By Mark Pazniokas

HARTFORD – The word never will pass Chris Murphy’s lips, at least not in public. But the congressman is doing everything he can to create the impression that his winning the Democratic nomination for Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman’s seat is, well, inevitable.

He is steadily rolling out endorsements, and his campaign bank account dwarfs those of his two best-known Democratic rivals, former Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz and state Rep. William Tong.

Murphy’s cash on hand grew by $457,305 to about $2.5 million in his most recent filing on Jan. 31, nearly 10 times the $46,252 net gain reported by Bysiewicz, who has $889,805 in her account.

Tong is spending more than he is taking in. After raising an impressive $565,572 in his first weeks as a candidate, his cash on hand shrunk from $527,011 in July to $362,844 in October to $279,445 in January.

“Right now, it seems inevitable that Murphy is going to be the candidate,” said John F. Droney Jr., a former Democratic state chairman, one of the Democrats lining up behind the 38-year-old three-term congressman.

Perhaps.

Inevitability has had a couple of bad election cycles.

Hillary Clinton’s nomination was inevitable until Barack Obama won the Iowa caucuses in 2008. Inevitability was Mitt Romney’s friend this year, until it started mocking him.

A headline in the Huffington Post on Jan. 17: “Mitt Romney’s nomination looks inevitable.” Five days later, Huff Po proclaimed, “Mitt Romney no longer inevitable.” This week, the site called him both “inevitable and unelectable.”

“The last thing you want is what Romney’s going through,” said a prominent Republican operative, who did not want to be quoted by name because of his association with a GOP candidate.

Without the caucuses, primaries and debates that give the GOP presidential race the back-and-forth of ping-pong, the dynamic of a Senate race is more deliberate, less volatile. A new phase begins Thursday, with the first of a series of campaign forums featuring all three Democrats.

Inevitability is fueled by quarterly financial reports, limited public polling and the careful doling out of endorsements, a game played by Murphy and Linda McMahon, the 2010 Republican nominee trying again in 2012. Former Rep. Chris Shays, R-4th District, is also seeking the Republican nomination.

McMahon’s campaign announced four rounds of endorsements in the past two weeks, the most recent from five Republican State Central Committee members Wednesday.

Not long after beginning his campaign, Murphy was endorsed by Connecticut’s other four members of the U.S. House delegation. A few days later, he was endorsed by Attorney General George Jepsen, Secretary of the State Denise Merrill and Comptroller Kevin Lembo.

In December, Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, seemed to signal national Democratic donors that Murphy was the anointed one.

“When we go out and talk to people in states, we look at who is the strongest candidate, who can win, who has the kind of support,” Murray said. “And in that state, Chris Murphy is a just a great candidate, and I expect him to win.”

Shays and McMahon are Murphy’s allies, in an odd way, in their treatment of him as the inevitable nominee. The two Republicans have largely ignored Tong and Bysiewicz, focusing their jabs at Murphy.

“I think the only brand we’re looking for is a grass-roots campaign that is designed to win,” said Ken Curran, Murphy’s campaign manager. “That’s what Chris did in his past elections, and that’s what he’s doing now.”

Curran said Murphy has no choice but to focus on McMahon now, even as he competes with Bysiewicz and Tong for the nomination. Given her independent wealth — McMahon spent $50 million of her own money on her campaign in 2010 — Murphy has to shape his general election message.

It doesn’t hurt, of course, that it also adds to the sense he is the inevitable nominee.

“It helps him, if he can build the case. It helps him raise money and get endorsements and support,” former U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons, R-2^nd District, said of Murphy. “At this stage in the game, I don’t see anybody else in the race who is presenting a reasonable alternative to Chris Murphy.”

Simmons knows firsthand the challenge of facing a candidate deemed inevitable. He was the front-runner for the GOP nomination in 2010, but McMahon’s money eventually made her seem unbeatable in a Republican primary.

Shays acknowledges that one of his challenges is to overcome the air of inevitability that some GOP activists see around McMahon’s nomination.

