< Previous18 | TALK MAGAZINE •FALL 2019 Livingston first discovered this newer form of medicine while earning her Bachelor of Science degree in Biology at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, PA. “The school of osteopathy was just down the street from my undergrad classes and I discovered the body’s own healing property’s early on,” she said. Livingston went on to receive her medical degree from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and completed a rigorous Obstetrics and Gynecology residency at Penn State Hershey Medical Cen- ter in Hershey, PA and in 2006 began practicing as an Ob/Gyn at UPMC Lititz. Osteopathy is sometimes equated to practicing holistic medicine, treating the person as a unit of body, mind, and spirit and trying to treat all three. She said, acknowledging that she sees the need for symbiosis be- tween the branches saying, “I think western medicine is wonderful, eastern medicine as well.” She continued, As an Ob/Gyn, Livingston says that she wears two hats. “I wear the obstetric hat where its 2 am and I am delivering a baby and my gynecologist hat, my highest passion, which is surgery.” As the highest volume female robotic surgeon in the county of Lancaster, Livingston averages about 5 major surgeries such as hysterectomies and 3 minor surgeries such as hysteroscopies (a thin, lighted, telescope-like instrument sends pictures of the uterus to a screen for further examina- tion) a week. While some see the advancements in robotics in the 21st century as harbinger of lost jobs to the economy, Dr. Livingston sees ways to improve patient treatment and recovery time. “I value robotic surgery in a sense that I remove big things through tiny holes. Robotic surgery gets women back to work faster and that’s key because we know most women are running the house as far as choosing healthcare practices and healthcare practitioners.” She said. For a lot of women, especially in the African American community, there is a delay of care for a multitude of reasons. “It is those women we want to tell you don’t have to fear surgery, the incisions aren’t the size of a watermel- on,” she said laughing. “The incisions, if they are larger than a centimeter and a half, I would be surprised.” Dr. Livingston, as an African American woman herself, is acutely aware of and deeply troubled by the disparities in treatment between black and white patients. “African American women are 4 times as likely to die from pregnancy than anyone else and that maternal mortality rate should make all of us stop dead in our tracks and say why is that?” she asked. When asked if that was on par with third world nations, she remarked “On par? some of them are doing better than us! The United States maternal mortality rate has increased dramatically. And we know a lot of it is due to cardiovas- cular disease, lack of access to proper medical care and mistrust of the African American community to medications. She said, while blaming such disparities on personal biases, and lack of empathy from individuals in the system.” Dr. Livingston is not blaming it all on racism, however. In reference to pain for example, she says a lot of conditions like vulvodynia and endo- metriosis go undiagnosed because “There is hesitance to believe it because it’s hard to diagnose and the inability to put an exactness to it,” she said. Some solutions Dr. Livingston provided for these issues revolve around education and prevention. “Only 15% of teens are receiving the H.P.V. vaccine. Through a vaccine we can eradicate cervical cancer. In my mind, the vaccine should be offered between the ages of 9 to 26 and we’ve seen recent By Austin Premier Dr. Sharee Livingston subscribes to the Osteopathic approach to living and medicine. That means she believes whole heartedly in the body’s ability to heal itself and specializes her care around maximiz- ing the human body’s ability to do so. Maybe that is how she is able maximize her own potential. Currently she is a member of the UPMC Lititz Board of Trustees, the Ob/Gyn Department Chair there, and the highest volume female robotic surgeon in the county of Lancaster. In addition to these accomplishments, she also finds time to be a wife, mother of four, including two daughters, a set of twin boys and manages to give back to the community with two organizations geared towards serving children and undergraduates of color, one of which she is president of. The Noblest Profession “We are seeing in many allopathic programs otherwise known as M.D. schools that they are adopting osteopathic manipulation. We do want to empower patients to heal themselves and understand everything they need to heal themselves is already in their bodies. Exercising, proper eating, paying attention to what they put in their bodies is how you maximize that ability.”research to indicate it should be given as late as 45. Every child in my family will have it,” she said, admitting that it’s hard to get through thanksgiving without her hands shaking with frustration at times from the medical misinformation dinner guests bring to her. Other changes she advises are to strengthen civil rights laws for patient rights and increase minority representation in hospitals. “We need to have more minorities trained as healthcare professionals. When they hear these options, they tend to be less fearful. More importantly, when it comes from