FORUM
The gun violence in Maryland
festers America’s dark side
Big Think
Like an abrasion, gun
violence in the United
States of America continues
to fester and to get worse.
Our nation is known for
great things. Our country is
revered for its beautiful ter
rain, its cities both large
and small and its major
attractions. Our arts, our
food and our quality of life make our country the perfect
location to live, to work and to raise a family. We honor
and value our diverse cultures and our system of educa
tion.
America is seen as a world leader. Other countries
look to us for ideas, innovations and leadership. We have
held this position for many decades and while challenged
on many fronts, we still hold it today. However, some
would argue that our status in the world is slipping.
Recent and pending legislation on tariffs and immigra
tion are viewed as detrimental to our position.
The battle going on with immigration in this country
is getting worse by the day. Lawmakers are at a cross
roads when it comes to charting a course that will be
humane and long lasting. The world is waiting to see
what we will do.
Another problem that America is facing is what to do
about gun violence. It is literally ripping our country
apart. Gun proponents don’t see anything wrong with the
current gun statutes. However, those on the other side say
that it is much too easy to get a gun in this country.
On last Thursday [June 28], gun violence erupted at
the Capital Gazette Newspaper office in Annapolis,
Maryland. Jarrod W. Ramos is accused of having a long
gun and killing five people and injuring two people in a
shooting spree. Multiple questions in my opinion come
up about Ramos. First and foremost is, how did Jarrod
Ramos get a gun into the building? It could have been
that the building didn’t have security or metal devices,
which could detect a weapon.
Second, how did Ramos get his hands on this gun?
Early reports said that he already had three peace orders
against him. That should have raised a red flag suggest
ing that something was wrong. He had also been on
Twitter making vile and threatening comments about the
newspaper and one of its employees, Rob Hiaasen. He
said that he would like to see Hiaasen “cease breathing.”
Rob Hiaasen was one of the victims killed by Jarrod
Ramos on Thursday.
On Friday, June 29, 2018, the opinion page for the
Capital Gazette newspaper was without opinions. It sim
ply said, “We Are Speechless.”
Tom Marquardt, a retired publisher and editor for the
Gazette, said that Ramos was simply a trouble-maker for
the newspaper. “I was seriously concerned he would
threaten us with physical violence,” Marquardt said.
Jarrod Ramos is now in custody and could spend the
rest of his life in prison. We are sitting on a ticking time
bomb called gun violence in this country. Right now,
there is no end in sight, I believe that reasonable lawmak
ers must lead the effort toward reasonable solutions.
Those legislators and lobbyists who have hard line posi
tions regarding this issue are, in my opinion, part of the
problem. Unfortunately, at this moment in time, someone
in our community is planning the next shooting. That is a
sad but true reality.
Gun violence has become a part of America’s dark
side.
James B. Ewers Jr. EdD. is a former tennis champi
on at Atkins High School in Winston-Salem and played
college tennis at Johnson C. Smith University, where he
was all-conference for four years. He is a retired college
administrator. He can be reached at
ewers.jr56@yahoo.com.
The license to kill with immunity
Way We Were”
“What’s
too painful
to remem
ber, we sim
ply choose
to forget.” -
Barbara
Streisand
singing the
song “The
The Tuskegee Institute documented
3,436 Blacks were lynched between 1882
1950. Perhaps, this represents a small per
centage of murders due to racism and the
fear to report these heinous crimes.
Picnics, celebrations, dinners, music,
dancing, laughing, mailed photographic
post cards were part of this ritual of car
nage. This led to the creation of the
NAACP.
Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X,
Medgar Evers, Trayvon Martin, Eric
Gamer, Stephon Clark and Tamir Rice are
only a few names embossed on obituaries
as the choirs sang “Precious Lord Take
Hand,” “Amazing Grace” and “Pass Me
Not, Oh Gentle Savior.” Folks quietly
walk behind shiny black luxury limou
sines during unforeseen family reunions.
Rivers flowing from watery eyes are mir
rors of broken hearts.
Tragically, an average of 10,000 Black
men are killed each year. We have naively
become numb and delusional with nervous
self-imposed sighs of relief that
Baltimore, New York, Baton Rouge,
Cincinnati, Detroit, Jackson, Birmingham,
New Orleans, Detroit. Newark, and
Chicago, but not our town, are cities with
the most annual deaths. However, as old
folks say, “What goes around comes
around,” and “What’s good for the goose
is good for the gander.”
