Health Crisis?
30 years ago it was the “Big C.” Nobody mentioned the word cancer, it wasn’t talked about – “out of sight, out of mind.” Now it is the “Big A.” People don’t want to about Alzheimer’s, it seems closed and hidden from us. Yet it is probably the number one health emergency in the country.
With October and Breast Cancer Awareness month coming, most women know that one of eight of them will get Breast Cancer. But are you aware that one of six will get Alzheimer’s? There is no cure, and health professionals are seeing it as much as a disease for the caregiver as for the patient – and women are two and one half times more likely to be the caregiver.
September is World Alzheimer Awareness month. Perhaps a good way to begin our awareness is to watch an excellent film made by Banker White, “The Genius of Marian,” in which you not only follow the Alzheimer stages of the filmmaker’s mother, but as well the brilliant art of his grandmother who died of Alzheimer’s in 2001. The film will be aired on PBS, Monday, September 8 at 10:00 PM. ANNA FITCH, Banker’s wife and co-producer and director of the film, discusses it.
Seeking Accountability for Gaza:
The first topic is “out of sight, out of mind,” what do you call that which has been in our headlines and media for the last couple of months? What do you call the ongoing destruction of Gaza? Do you honestly feel the devastation that has occurred in Gaza could have happened without the full financial and political support of the United States? Did you know that we have a one billion dollar war reserve stock pile that we keep in Israel? When Israel ran low on ammunition and artillery in the recent bombardment and appealed to the United States, Congress immediately approved transfer of what they needed from the stock pile.
The UN and WHO have declared a health emergency for the children of Gaza. Many international observers and jurists feel that war crimes and crimes against humanity have occurred – probably by both sides – and have sent an appeal to the International Criminal Court to investigate. MARJORIE COHN, Deputy Secretary General of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers and the US representative to the American Association of Jurists, Professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and former president of the National Lawyers Guild, will discuss the issue and the petition.