someone who looks like them, they are more likely to take the recommenda- tion.” Self-awareness about this issue and her role in it made her want to do more; reflecting “I had two unfortunate obstetric cases that were of no fault of my own, medically it was clean as can be, but those two events involving pregnant African American women shook me to the core and made me ask who am I and what is it I need to do beyond having tons of robotic surgery under my belt and deliver half of Lancaster? That’s why I partnered with “Patients R Waiting” to help plug the leaky pipeline of children of color to becoming physicians. “We know there is talent out there,” she said. Livingston said she knew she wanted to become a physician and expressed particular interest in women’s health working as a candy striper at Com- munity General Osteopathic Hospital at age 9. Friday, September 27th a conference of 90 children and 30 profession- als was held out in front of young learners to give access to mentors and resources. The ultimate goal of “Patients R Waiting” is to provide funding so we can send them to the S.N.M.A. (Student National Medical Associa- tion) conference, which is an African American annual meeting in March for sophomores and juniors in college that are going into the pre-med science field. She is most honored to be the president of MOKA moms, (Moms of Kids Advancing – Mothers of Color in Medicine/Science) because even though she says Lancaster is a great town, “It is also not the most diverse.” She laughed, admitting her family eats at an Ethiopian restaurant every weekend because of fear of them going out of business. She was also concerned that when her kids were in school, they were not around kids that look like them. So, in 2013, she and her good friends of color decided they wanted to have social events for their children so they could be around kids of a more diverse ethnic background. “There is a commit- ment to community, and this October we are going to get in our soccer mom vans and go to the Boys and Girls Club of Harrisburg and focus on STEM activities,” she said. Last year the 14 MOKA moms taught inner city kids about DNA with Twizzlers, gummy bears and toothpicks. Dr. Livingston says she would love her kids to become doctors because its lucrative and “the noblest profession” as she put it but says “I don’t ask my children what they want to be anymore. I ask them what problem do you want to fix in the world? So, I tell them, “It’s less about who you want to be and more about what do you want to change. It’s important to plant that seed that the world needs them, the world needs them to be their best selves.” “I don’t ask my children what they want to be anymore. I ask them what problem do you want to fix in the world?” WWW.TALKMAGAZINEONLINE.COM | 1920 | TALK MAGAZINE •FALL 2019 When researching the history how the black celebrates Christmas, there was very little difference from the way other Christian churches celebrate. In my experience, in the black church, we celebrated Christmas in the following ways: We started the season with hanging of the greens. This is the decorating of the church. We would start with a spaghetti lunch. We would then decorate Christmas tree and hang garland and other decorations through- out the church. Then there is the lighting of the Advent Candles. Starting with 4 Sundays prior to Christmas. One for each Sunday leading to Christmas and then we light the Christmas Candle. First 3 candles are purple, the 4th candle is pink, and the Christmas Candle is white. Some churches would have a Christmas Day service in which the Christmas Candle would be lit. Those churches that do not have a Christmas Day celebration, would light the Christmas Candle on the last Sunday prior to Christmas. On the Sunday prior to Christmas, the congregation would take up a collection for the pastor and his family. The Christmas celebration in the Black Church does not end until you have the Watch Night Services. This takes place on New Year’s Eve. Service traditionally starts at 10:00 pm, with service ending with prior at the church alter at midnight. This tradition celebrated, the African American Slaves staying to wait for the enactment of the Emancipation Proclamation, which ended slavery in the United States. However, some churches have gone to an earlier start time for safety reasons. In 1966, many African Americans began celebrating a non-religious holiday called Kwanzaa. This holiday celebrates the African heritage in African-American culture. It is observed from December 26 to January 1, culminating in gift-giving and a feast. Kwanzaa has seven core principles. It was created by Maulana Karenga and was first celebrated in 1966–67. Umoja: Unity To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race. Kujichagulia: Self-Determination: To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves, and speak for ourselves. Ujima: Collective Work and Responsibility To build and maintain our community together and make our brothers’ and sisters’ problems our problems and solve them together. Ujamaa: Cooperative Economics To build and maintain our own stores, shops, and other businesses and to profit from them together. Nia: Purpose To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness. Kuumba: Creativity To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it. Imani: Faith