His refrain when seeking support is to convince Republicans that he is intent on a primary.

“The primary is on Tuesday, Aug. 14, and there will be a primary,” Shays said. “Whoever wins the convention, there will be a primary. The decision is not going to be made by party officials.”

George Gallo, strategist for the state House Republican caucus, campaign consultant and former GOP state chairman, said every candidate tries to establish “an air of inevitability, the air of confidence, the air of we are on the winning team.”

It can carry a risk.

“The negative side is it’s usually at the expense of the grass roots,” Gallo said. “You run the risk of being the establishment candidate. And being the establishment candidate in this day and age is not the good housekeeping seal of approval.”

And that is exactly the card the Bysiewicz campaign is playing.

“I definitely think he is setting himself up as the establishment figure,” Jonathan Ducote, her campaign manager, said of Murphy.

“Inevitability? Maybe, but it’s not something a lot of these Democratic Town Committees are pushing back on,” said Marc Bradley, the campaign manager for Tong. “Every time we go to these town committees, people are tired of the Wasington deal. This is a guy who has been down there for six years and hasn’t passed a bill.”

But Gallo said Murphy, who has a reputation as a grass-roots organizer, seems somewhat inoculated against the establishment rap, even though he has held elective office since he was 27, winning two terms in the state House, two in the state Senate and three in Congress.

“Murphy, he came up by being a grass-roots guy,” Gallo said. “He in many respects created two stories, two personal campaign stories, the insider and the hardworking grass-roots guy. Essentially, you’ve got two mints in one, and you hope voters buy both.”

Droney said Murphy seems well aware of the pitfalls of being seen as the inevitable nominee.

“You’ve got be inevitable without being obvious, inevitable without being arrogant, inevitable without being lazy, inevitable without being uninterested in other points of view,” Droney said. “There’s a whole list of dos and don’ts if you are going to play the inevitable card.”

Bysiewicz is clinging to her singular status in Connecticut politics: She is the only convention runner-up to win a statewide primary and then go on to be elected. In 1998, she lost the nomination for secretary of the state at the convention, then won a primary and the general election.

Curran said if others see Murphy as inevitable, it is a compliment: “If people are drawn to us as the strongest Democratic candidate, then we’re doing our job right.”

With Lieberman not seeking re-election, Bradley said, “The only thing that is inevitable in this race is that the people of Connecticut are going to have a new U.S. senator in November.”

This story originally appeared at www.CTMirror.org.

By Khalil Abdullah, New America Media

WASHINGTON, D.C.–The $25 billion home mortgage settlement announced this week will be especially important for ethnic families, said Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan, in a call-in press briefing Friday.

Acknowledging that the mortgage crisis has affected millions of Americans, “particularly African-American, Latino and other minority families who were targeted for predatory loans and other practices,” Donovan provided more details on the huge settlement between 49 state attorneys general and five of the largest mortgage servicing firms, which signed the deal. Only Oklahoma did not sign on.

Latinos, Blacks Lost Most Wealth

He estimated that Latinos lost “roughly two-thirds of their wealth in just the four years before President Obama set foot in the Oval Office.” African-Americans lost about half their wealth during the same period. He said he did not have the numbers of those eligible categorized by minority groups.

Donovan said the settlement “can’t undo the pain of this crisis simply by writing a check.” He also conceded that even if the settlement fulfills its objectives, will it not alone solve the mortgage crisis’s detrimental impact on the economy.

Rather, Donovan said, he saw the settlement as taking an important step on the “path toward stability for our housing market.” Other steps, he noted, are initiatives such as HUD’s Neighborhood Stabilization program and Project Rebuild, a $15 billion program he said would re-employ approximately 250,000 construction workers—if it need gets congressional approval.

Under the mortgage settlement, those who hold Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages are not covered. However, borrowers whose mortgages were handled by Ally Financial, Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo will have several options to seek reimbursements and the possibility of mortgage restructuring.

