging from nooses on university campuses that year.

Obama’s election also ignited volcanic growth in radical-right groups, particularly within the “Patriot” movement. This collection of armed militias and similar organizations is animated by the belief that the U.S. government is an illegitimate, evil entity and part of a global conspiracy to institute martial law and a socialistic government called the “New World Order.” In 1995, it  led to the deadliest act of domestic terrorism on U.S. soil, the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people.

In 2008, the year Obama was elected, there were 149 “Patriot” groups. Today, there are nearly 1,100. At the same time, numerous studies have documented a significant increase in right-wing domestic terrorist attacks in recent years. These include the 2012 slaughter of six Sikh worshipers at a temple in Wisconsin by a neo-Nazi who apparently believed he was killing Muslims. Obama has been the target of numerous radical-right plots.

In August 2008, even before he left the Democratic National Convention that nominated him, three white supremacists were arrested with high-powered rifles, disguises and a bulletproof vest as they discussed ways to kill Obama. Then, just before the election, two members of a racist skinhead group were arrested in Tennessee in a plot to assassinate the Democratic nominee after killing more than 100 people, mostly at an African-American school.

A month after Obama’s inauguration, a U.S. Marine corporal was indicted for threatening to kill the president after a search of his barracks in North Carolina turned up White supremacist materials and a journal containing his plans.

Two years later, a neo-Nazi in Spokane, Wash., was indicted on terrorism charges in a plot to kill Obama. “Take care of business,” he said in a conversation recorded by the FBI. “Got to stop Barry Soetoro [Obama] from being re-elected. Absolutely.”

Sadly, there is no shortage of American extremists who wish the president harm. And, as we’ve seen through decades of studying the radical right, many of them are willing to spill blood for their cause. That’s why the Secret Service’s recent failings are no laughing matter. And that’s why political leaders should tone down their rhetoric.

Richard Cohen is president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, America's foremost monitor of hate groups and activities.