To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders, and the righteousness and victory of our struggle. Not all African Americans celebrate Kwanzaa and there is a growing segment of the non-African American community that celebrates Christmas. by Rev. Erwin McIntosh How the Black Church Celebrates Christmas 1 2 3 Kwanzaa has seven core principles, or Nguzo Saba:WWW.TALKMAGAZINEONLINE.COM | 21 THE SYMBOLS OF KWANZAA Kwanzaa has seven basic symbols and two supplemental ones. Each rep- resents values and concepts reflective of African culture and contributive to community building and reinforcement. The basic symbols in Swahili and then in English are: Mazao (The Crops) These are symbolic of African harvest celebrations and of the rewards of productive and collective labor. Mkeka (The Mat) This is symbolic of our tradition and history and there- fore, the foundation on which we build. Kinara (The Candle Holder) This is symbolic of our roots, our parent people -- continental Africans. Muhindi (The Corn) This is symbolic of our children and our future which they embody. Mishumaa Saba (The Seven Candles) These are symbolic of the Nguzo Saba, the Seven Principles, the matrix and minimum set of values which African people are urged to live by in order to rescue and reconstruct their lives in their own image and according to their own needs. The main task for the Day of Meditation is to contemplate the three kawaida (tradition and reason) questions and answer them honestly: Who am I? Am I really who I say I am? Am I all I ought to be? The Odu Ifa meditation is recited as an aid to this self-reflection and contemplation: Let us not engage the world hurriedly. Let us not grasp at the rope of wealth impatiently. That which should be treated with mature judgment, Let us not deal with in a state of anger. When we arrive at a cool place, Let us rest fully; Let us give continuous attention to the future; and let us give deep consideration to the consequences of things. And this because of our (eventual) passing [source: Official Kwanzaa Web Site]. And with the end of the Day of Meditation comes the end of Kwanzaa. The hope is that the renewed sense of self, heritage and community will last throughout the coming year. KWANZAA The Day of Meditation (Siku ya Taamuli) Kwanzaa celebrants spend New Year’s Day as so many people do around the world -- with a day of intense focus on meditation, self-analysis and renewal. Jan. 1 is the final day of Kwanzaa, known as the Day of Meditation (siku ya taamuli), and the principle for the day is imani (faith). Dr. Karenga noted that, in the tradition of the Akan people of Ghana and the Ivory Coast, Jan. 1 can also be called a Day of Remembrance or Day of Assessment. As in the karamu feast the night before, there is an aspect of ancestor tribute to the Day of Meditation. Celebrants are primarily called to reflect on themselves, but a central concept of Kwanzaa is that you cannot know yourself without knowing where you came from. To understand the self, you have to pay homage to your heritage and understand your role in your community. Kikombe cha Umoja (The Unity Cup) This is symbolic of the foundation- al principle and practice of unity which makes all else possible. Zawadi (The Gifts) These are symbolic of the labor and love of parents and the commitments made and kept by the children. The two supplemental symbols are: Bendera (The Flag) The colors of the Kwanzaa flag are the colors of the Organization Us, black, red and green; black for the people, red for their struggle, and green for the future and hope that comes from their struggle. It is based on the colors given by the Hon. Marcus Garvey as national colors for African people throughout the world. Nguzo Saba Poster (Poster of The Seven Principles)22 | TALK MAGAZINE • FALL 2019 Ever since Black folks were brought to America, we’ve put our own twist on foreign traditions. Thanksgiving Day is no different. And Black Thanksgiving celebrations have historically focused on liberation. Before Abraham Lincoln made Thanksgiving a federal holiday in 1863, folks all over America celebrated the fall harvest in various ways. But there was very little to be thankful for while enslaved in a foreign land under conditions unfit for animals. So, many enslaved people used the opportunity to take their freedom into their own hands. During Thanksgiving, the work schedule was more relaxed than normal. Enslaved Black folks plotted their escape before Thanksgiving, then fled once the plantation owner left the property for the holiday. Slavery ripped apart Black families. Some never saw their loved ones again. Those fortunate enough to work on neighboring plantations could obtain passes to go visit family during the holidays. Enslaved folks used these passes as a method of escape. If “slave patrols” caught them, they referenced their passes as a legitimate reason for being away from the plantation. Some plantation owners had a solution for this, though. During holidays, owners often forced enslaved Blacks to overindulge in alcohol, which kept them from doing anything constructive. Thanksgiving church sermons during slavery also focused on liberation. It was common to hear preachers call for America to put an end to the institution of slavery. In 1808, pastor Absalom Jones addressed his congregation on Thanksgiving, giving thanks for “The Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves,” which