Donovan specifically addressed a provision in the settlement that he said has been misunderstood. He explained that about 750,000 borrowers, who were inappropriately charged servicing fees or whose paperwork was misplaced, will be eligible to receive between $1,500 and $2,000 each–without having to sue separaretly for the compensation.

However, contrary to some initial public reaction, he said, these payments, totaling $1.5 billion of the settlement, do not represent the full extent of direct financial compensation to those who lost their homes.

Donovan explained that full compensation will be available through a separate process. Additionally, because mortgage holders are forfeiting no legal rights under the settlement, consumers still have the option of taking their respective lender to court.

Mortgage Holders Can Renegotiate Principal

At the heart of the settlement is not only the money targeted for specific states or pruposes, such as to expand housing counseling services, but the opportunity for homeowners to negotiate with their lenders to reduce the principal amount their mortgage rate is based on.

This will help many whose houses are now “under water,” with mortgages more expensive than the post-recession value of their property, to remain in their homes.

Donovan said there will be incentives for the mortgage lenders built into the process. In addition, he continued, Bank of America, which acquired one of the most egregious predatory lenders, Countrywide, will be taking more extensive actions to redress loan delinquencies.

Military mortgage holders are also being extended options designed to fit their often unique circumstances. For instance, active duty personnel are frequently required to relocate when some are holding mortgages that exceed the value of their homes in a depressed market. Donovan said special benefits will be available to them.

In addition, Donovan said the Homeowner Bill of Rights, recently proposed by President Obama, would also go a long way to provide transparency for those seeking a mortgage.

“No more lost paperwork, no more run-arounds, no more excuses,” Donovan said.

The HUD Secretary said the settlement process will be overseen by an independent monitor with enforcement through the courts. He went on that the full details of the plan have yet to be determined, and he estimated that it will take about a month before eligible mortgage holders will begin to be contacted in an outreach process that will probably take between six and nine months.

In the meantime, Donovan said information on the settlement is available is now at www.mortgagesettlement.com.

It’s hard to remember now, with hip-hop so dominating the black music landscape, that there was a time when black female singers ruled the R&B charts.

Even before the ascent of Whitney Houston, legendary voices like Gladys Knight, Patti Labelle and Patti Austin scored huge hits. But when Houston made her debut in 1985 with her self-titled album, a new kind of star was born.

Houston was then a former “Seventeen” model with a significant musical legacy. Dionne Warwick is her cousin, and her mother, Cissy, was a respected session singer turned solo artist who was part of a group called The Sweet Inspirations. (It’s Cissy Houston’s voice that’s heard as part of the backgrounds on Aretha Franklin’s classic, “Ain’t No Way.”) Brought up in Newark, N.J., Houston showed talent early, but was brought along slowly by her mother, who wanted to ease her daughter into the business. But by the time Houston was a teenager, her voice was undeniable, and after a well-received performance at a NYC showcase, she signed to Clive Davis’ Arista Records.

At 22, Houston delivered on that precocious promise with her first CD and its hit “You Give Good Love.” The pop market embraced the young artist, whose voice, while trained in the black church, had more of a pristine tone than the traditional soul stylings of Houston’s R&B predecessors. In fact, while Houston quickly rolled out hit after hit, her mainstream success brought criticism in its wake.

Despite the strides of Motown, Stax and Chess Records, at the dawn of the 1980s, R&B music was still considered outside the pop realm. If a black artist could “cross over” – meaning attract an audience wider than their urban base – they could command greater record sales, bigger tours and more money.

Michael Jackson was the first artist to see this happen on a grand scale, singlehandedly creating an opening for blacks to go mainstream by becoming the first black artist to be played on the then-burgeoning music video channel, MTV. The rise of Prince and Madonna, as well as the groundbreaking multi-genre playlists of deejays like New York’s Frankie Crocker, would help more black artists cross over than ever before. Houston’s voice and look – wide-smiled and chisel-featured, slim with once-natural hair that was permed straight for her first album cover – made her the female artist that would most benefit from the change afoot in music.

