January 29, 2009
January 28, 2009
January 27, 2009
Sickle cell anemia is an inherited blood disease that affects millions worldwide and has no cure. Today we spoke with leading researchers and health care professionals who specialize in sickle cell disease.
Today's guests are:
- Efa Ahmed Williams, Founder and Director of Destined to Live, an adolescent support transition group at Johns Hopkins Hospital (*more info on Destined to Live below)
- Carlton Haywood, a bioethics expert at Hopkins
- Shawn Bediako, Founder of the Laboratory for the Social and Psychological Study of Sickle Cell Disease at UMBC and Co-chair of the Maryland Statewide Steering Committee on Services For Adults with Sickle Cell Disease
Sickle Cell Disease Services and Resources in the Maryland/DC Area
The Johns Hopkins Sickle Cell Center for Adults
Dr. Sophie Lanzkron, Director
www.sicklecellcenter.org
Appointments: 410-955-3142
Infusion Clinic: 443-287-8288
Notes: The Johns Hopkins Sickle Cell Center for Adults is currently the only place in Maryland which offers comprehensive services to adults with sickle cell disease. Services include outpatient management, education, genetic counseling, hydroxyurea screening, pain management, and social services.
*Destined to Live
Efa Ahmed-Williams, Director
443 838 9227
Destinedtolive@gmail.com
The mission of Destined to Live is to educate and equip youth with chronic illnesses on how to transition from adolescent patients to responsible adults, capable of managing their lives and chronic illness by using coping strategies and life skills.
We invite youth with Sickle Cell disease to participate in this program at Johns Hopkins Hospital. The next session starts March 5, 2009. Come and enjoy free dinner, exciting guest speakers, college tours, health education, a peer support group, games, and much more.
Destined to Live presents Fun in the Sun Sickle Cell Day Camp from June 22, 2009 to July 31, 2009. Contact Efa Ahmed-Williams for more info.
Online Resources
The Sickle Cell Information Center
www.scinfo.org
Notes: A great place for patients, families, community members, and healthcare providers to find education and resources related to sickle cell disease.
Non-Profit Organizations
The William E. Proudford Sickle Cell Fund, Inc.
www.wepsicklecell.org/index.html
The Sickle Cell Disease Association of America
www.sicklecelldisease.org
Notes: These are but two of the organizations that you may choose to donate your time or money to in order to aid in sickle cell disease advocacy efforts.
Here is some information Shawn Bediako sent us about a study for adults living with sickle cell disease:
The Adult Sickle Cell Quality of Life Measurement Information System (ASCQ-Me) Project is creating a tool to help doctors and researchers across the U.S. better understand what it’s like for adults living with sickle cell disease.
By understanding how sickle cell affects your daily life – like how it affects your sleeping, eating, being able to move around, emotions and feelings, and the way you spend time with family and friends – researchers can better determine the real effects of different treatments and doctors may be better able to provide high-quality care.
We want to find out what it’s like to live with sickle cell disease from the people who know best. We are seeking adults with sickle cell disease to take the draft questionnaire.
All of the research is confidential and voluntary, and all participants will receive a payment as thanks. If you are interested in the study, please contact 410-455-1586.
This project is being funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI).
January 26, 2009
January 26, 2009
Charles Blow, the visual op-ed columnist for the New York Times, is our guest today to discuss his most recent column titled "No More Excuses."
From The New York Times:
For the presidential inauguration, blacks descended on Washington in droves with a fanatical, Zacchaeus-like need to catch a glimpse of this M.L.K. 2.0. “Ooo-bama!” For them, he was it — a game changer, soul restorer, dream fulfiller. Everything. Ooo-K.
Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina, the majority whip, tapped into the fervor Monday night at the BET Honors awards in Washington when he proclaimed, “Every child has lost every excuse.”
What? That’s where I have to put my foot down. That’s going a bridge too far.
I’m a big proponent of personal responsibility, but children too often don’t have a choice. They are either prisoners of their parentage or privileged by it. Some of their excuses are hollow. But other excuses are legitimate, and they didn’t magically disappear when Obama put his left hand on the Lincoln Bible.
Representative Clyburn and those like him would do well to cool this rhetoric lest the enormous and ingrained obstacles facing black children get swept under the rug as Obama is swept into power. For instance:
• According to Child Trends, a Washington research group, 70 percent of black children are born to single mothers. Also, black children are the most likely to live in unsafe neighborhoods. And, black teenagers, both male and female, were more likely to report having been raped.
• According to reports last year from the National Center for Children in Poverty, 60 percent of black children live in low-income families and a third live in poor families, a higher percentage than any other race.
• A 2006 report from National Center for Juvenile Justice said that black children are twice as likely as white and Hispanic children to be the victims of “maltreatment.” The report defines maltreatment as anything ranging from neglect to physical and sexual abuse.
Most of these kids will rise above their circumstances, but too many will succumb to them. Can we really blame them?
Malcolm Gladwell probably said it best in a November interview with New York magazine about his new book, “Outliers”: “I am explicitly turning my back on, I think, these kind of empty models that say, you know, you can be whatever you want to be. Well, actually, you can’t be whatever you want to be. The world decides what you can and can’t be.”