prohibited new Africans from being brought to America for enslavement. In 1828, pastor Hosea Easton delivered a fiery Thanksgiving Day sermon to Blacks in Rhode Island that called for “racial uplift” of the Black race. When Blacks began repatriation to Africa in the 1820s, many took the Thanksgiving celebration with them. They were thankful for their freedom, and new opportunities in their homeland – a return most thought they would never experience. Over time, however, Blacks came to view Thanksgiving similar to the rest of American – a time to gather with family, watch football, and enjoy delicious food. What seems to be missing, though, is the focus on liberation. Although we are not enslaved, we are still oppressed in all areas of life. So, if you choose to celebrate Thanksgiving, consider doing what our ancestors did. Take the opportunity to build with your family and friends. Spark productive conversations and strategize about tackling and issues we face in society. Be Thankful for your freedom but remember the fight for liberation is not over. BE THANKFULWWW.TALKMAGAZINEONLINE.COM | 23 Eyewitness Testimony In order to appreciate the significance of Messiah’s coming— and thus to understand the true meaning of Christmas—we need to travel back in time, back to the first Christmas, before this event even carried that name. We can’t offer you a time machine, but we can point you to the earliest written witnesses to the first Christmas: the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. These Gospel authors wrote their accounts on the basis of the eyewitness testimony of others; neither Matthew nor Luke was there on that fateful night in Bethlehem. Luke even explicitly alerts his readers to his use of eyewitness testimony in his preface. Luke’s account is that of a careful an- cient historian motivated by a desire to present an accurate narrative of the events surrounding Jesus’s birth, life, death, and resurrection in order to strengthen his readers’ faith. Matthew doesn’t specifically reference his use of sources, but his Gospel would have likely been in circulation by the late AD 50s to early 60s, early enough that eyewitnesses would still have been around to provide oral source material and affirm the published contents of his Gospel. The fact that Matthew and Luke were not present personally to observe the events they record doesn’t lessen the value of their testimony. Their Gospels reveal a concern for careful and accurate reporting; one detects a complete lack of the fanciful and over-the-top types of stories that were invented about Jesus by various authors in the second century. The Gospels are akin to the ancient genre of biography, not fiction. The Gospels are akin to the ancient genre of biography, not fiction. Although we can’t know for certain which eyewitnesses passed on the accounts, likely candidates include Jesus’s mother Mary as well as his half-brothers James and Jude, both of whom were lead- ers in the early church and would certainly have known the stories surrounding Jesus’s birth. We can safely assume that Joseph had died by the time Jesus began his public ministry because none of the Gospel accounts mentions him, but Joseph must have passed on his account of the angel’s words to others, whether Mary, his sons, Jesus, or some other close friends or relatives. A Realistic Account The New Testament Gospel accounts of Jesus’s birth, the so- called infancy narratives, provide a different perspective than most modern popular presentations. They are far richer and deeper than can be communicated in a children’s Christmas pageant, still manger scene on a fireplace mantle, or Christmas card. The baby would not have had a halo, and despite the famous line from “Away in a Manger”—“but little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes”—almost certainly would have cried. Perhaps the hardest aspect of Jesus’s coming for modern readers to appreciate is its Jewish context, particularly its connection to the Old Testament. Even as the Gospel infancy narratives are more meaningful than contemporary cul- tural versions, they lack many of the details that have been added over the centuries. For example, they don’t tell us about the nature of the stable (cave, open-air, wood, etc.); whether there even was a stable; whether or not there were animals nearby; or the number of the wise men (if that’s what they were; or were they astrolo- gers?). The wise men almost certainly didn’t arrive on the night of the birth as most mass-produced manger scenes depict, and a star wouldn’t have been suspended right above the roofline. Separating Fact from Fiction A careful reading of the New Testament infancy narratives in their historical context will help you separate fact from fiction and clear away the brush so you can truly encounter and be changed by the Christ of Christmas. First-century Palestinian Judaism was characterized by intense longing and expectation for God to deliver his people based on Old Testament promises. The Gospels bear witness to this expecta- tion, but they are not alone. The desperate longing of an oppressed people finds expression in many other texts from the same time period. Messianic expectations in Second Temple Judaism were both diverse and pervasive. These texts are significant because they bear witness to active expectations that God