The pop stardom that Beyonce, Rihanna and Jennifer Hudson take for granted now was ushered in on Whitney Houston’s multi-octave voice.

Houston reflected the ethos of the ’80s. It was the decade where Gordon Gekko declared “Greed is good” in the 1987 movie “Wall Street,” and Reaganomics instituted policies disastrous to the middle class. Crack began to flow through inner city streets and what black Americans wanted most, after the upheaval of the ’60s and ’70s, was to assimilate. Buppie aspirations – including earning Ivy League degrees and rising through the ranks in white companies – was the order of the day. Houston was a black artist who achieved similar goals through music, enriching herself and becoming famous outside the black realm by virtue of her pop voice and songs that traded soul for accessibility.

Black music fans felt that Houston’s pop success distanced her from the black community and criticized the singer for not following the black songbook of gospel-based R&B. While her celebrity gave her exalted status among African-Americans in the way that basketball star Michael Jordan’s did, like Jordan, she was seen as an artist interested more in assimilation than race loyalty. At Arista, Davis’ imaging of Houston purposely detached her from her gritty urban roots, deleting any obvious black music traditions out of her albums. Davis wanted her to achieve more lucrative pop stardom, not just to line his own pockets, but to make her a superstar not defined by race.

Houston’s success was the evolution of what Diana Ross hoped to achieve: True superstardom that transcended her skin color and background. Both of Ross’ hit movies – 1972′s “Lady Sings the Blues” and 1975′s “Mahogany” – contained her within the black community as the love interest of then-popular black heartthrob Billy Dee Williams (the Denzel Washington of his day), and in “The Wiz,” she starred with an all-black cast. Compare that to Houston’s hit movies.

While 1995′s “Waiting to Exhale” did surround her with black actors and actresses, her big box office hit was “The Bodyguard,” three years earlier, a movie in which she starred with Kevin Costner, then one of Hollywood’s biggest white stars. “I Will Always Love You,” which broke chart records and became Houston’s signature song from the movie’s multi-platinum soundtrack, was originally a country release written by Dolly Parton.

Houston’s aspirations – along with those of black America – lasted through the ’80s, but the ’90s came in on the winds of hip-hop, changing the music and the mindset of black culture. Now, entrepreneurs were making millions off music that had its genesis in America’s inner cities and their graphic struggles. Now, you needed street cred instead of bourgie connections. Even the long-held conservatism of HBCU’s adjusted in light of this new black America as college students began to shake off strictures of dress and behavior that had once been desired symbols of the upwardly mobile.

As technology joined this dramatic change in music, voices like Houston’s were no longer in the forefront. Auto-Tune and dominant production made it possible for someone who could carry a tune and look good to develop a career based on catchy, shrewdly-packaged and promoted hits, not vocal prowess. As black America found its inner-city blues, it became less interested in the status quo, instead looking to craft its own view of success based on entrepreneurship and savvy more than education and corporate achievement.

By the late ’90s, personal turmoil derailed both Houston’s career – and her stellar voice. Drug abuse was suspected, then confirmed. As Houston’s life reflected the downside of celebrity and success, so did the world around her as a 24-hour news cycle, the Internet and the emergence of Facebook, Twitter and reality TV gave license to a the complete erosion of privacy.

As Houston’s voice diminished from the national scene she once dominated, so did the middle-class aspirations of black America. From the wealth of hip-hop’s ascendancy in the ’90s and 2000s came the reality that for most of the rest of the population, the stepping stones of black aspiration, like Houston’s voice, was being eroded. A persistent recession blocked access to the education and employment that generations of black folks looked to to support their reach into the middle and upper-middle class.

Like black America itself, Houston may have fallen victim to sheer excess. In our post-racial, post-buppie world, where is the love? As a people, our constant need to strive and acquire has impeded our ability to care for one another. We looked on as Houston self-destructed, although what we could have done for her remains elusive. In the end, the outpouring of love she’s now receiving was likely what she yearned for in life – just to know that she was really valued and loved.

