Views from Point Breeze

I am blessed to be working in the field of maternal and child health.  When I was younger I dreamed of becoming a Doctor.  I could have been more focused on the goal of entering medical school but my family resources and my lack of confidence dictated an entry into another field.  Infant mortality is a serious problem in the United States.  The United States has a lower ranking than any of the other 27 wealthy countries in the world.  We have leading health care institutions that receive millions in federal funding.  We have a hard time moving the needle on maternal and child health. I am focusing on two counties in New Jersey as I carry out my work.  Atlantic County and Camden County rank very low in terms of quality of life, poor health behaviors, access to primary care physicians and debilitating social and economic factors.  The city I grew up in, Philadelphia, continues to be affected by the large number if its citizens living in poverty....

Many of us are just dumbfounded by the continued allegations against Bill Cosby.  I grew up watching the Cosby show on Saturdays.  I knew then that Bill Cosby had grown up in Philadelphia and that some of the streetscapes depicted in the cartoons might have been based on his upbringing in North Philadelphia.  Many of the scenes portrayed in the series looked similar to the ones I was growing up in.  The characters didn't possess much in terms of the latest clothes or fashion and that was the case for me also.  His friends set out to have fun and enjoy life with what they had.  His success with this series, television and films made him a revered figure in American history.  The tragic story that is now being told is offset by his wife's belief that these women somehow wanted to become romantically involved with her husband albeit unknowingly. I also listened to at least one album that my Family had with Bill Cosby on the co...

There is a furious debate going on in South Carolina as I write this post.  Supporters of the almost 20,000 dead Confederate soldiers are trying to fight the reaction to the recent racially motivated murders of 9 people in Charleston.  The legislators are debating in a Statehouse that still hosts a black draped seat of one of their own.  State Senator Clementa Pinkney was assassinated by a racist supporter of the Confederate flag.  His murder led the Governor of South Carolina to order the flag be removed from the state house.  The protests raging in Columbia are bringing to the surface long festering tensions about race, states rights and slavery. My Grandfather, Father, Mother and older brothers were born in South Carolina.  I have a large amount of family that still resides in this state.  I love the serenity of Columbia when I visit the Palmetto State.  Southern hospitality is not just a myth.  My cousins, aunts and uncles all possess...

I watched the U.S. women win the 2015 World Cup last night against Japan.  I had barely sat down for the Sunday evening match when the Americans had already scored a goal.  Barely a minute later the U.S. had scored another goal.  It was an amazing opening salvo that eventually carried them to the victory over the Japanese women.  The final 5 - 2 score exorcised the demons from the 2011 loss to the Japanese women.  That game was decided on penalty kicks and the women on this team used this loss as extreme motivation to get a win in this instance. The star of the story was Carly Lloyd.  This morning she has already received tweets from the POTUS and numerous other celebrities here and worldwide.  She is the first woman to register a hat trick in a World Cup game.  She had scored in at least four straight games and has been instant offense in a game that sometimes features long bouts of passing with no scoring.  She received the Golden Ball r...