would act through his agents to fulfill his promises at the time surrounding Jesus’s birth. The Gospel infancy narratives bear witness to this same ex- pectation and boldly proclaim that Jesus was the fulfillment of all these hopes and dreams. What Really Happened At the First Christmas WWW.TALKMAGAZINEONLINE.COM | 23 by Andreas J. Köstenberger, Alexander E. Stewartby Dr. Rana L.A. Awdish, Henry Ford Hospital and Leonard L. Berry, Distinguished Professor, Texas A&M Mays Business School The primary mission of health care is to facilitate healing. People often associate healing only with “cure,” but it is much broader. A clinician heals when she reassures a patient that a symptom does not signal a feared health condition. A treatment heals when it mitigates pain and slows progression of disease. Healing even occurs when a very sick patient dies at home surrounded by family instead of in a hospital attached to machines. Each unique instance of healing represents a physical and emotional journey through difficulty, toward contentment and even peace. All patients need healing, and when clinicians and their institutions actively foster it, they renew themselves, too. Our experiences — as a critical-care physician whose own critical illness led her to train physicians in relationship-centered communication (Rana Awdish) and as a health services researcher who has interviewed and observed hundreds of patients, doctors, and nurses (Leonard Berry) — affirm that health care is becoming less focused on the intrinsic goal of healing and more on external forces that impede it. Increasing regulatory oversight, metrics that favor margin over mission, and delivery models that are not in full partnership with communities all divert attention and energy away from driving real change. Clinicians and their institutions can reclaim healing as a core aim, however, by recognizing the threats to it and prioritizing four key intersecting principles: proximity, mutuality, resilience, and kindness. Back at the Center of Health Care Putting Healing 24 | TALK MAGAZINE • FALL 2019Proximity: Get Personal Decision making — by administrators, insurers, and others — that occurs far from the bedside (and life) of the patient is less likely to heal that patient. The high-cost oncology drug that isn’t “on formulary” but may offer a mother another year with her child who has cancer seems entirely different in a spreadsheet than in a conversation between that mother and her child’s doctors. Multiple brief clinical encounters with a patient may look good as part of a revenue stream but may sacrifice empathy by design. When a health care institution builds empathy into the fabric of its operations, it allows clinicians to take the time to discuss with a newly diagnosed patient how each treatment option will affect her family, emotions, work, and identity. Similarly, the health of a community that faces socioeconomic and racial disparities in care does not look the same on a line graph as it does when under- and uninsured people in that community tell their stories directly to leaders who are making choices about health care resources. Mutuality: Share Power In matters of health, no one has all the answers or owns all the facts. The success or failure of healing depends greatly on the pooling of knowledge and information. Clinicians and patients must operate in a climate of trust, respect, transparency, and humility, and require organizational support to do so. Mutuality requires that patients be viewed as the rightful owners of their medical records, and of their patient stories. Only then will they be empowered to become full participants in their own health care. Mutuality allows us to partner with another person, without judging or needing to be in control of his or her journey. True healing can only occur if patients are given agency, choice, and their individualism. Healing does not occur if patients are shamed for lacking health literacy or seeking alternate therapies, or if they’re overwhelmed with data they cannot possibly absorb. To heal, patients must feel safe in being honest, making mistakes, asking questions — and in being guided, gently, by clinicians who care. When clinicians share power with patients, the challenging work of healing can become more joyful and rewarding. In this way, it can offer one antidote to work- related burnout. Resilience: Allow Space Viktor Frankl, the Austrian neurologist and psychologist, described suffering as “an ineradicable part of life. … Without suffering and death human life cannot be complete.” In health care it is impossible to avoid suffering. For clinicians to heal, they must make emotional and spiritual space for all of the patients who suffer around them. Offering patients emotional and spiritual space can allow hope to evolve when cure is not possible — from “focused” hope that centers on cure or remission to “intrinsic” hope that values broader meaning and self-identity, quality of life as the end of life nears, and making peace with the lived experience of illness. It is more difficult for clinicians to support their patients’ resilience if they don’t feel the organization supports their own resilience. Leaders of health care organizations must recognize that clinicians need space, too; that wellness cannot be prescribed to clinical staff, just as clinicians cannot prescribe it to patients. Health