Impromptu eulogies, long sermons,
flowers, repasts, money in envelopes,
prayers, sympathy cards and well-wishes
are not able to bring solace. Weeping out
of control is catastrophic for a mother
whose son is dressed in a black suit, white
shirt, ebony neck tie with excessive make
up. (He looks so peaceful and no longer
has any pain or stress.) She wants her son
to breathe again, smile, laugh and tell
more silly jokes. Gosh, memories of his
first heartbeat as an embryo during the
gestation period flushes throughout her
memory bank.
The parents of boys, brown, black and
darker than blue have the piercing sensa
tion of cinder blocks on their chests,
shoulders and backs every time their sons
leave home “breathing” with a swagger,
hoodies and sense of invincibility. The
nightly news, ringing of the phone or
doorbell, stimulate a rapid heart beat until
their baby walks through the door.
However, authentic experiences of Black
parents include fear they have not instilled
essential skills to keep their sons from
being killed
Despite irreputable evidence of inno
cence, our young men are too often shot in
the back, heart or torso. Complaints are
ridiculed, even with eye-witnesses and
videotapes.
Social media, revisionist scholars, tel
evision, magazines, newspapers and com
mentaries make zealous efforts to rewrite,
but can’t unwrite history.
Mirrors in our hearts include visually
engraved images of our men and women
lying on the ground in handcuffs, which
remind us of slaves chained by the hands
and feet. History is Black America’s cur
rent inseparable reality.
Emboldened men with an arrogant
sense of superiority, erroneously believe a
tweet, birth entitlement, war resolution
and court rulings divinely entitle them to
certify licenses to kill with immunity.
We shall overcome some day. What
day? Dead or alive?
James Bond had a license to kill, but
that was in the movies. This is real
life/death. Next? You? Me ? Stop killing
us.
Henry J. Pankey is an author and for
mer Triad educator. You may contact him
at Henrypankey.com,
eaglehjp@aol.com or (919)-225-8596.
Tips on safely returning, staying home after hospital visits
Ahunna
Freeman
Guest
Columnist
A smooth transition of
care truly dictates a healthy
patient outcome beyond the
hospital walls. Hospitals
now have transition of care
teams whose primary duty is
to ensure proper mainte
nance of health status fol
lowing a discharge. They
have these teams in place to
simplify discharge processes and to help patients avoid
medication related issues post discharge.
Transition of care teams also aid in the transition for
caregivers, pharmacists, and other care providers in the
community by passing on pertinent information that is
essential in maintaining stability in the patient s health.
Though the objective is to make the transition seamless, a
lot of times the information overload can be quite over
whelming for all those involved in the transition. Being
overwhelmed is where mistakes start to happen, follow
up appointments are missed and medication related issues
000 Anyone who has spent time in the hospital hopes to
not return for a long time. Unfortunately, that hope to
IIUl ICIUIU IVI a -- * . k.i . r _
maintain stability in health status upon returning home
can be challenging to say the least. The usual culprits that
affect a healthy stability are simple precautionary steps
that are misied or ignored during the transition from hos
pital back to home.
Here are some tips to help with transitioning from
the hospital back to home:
•Keep all discharge paperwork all in the same place,
easily accessible.
•Ask for a follow up date upon being discharged.
•Know when, where, who, and what the follow up is.
•Notify your primary care provider of your hospital
visit as soon as possible.
•Keep your current medication list up to date and
readily available.
•Share discharge papers with your community phar
macist. who may ask to make copies to be reviewed later.
•Take your discharge medications as directed.
•Follow all discharge instructions as directed.
•Most importantly, show up to your follow-up visits.
This is critical for proper continuum of care.
For post-discharge issues related to medications,
efforts from the community pharmacist can help. At the
community pharmacy, ilftient’s medications are updated
promptly and accurately based on notes from the dis
charge papers. Old medication that has been removed
from the patient’s profile can be properly disposed of at
some community pharmacies to prevent accidental con
sumption from either the patient or kids.
A clinical community pharmacist will also help sim
plify patients’ medication regimens, monitor for adverse
events, remind patients of upcoming follow up appoint
ments and look at long term medication affordability to
see if there are better options. Sometimes the community
pharmacist will follow up with the patient days after the
encounter as a part of maintaining proper health care.
The process of medication reconciliations, updating
medication lists and sharing discovered information with
patient’s care provider at the community level allows the
patient/caregivers to make a smooth transition with mini
mal stress at a reasonable pace.
Dr. Ahunna Freeman is a board certified geriatric
pharmacist and the clinical director at Southside
Discount Pharmacy in Winston-Salem. She can be
reached at DrFreeman@SouthsideDiscountRx.com or at
(336) 830-8774.
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