So black people have to keep their feet on the ground even as their heads are in the clouds. If we want to give these children a fighting chance, we must change the worlds they inhabit. That change requires both better policies and better parenting — a change in our houses as well as the White House.
President Obama is a potent symbol, but he’s no panacea.
January 22, 2009
January 22, 2009
January 21, 2009
Soviet bread lines warned that the communist economic model would fail, as it did in 1991. Western free market capitalism has recently suffered an intense, and possibly mortal, blow. What comes next? What should the world financial system look like? How will President Obama structure American economic policy to get us through this crucial period?
January 20, 2009
We've been waiting and here it finally is: inauguration day is finally upon us! Marc reflects on today's historic events with a number of call-in guests and voices from all over our community.
Today's guests include:
January 19, 2009
To commemorate Martin Luther King Day, Marc spoke today with participants of The Civil Rights and Historical Education Tour. The tour included lectures and interviews with leaders and participants in the civil rights movement, stopping in Birmingham, Montgomery, and Selma.
January 19, 2009
I have been thinking non-stop, as have many of you, about the Inauguration and coming Presidency of Barack Obama. Leaving behind for a moment all the political arguments from the left and right, from those who voted for him and those who did not, this is just an amazing moment. I look at the Obama family and can't keep from breaking out into a smile. We are facing the worst of times yet hope is the operative emotion that is coursing through the veins of this nation. You can read it in the latest polls but more importantly you can feel it when you listen to people, talk to your friends or when people of all stripes discuss this moment. I have never experienced anything close to this in political annals of our nation. The closest was JFK, maybe RFK but still, this moment is different.
Over the weekend I could not get Mack Parker out of my head. Who is Mack Parker? Fifty years ago he was lynched. He had been accused of raping a white woman. Subsequent investigations revealed he was most likely innocent. But that is not important. He was lynched by a white mob. White judges in Mississippi who were part of the White Citizen's Councils (a refined version of the KKK) refused to do anything about the crime. His brutalized chained body was found floating on the Pearl River ten days after the mob dragged him from his cell. I can only imagine the fear and pain he suffered.
When I was almost thirteen years old I opened a Life Magazine. The picture in the center of the Magazine was of a pair of work boots neatly placed under a cot in a prison cell. They were Mack Parker's boots left behind where he put them before a mob dragged him out to be tortured, mutilated and murdered.
I kept that picture on my wall for years. It haunted me. It reminded me why I fight for a new America that belongs to all of her citizens, breathing in, and living, the same air of equality.
Now Barack Obama is standing there fifty years later, an African American man about to become President of the United States of America. Many people have written that just because we have elected an African American President of the United States of America does not mean that racism will end. They are right, but I deeply believe that it is having and will have a profound effect on American consciousness.
It is an amazing time. I can't believe we are here. The hope is palpable. Let it be real.
What are you feeling now?
-Marc
January 15, 2009
The blogosphere can be a very hostile environment for female bloggers, readers and commenters. Marc spoke today with female bloggers and University of Maryland Law School's Danielle Citron about why so many women are experiencing harassment online-and what can be done to create safe spaces on the net.
January 14, 2009
Today, Maryland's General Assembly will convene for the 426th legislative session in Annapolis. It is going to be a tough year for lawmakers. The global fiscal crisis has hit Maryland, and there is a large budget shortfall to make up for. Marc interviewed Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley before a live studio audience just a few hours before the session officially opened.
January 14, 2009
January 13, 2009
The foreclosure crisis: Many Americans have recently lost their homes due to predatory lending and other underhanded practices in the credit industry. Many others are just barely keeping on top of their debt. How did we get here? Where do we go now?
And, most importantly, how can those of us who are struggling get the help we need to keep our homes?
January 12, 2009
Jean Marbella of the Baltimore Sun, Charles Robinson of Maryland Public Television, Doni Glover of BMoreNews.com and Matthew Crenson from JHU join Marc to discuss the indictment of Mayor Sheila Dixon.
January 12, 2009
I hate watching this happen. It is no small matter for a sitting Mayor to be indicted.
I have known Sheila Dixon for over thirty years. We are not close friends. We have not been in a private social setting together in 32 years. We met when we were both counselors and teachers at Baltimore Prep, a program at Westside Shopping Center for street kids who had just come out of prison or had been kicked out of school, whose lives were on the corner instead of the classroom. Sheila was committed to those kids. She didn’t take any stuff from them and she knew every game they could play, because she came from the same streets that they did. Baltimore Prep is also where she met Mark Smith, who later became her husband, with whom she raised her nephew Juan Dixon and his brother. The boys’ parents had died from heroin addiction. Sheila and Mark saw those boys to manhood. This is the Sheila Dixon I know.
I knew her a little in the intervening years. I remember when she was first elected to the city council. I remember when she banged her shoe on the table exclaiming it was our turn now. She was committed to working class black folks. She lived and knew their pain, joys and struggles. A lot of white journalists, politicians and others thought she hated white people. I don’t know what her innermost thoughts about race were, but I can say that anyone who came up in a certain way who was from a certain place had historical reasons to have a mistrust of white people. Whatever she thought then, however, she has grown from that place, as did William Donald Schaeffer from his place of not caring about Black folks before he became Mayor. She bleeds working class blue in her veins. That is the Sheila Dixon I know.