systems must actively build resilience by involving staff in identifying concrete steps to reduce administrative and other burdens. The goal: giving the people who care for patients the time and energy to study, reflect, breathe, and feel joy in their work — so that they, in turn, can offer patients and their families the space they need to find resilience in the face of illness. Kindness: Foster a Culture of Trust Clinicians who work to understand the complex emotions that diagnosis and treatment evoke — and then show kindness to patients as they face those challenges — can mitigate some of the suffering that illness confers. Kindness helps to heal not just the recipient, but also the giver. Kindness can be learned, and that starts by embedding it in organizational culture, just as protocols for the safe administration of medications are embedded. We have written about the therapeutic power of six forms of kindness in oncology care: deep listening, empathy, generous acts, timely care, gentle honesty, and support for family caregivers. Kindness earns the patient’s trust, essential for the patient-clinician partnership that healing requires. The absence of kindness — and trust — can lead to patients feeling like hostages to their care and the clinicians who deliver it; “hostage bargaining syndrome,” as we have called it, actively thwarts healing. Patients are experts about their own lives and experience. Kindness from clinicians enables patients to trust their own intuition and wisdom — and to share it. By knowing the values and goals of their patients, clinicians can offer meaningful choices that align with those values and goals, thereby enabling patients to more competently weigh the benefits and risks of various tests, procedures, and treatments. A Way Forward Health care plays a unique and sacred role in society — to provide healing — and it is up to its leaders to reclaim the primacy of this role before it is too late. Healing requires more than medication and technology directed toward physiological improvement. Emotional and spiritual rehabilitation matter, too. For health care organizations to facilitate healing, administrative and clinical leaders must lead the way, strengthening an organizational culture that encourages and enables patient-clinician partnership. By being proximate to see what cannot be seen at a distance, embracing mutuality, cultivating resilient teams, and fostering kindness, we can reclaim health care’s true purpose. By modeling these tenets, leaders will make it easier for clinicians and their teams to heal at the point of care. WWW.TALKMAGAZINEONLINE.COM | 2526 | TALK MAGAZINE • FALL 2019 by Joseph K. Curlett The commonwealth of Pennsylvania is the birthplace and home of this constitutionally formed nation---these united states. This rich history, birthed in Philadelphia, PA, in 1776, is composed of sixty-seven (67) counties. Erie county, located in the northwest corner of the state, and the home of Erie, PA, was recently surpassed by Allentown, PA, to be replaced and become the fourth largest city in the state of Pennsylvania. Erie, pa’s greatest claim is the inordinate amount of snow that accumulates during the long, cold winter months. The city of Erie is, at times, frequently overcome in snow accu- mulation by Buffalo, NY, 93 miles east of Erie. While Cleveland, Ohio, 105 miles west of Erie, will challenge the city of Erie in heavy snowfall. However, Pittsburgh, 130 miles south of the city, enjoys more pleasant and bearable winters, and is the second largest city in Pennsylvania. The rich ethnic populations, in the City of Erie, are comprised of many of nationalities, which have a long rich history and presence in the city. The dominant racial group, within the city, are white Americans, who are made-up of, Italians, Polish, Germans, and Irish. A significant population of black Americans (about 11%), and a small nucleus of other races, make Erie, a very diverse city. Black Americans are the most significant, or largest, minority group in this diverse commu- nity, of less than 100,000 people. Though being, the largest minority group in the city of Erie, their racial plight has many historical internal problems, such as, lack of political, social and economic assets or the unified wherewithal, to make a difference. They endure a poverty level of forty-six (46%) percent, and black children suffer far worse numerically (per the community foundation report, 2007). A native Erieite, and a relative, Fred A. Young, Jr., is firmly convinced and says, the city has “a penetrating negative curse” upon it, which hinders the black American community from rising above, and resisting the necessity of employing the wide-reaching social and economic safety network system and the needed government assistance, that is so essential for their living sustainability. Erie black Americans, for their population size, and com- pared to the other races, are visibly in every area, under-water or behind the curve, judging from the other races’ progress. But the black American community has had to experience ambiguous and mixed signs of much positive, or successful movement with their multiple agendas, but they still working tirelessly and critically, to benefit their community/people. The Erie black American community have experienced and seem weary attempting to keep up with national black movements, that