As for the black America that she left behind, still reeling from the deaths of other beloved luminaries such as Heavy D, Don Cornelius and Etta James, we can only wonder who we turn to now.

Should we cling to the bourgie trappings of success we once valued and the education, focus and drive they required or to the hip-hop sensibility of constant hustle that we now must be able to admit is burning us out and placing more value on the acquisition of things than on the caretaking of souls?

It’s impossible to say if Houston’s life and death will lend itself to more than the public mourning on Facebook and Twitter that has been the response to the deaths before hers. Grief has now been relegated to social media – a tweet here, a post there, and then back to reality.

But it’s time we looked at the fact that all over black America there are people – whether celebrities or not – that are hurting and trying to block their pain with food, drugs, sex, prescription medications and constant work. If we don’t, we might as well get ready for the next round of mourning that could hit even closer to home.

As Houston so beautifully sang, “The greatest love of all is inside of me.” But let’s be real. No one can find that by themselves.

By Keith M. Phaneuf

HARTFORD — More than 70,000 Connecticut households took advantage of a new tax credit for the working poor during just the first month of state income tax filings, according to the Department of Revenue Services.

The claims filed under the new state Earned Income Tax Credit were hailed both by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s administration and a leading private, nonprofit anti-poverty group as evidence of the new program’s necessity as well as its success.

“Higher than anticipated EITC applications show just how hard hit these families were during the recession,” Malloy said late last week.

The 70,000 households that have claimed the credit to date have qualified for approximately $49.3 million to date, according to the administration.

“This is good public policy and helping rebuild our middle class,” said Liz Dupont-Diehl, policy director for the Connecticut Association for Human Services. “We are delighted that the word is getting out about the EITC, and we’re glad Governor Malloy recognizes the power of more money in the hands of working people to stimulate the economy.  Even beyond the immediate benefit of families spending their EITC returns in their local communities is the fact that they are able to build a base for family economic success.”

Malloy and the General Assembly established the state credit last May effective in the 2011 tax year. But the first tax returns taking advantage of that credit could not be filed until January.

The new state credit is available to households eligible for the federal EITC, and is equal to 30 percent of the value of the federal credit.

Technically families earning up to $49,000 per year can qualify for a federal Earned Income Tax Credit, depending on the number of children they have. But most EITC recipients earn less than $20,000.

The average federal EITC claimed by Connecticut families over the past three years is about $1,800. Based on that number, the average state EITC — had it existed during that time — would have been $540.

Combined with the federal EITC, the maximum payment a Connecticut family can receive is $7,476.

About 190,000 Connecticut households claimed the federal EITC in 2010, and the association is projecting that more than 200,000 households will be eligible to claim both a federal and state credit on their 2011 tax returns.

The legislature’s nonpartisan Office of Fiscal Analysis estimated last spring that the state credit would cost state government $110 million this fiscal year. It was unclear Monday if the January claims would alter that projection. The deadline for filing state income tax returns for the 2011 tax year is April 15.

Though the earned income tax credit’s main purpose is to help poor families save more, advocates say a significant portion is spent on groceries, clothing and other basic needs — thereby stimulating the local economy.

“We believe it is already making a difference in residents’ lives,” Malloy said. “At the same time, it’s a real reinvestment in the state’s consumer economy.”

The Connecticut Association of Human Services is coordinating an outreach campaign to steer needy households to free tax preparation services also run by nonprofits.

The association manages a referral list of more than 40 nonprofits that provide free tax preparation services for families with annual incomes below $50,000, which would cover all EITC-eligible households, Jim Horan, the group’s executive director, said. The Infoline service run by the United Way of Connecticut, which can be accessed by dialing 2-1-1, also can refer poor families to free tax preparation services.

HARTFORD — Did you know that African-American and West Indian men from Hartford were among the 106 Tuskegee Airmen? Actually, there was one woman.