So, these indictments are just tragic. If they are true, they show stupidity and sheer greed.
As I wrote last week, the only difference between the actions of our city officials and indicted power developers, and goings on in Congress between politicians and corrupt corporate leaders, is the thin but sturdy line of legality.
Politicians are always doing favors for the powerful and their friends. It is part of human existence. Nevertheless, it was not the fur coats that bought Ron Lipscomb city contracts, but rather all of his city and corporate contacts.
I am not excusing anything here. If Sheila and others broke their sacred trust with us, they have to leave elected office at the very least. It cannot be tolerated.
The worst offence would be if she actually took gift certificates that were intended for poor families and children to enjoy Christmas. I hope that even if the bribery and malfeasance indictments are true, that stealing from street kids and poor families is not true. That could break a city’s heart.
That would not be the Sheila Dixon I know. Soon we will know whether she broke the law. If she did, then the court will decide her fate. If she is exonerated, she could become one of our greatest Mayors. If not, she will become one of our greatest disappointments and tragedies.
January 9, 2009
With Martin Luther King Day around the corner, we've been thinking about how we can commemorate the day a little differently than usual. Our friend and frequent collaborator, Director of Pride in Faith and Program Director of the Maryland Black Family Alliance Lea Gilmore, suggested we cover a civil rights tour that she is taking part in. We decided this would be a great story to build a show around, which we'll host from 5-6pm on The Marc Steiner Show on WEAA 88.9 FM on Martin Luther King Day, January 19th.
January 8, 2009
Today's Marc Steiner show looks at Multisystemic Therapy, an treatment program that seeks to keep kids out of juvenile prison by working with them, their families, and friends in the home environment.
January 8, 2009
January 8, 2009
Update: We just received news, at 2pm today (Friday January 9) that Mayor Dixon has been indicted on 12 counts. Read more in the Sun. We will see what the day brings but the rumor mill has it that Sheila Dixon will be indicted today, just as Helen Holton and Ron Lipscomb were indicted yesterday. My feeling is that if she had just declared those coats she would not be in front of a grand jury. If she had just recused herself from voting for a company her sister worked for there would be no investigation.
January 8, 2009
Yesterday I interviewed two educational leaders from different ends of the ideological spectrum who had written open letters to President-elect Barack Obama. I always love interviewing Howard Gardner (listen to our interview by clicking here). He is one of the most important educational thinkers in the world. He is just so clear in his analysis, research and thinking. In the past, we have had discussions where we paired him with leaders of educational systems to talk about how to translate his ideas into practice in our city and county public schools. On this show, he came on to talk about his open letter to President-elect Obama, which you can read by clicking here.
January 7, 2009
January 7, 2009
On the eve of the new year, we reprise one of our most popular recent episodes, Marc's Decmeber 15th conversation with Barry Levinson, director of many beloved films, such as Good Morning Vietnam, Rain Man, Liberty Heights, Diner, and Wag the Dog.
January 7, 2009
Happy New Year, listeners! For the first of the year, we re-broadcast one of our favorite recent shows: Marc's November 26th interview with Margaret Atwood.
For more information and full audio, check out the show's original broadcast page here.
January 7, 2009
One of our guests on today's program will be the celebrated educational theorist Howard Gardner. Scholastic Magazine recently invited leading educational thinkers to offer advice for President-elect Obama in open letters. Howard Gardner will be our guest to discuss his advice, which is published below.
January 7, 2009
Charles Murray, the controversial author of The Bell Curve among other works, is going to be a guest on the show today. He will be discussing a recent op-ed he wrote for The New York Times in which he argued that the bachelor's degree should not be used as a job qualification.
January 6, 2009
NOTE: Due to transmitter issues we lost some of today's broadcast. As today's show featured two pre-recorded interviews, we were able to reconstruct most of the first half, but be aware there will not be a transition between interviews or at the break. The full broadcast resumes immediately after the break.
January 6, 2009
In our first segment, we talk with Stephen Walters, an economics professor at Loyola University who has a proposal to dramatically cut Baltimore's property tax in order to encourage investment and redevelopment in the city.
January 6, 2009
On todays show you are going to hear an interview with Martha Myers from CARE International. For 14 years, CARE has been implementing programs in Palestinian communities in agriculture and natural resources, economic development, education, emergency relief, health, water and sanitation and civil society strengthening. Meyers spoke to us from Jerusalem, but CARE has a lot of their staff in Gaza. Staff members have been sending blog entries to CARE and we've republished one of the most moving below. More to come, we hope!
January 5, 2009
Marc Steiner and Anthony McCarthy were in the studio this hour to welcome everyone back after the holidays. They discussed the possible senatorial appointment of Caroline Kennedy, the ongoing drama surrounding the appointment of Roland Burris by scandalized Illinois Governor Blagojevich, and more.
January 5, 2009
Lea Gilmore joins us to continue a Marc Steiner Show tradition, bringing her favorite songs of the season to share with us.