aim to uplift or alter their condition and station. How- ever, their success has not been sustainable, nor realized, in much of a measurable way. The crux of their problem is an apparent lack of a “black American community spirit.” With a “black American community spirit” it would support significant wide-reaching participation, collective involvement and worthwhile financial creation. This “black American community spirit” would be a strong asset and welcomed, to make a viable and important difference in altering or enhanc- ing their social, economic or political positions, which is currently quite dismal. Due to this lack of a common unifying thread (“black community spirit”), the black images projected, also need a complete overhaul to be restructure for assimi- lation from a destitute/neglected state to a more wholesome presentation of humanity. Their white counterparts, who maintain the strongest hand, provide shaky, tacit or half-heart- ed efforts for black Americans to launch a real and more forward leaning black community revival. As they continue to struggle and be dependent on the safety nets and the government assistance programs, that allows them to be ham strung by their own lack of organization, lead- ership deficiencies, poor financial wherewithal, in-fighting, poor community participation and crippled vision conception. CRYING: “ERIE-SISWWW.TALKMAGAZINEONLINE.COM | 27 The debilitating underpinnings of the Erie black American’s unfortunate condition and station host a myriad of issues, which handicap, them from the outset. The public education sys- tem in the city, belies the genesis of their major problems for black Americans in Erie. Prior to the creation of the Erie’ s western pa collegiate academy (select high school, with strict entrance requirements) and the creation and implemen- tation of Erie governor, tom ridge’s statewide charter school legislation, good and beneficial educational attainment was absent, out-of-reach or escaped a large swath of Erie black American youth. For high truancy rates, poor graduation rates, low grade achievement, high drop-out rates and attendance issues, has plagued the school district of the city of Erie for many decades, and little has ever been put forth or implemented, by the district, to address these problems in educa- tion for black American youth. The public educational system has poorly prepared and graduated below the acceptable standards for black American youth, in any appreciable numbers, and therefore, a good living wage via worthwhile employment has eluded many eligible black American youths. Due to the economic forces and industry choices, jobs within the inner city of Erie are few. And with the lack of personal transportation (vehicles are not owned by most black Americans in the city) it becomes a major problem to secure worthwhile employment. Also, the need for a good broad- based, doable, local mass transit system is absent, creating a difficulty in securing any employment opportunities. Most of the available positions are located outside the city (in suburbs), that require rising early, and adding a long costly bus ride, to land a decent minimum wage position. Disparaging treatment and the impact of racism are two all- encompassing, but effec- tive, and detrimental catchall instruments that negatively affect black Americans. For Erie black Americans are crippled by these two instruments severely that impede any real progress. This restricts and hampers them in their quest or mission for progressive movement or outcomes that will overcome the impoverished condition ever present in their community. These twin powerful blows are practiced and pervasively used by their white counterparts, or more so, the white institutional leaders who control the reigns of power in the city of Erie. Erie black Americans cannot refute the incessant blocking tentacles of these two intangibles that are real buffers to any collective progress for the race. These calculated and comforting tools of the white Erie establishment are pervasive and effective, at the true expense of Erie black American upliftment. Most community-minded Erie black American community activists, who are on the front line in their community struggle, fail to deal with, address or call-out, with any urgency or necessity, the white establishment on either one of these two powerful detractors to their dire racial com- munity predicament. For the irresistibility factor existing in the city of Erie breaths and penetrates in the Erie black American community, with impunity, and clearly has character. This character exhumes, as one of continued, persistent and measured fail- ure, signaling further struggle and greater effort on their part. While gaining incremental change and earning negligible progress to be measured. Black American commitment, planning and their implementation process to counter, and be equalized with their white counter parts, requires a complete revamping and overall, and must be revisited. For this longstanding unsuccessful posture, has been collectively, racially and histori- cally disingenuous and not working for them. The common epithet, “never, say never” is a proper, appropriate and comforting mantra for the Erie black American community’s efforts, as they exercise their rights to challenge the system for good opportunities for themselves. TABLE ERIE,” PANext >