Yep. A few of them are still alive–and still in Hartford! But you rarely, if at all, hear anything about these people in Connecticut.

You would think a state that has these historical gems alive would want to celebrate this aspect of American history.

Well, someone thought it was worth celebrating. Councilman Kyle Anderson, with the help of the John E. Rogers African-American Cultural Center, has sponsored an exhibit of these local and national heroes.

The exhibit is now at City Hall and will be there throughout February.

Go!

Tuskegee Airmen Exhibit

City Hall

550 Main St.

Hartford, CT

WATCH: TUSKEE AIRMEN VISIT WHITE HOUSE

President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama invited a group of American heroes to the White House for a very special movie night. The guests were retired Tuskegee Airmen, the African American veterans who overcame segregation and prejudice to become one of the most highly respected fighter groups of World War II, and whose achievements paved the way for full integration of the U.S. military.

The movie was “Red Tails”, a new film that tells the Tuskegee story. “Red Tails”was produced by George Lucas, directed by Anthony Hemingway and stars Cuba Gooding Jr., who all joined the President, the First Lady and the Airmen for the screening in the White House theater.

By Mark Pazniokas

On the eve of his second State of the State address, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy refused to go off-message, even if the topic was a favorable poll from a surprising source: a conservative think tank that often criticizes the Democratic governor.

“I don’t want to talk about polls,” Malloy said. “We don’t comment on polls.”

Not even a poll that shows him with a majority approving his job as governor? In poll speak, Malloy finally is above water: 51 percent approve and 46 percent disapprove of his 13 eventful months as Connecticut’s 88^th governor.

The poll commissioned by the Yankee Institute for Public Policy showed a net improvement of 19 percentage points from the end of his first session in June, when his approve/disapprove numbers were 42 percent to 56 percent.

He essentially is back where he was a year ago, when Yankee had him at 50 percent to 46 percent.

“I will say this, that we have traversed a tremendous amount of territory in the last 13 months, going from a state where we had the largest per-capita deficit in the nation to a point where we establish our means and live within them,” he said.

Malloy intends to reinforce that message Wednesday.

He seldom falters when it comes to message discipline. It is a trait on display Tuesday during a press conference explaining another of his planned education reforms, and it will be evident Wednesday in his State of the State.

He waved off questions about House Speaker Christopher G. Donovan’s call for boosting the minimum wage by $1.50 in two steps, which could give Connecticut the highest minimum wage in the nation.

“I’m just trying not to be dragged into every conversation that is out there,” Malloy said.

He has abandoned thoughts of proposing a major expansion of legalized gambling, an idea that was met with legislative opposition as he floated several trial balloons.

Malloy told reporters Dec. 28 that the Connecticut Lottery was exploring Keno, an electronic drawing game that other states allow in bars, restaurants and Keno parlors. ”I think the Lottery wants to look at Keno,” Malloy said then. “It certainly has to be one of the things on the table.”

On the eve of his speech, it is off the table — a potential distraction gone.

His State of the State will reinforce the story he has told time and again: Dannel P. Malloy, the first Democratic governor in 20 years, has stabilized the state’s finances by managing for the long-term.

“I have said this from day one: I manage for long-term results, hoping there is a short-term by-product, and we’re going to continue to manage on a long-term basis,” Malloy said.

He intends to defend the difficult fiscal choices made in his first year, then pivot to the priority he set last summer: education reform. His discussion of fiscal policy may take longer than anticipated in the summer.

Despite a $1.5 billion tax increase, the state’s finances hover somewhere between deficit and surplus. Based on recent revenue estimates, Malloy will have to be diligent to end the year in the black.

Malloy said the continued fiscal challenges have not forced him to curtail his ambitions for education reform. On Tuesday, he folded his arms and smiled when his education commissioner, Stefan Pryor, talked about making Connecticut a national player in education.

“Education reform, a package will be adopted this year,” Malloy said. “The full impact of that package will not be understood for years, several years, to come. We manage for long-term results, not short-term results.”

It is a message Malloy has repeated since taking the oath of office 13 months ago. It was one he repeated three times on Tuesday.

“I didn’t manage for short-term results when I was the mayor for 14 years. I’m not going to switch and manage for short-term results as governor,” Malloy said. “I’m going to do what I think is the right thing to do, whether it’s popular or not, to try to move the state forward.”

According to the Yankee Institute, it is popular in his second February as governor with precisely 51 percent of voters.

The Yankee telephone poll of 500 likely voters was conducted Feb. 1 and 2 by Pulse Opinion Research. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.
This story originally appeared at www.CTMirror.org.

By Jessica González-Rojas, New America Media Commentary

NEW YORK–When I was 16, a health educator came to my high-school gym class, corralled the girls in the locker room and talked about breast health.

My experience that day proved fateful for me, and those memories came back this week with the unsettling news that the Susan G. Komen Foundation would end its support of Planned Parenthood clinics. The foundation then recanted that decision on Friday, a victory for thousands of women who rely on Planned Parenthood for breast cancer screenings.

The news of the Komen Foundation’s reversal draws attention to the underlying issue—the need for widespread access to breast cancer screening, especially by low-income women.

“My Heart Sank”

That day in school, we learned how to do a breast self-exam, and the health educator made us practice on the spot. When I asked about a hard knot I found in my right breast, she examined it briefly and said, “You should see a doctor.” My heart sank—could this be breast cancer? I am too young!

As a young Latina whose mother was a secretary with union benefits at a New York City hospital, I had access to premier health care. I quickly saw a doctor who was alarmed by the size of the lump, and before I knew it, I was laying on an operating table.

The surgeon removed a fibrocystic nodule from my right breast and, after a biopsy, I was relieved to learn it was benign. Thanks to very early detection, my breasts are healthy, and I am cancer-free.

As I look down on the scar on my right breast every day, I am thankful I had the education and the access to health care to remove the lump before it was too late. However, this is not the reality for most Latinas.

Latinas face some of the most serious challenges to accessing preventative health care, with potentially deadly results. Research conducted at the University of Louisville revealed that they are 20 percent more likely to die from breast cancer than white women, illustrating the dismaying health disparities that continue to plague Latinas.

Breast exams are therefore a particularly important aspect of preventative care for Latina women.

That’s why we at the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health (NLIRH) were so alarmed to learn early this week that the Susan G. Komen Foundation had succumbed to anti-choice pressure and halted funding of Planned Parenthood’s breast-cancer prevention programs.

Free or low-cost clinical breast exams offered by providers such as Planned Parenthood are often the only health care services available to Latinas, and to low-income and ethnic women in general.

Latinas Twice as Likely to Die

Not only are Latinas more likely to die from breast cancer, but they are also twice as likely to be without health insurance. Nearly 40 percent of Latinas have no health insurance, while nearly 17 percent of white women are uninsured.

Breast-cancer screening rates for Hispanic women are also lower than for whites—69.7 percent compared to 72.7 percent—according to a recent study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That difference may seem small, but each percentage point represents many lives.
On Friday, the Komen Foundation rightly reversed course and announced it would continue to provide funds to Planned Parenthood health centers.

With Komen funds, those centers have provided more than 170,000 breast-cancer screenings in the past five years. These funds will continue to support preventative care for thousands of the most vulnerable women across the United States, offered through the health centers they trust.

While the rate of breast cancer among Latinas is alarming, we are not sitting idly by. NLIRH recently launched its “¡Soy Poderosa!/I am Powerful!” campaign, which provides opportunities for the Latina community to organize and amplify our voices through nationwide civic engagement in 2012.

All women deserve access to breast-cancer screening services, and collectively we must be proactive in tearing down the barriers to care.

NLIRH continues to encourage Latinas to be powerful, as well as to seek preventative care and regular cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood or other health centers. Taking those steps could be lifesaving–I can personally attest to that.

Jessica González-Rojas is the executive director of the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, based in New York City, the only national organization working on behalf of the reproductive health and justice of the 20 million Latinas, their families and communities in the United States.

A few days before the release of The Best of Soul Train DVD set Soul Train founder, creator and impresario Don Cornelius was asked what it was that made Soul Train the hit that was. Cornelius didn’t hesitate, “That was the period when soul music grew up.”

Cornelius could have added one more thing to his on-point observation for the reason for the show’s success. It was also the music that I, and many other blacks, grew up with. It was virtually a black household ritual to do one of two things when Saturday rolled around and it was Soul Train time. One was to sway, swoon, and sing the lyrics belted out by the parade of R&B legends and top hit artists, Curtis Mayfield, James Brown, Smokey Robinson, Gladys Knight, the Jackson Five, Stevie Wonder, and the Four Tops who regularly turned up on the show.

The other ritual was to dance, or more likely stumble around the living room, trying to do our best imitation of the latest dance steps displayed by the show’s perpetual motion gyrating couples. Then there was the signature Soul Train circle dance line. Then and now there isn’t a party, dance, or social that you can go to without a group of partygoers breaking into the Soul Traincircle line. Even if you had two left feet, the spontaneity, gaiety, joy, and liberating feeling, that you got from strutting your stuff, or just making a fool of yourself as you paraded down the center of the circle line was irresistible and infectious.

But it wasn’t all song and dance on Soul Train. To drive home the point that this was a unique product of the African-American experience Cornelius managed to slip into the show’s format, the “Soul Train Scramble Board.” Two dancers had sixty seconds to unscramble a set of letters, which was not limited to trying to figure out the name of that show’s performer but also a famed African-American historical figure. The man really knew how to educate an audience on our history literally without missing a beat.

It didn’t take long for the ritual watch and imitate Soul Train groove that gripped black America to become America’s ritual. Cornelius observed “Record stores were cropping up and Motown emerged to allow the music to cross over to the point where all cultures were listening to soul music.” That cross over was due to Soul Train. It made black music and dance not only respectable but virtually mandatory for non-black kids and adults to watch and try to imitate. TheSoul Train happy time infection spread everywhere. It was just simply too much pure unadulterated fun to watch, sing and dance along with the couples on the show that seemed to render race for the moment a non sequitur.

The operative word though is “seemed” because underneath the universal popularity of Soul Train, the show was an unvarnished testament to the historic role that music and dance has played to provide comfort, relief, escape, and the sense of personal freedom for generations of blacks, young and old. Soul Train captured in all its naked and raw beauty and energy the sound and fury of black cultural life. That life no matter how harsh the discrimination and conditions that blacks faced could not be snatched away.

Soul Train accomplished one other feat that’s considered a rarity in pop culture. It transcended it. It became both a musical and a social phenomenon. This added to its appeal, cross over and otherwise, and its staying power. The popular artists that appeared on the show would come and go. The dance styles would change. The outlandish fashions on garish display would change. The outrageous high Afros of the times would disappear.

Yet Soul Train always managed to stay fresh, alluring and project the unmistakable magnetism of black dance, song, and art. This is why only a scant five years after the last Soul Train episode was seen in 2006, the Smithsonian Museum will be the repository of some the show’s memorabilia.

This almost certainly won’t be the last stop for Soul Train. The tributes, accolades, remembrances, and interviews with the principals will continue for years to come. It could be no other way for a series that was the complete musical and cultural package when it came to not only showcasing the art and artistry of black America. And equally important, it made that art and artistry an integral part of America.

Cornelius’s stock ending to each show was “As always in parting, we wish you love peace, and Soul.” Forget the parting part, the soul that Soul Train so embodied was America’s train. And that train will never part the station.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst, and host of the weekly Hutchinson Report Newsmaker Hour on KTYM Radio Los Angeles. Follow Earl Ofari Hutchinson on Twitter: http://twitter.com/earlhutchinson

HARTFORD — The leading cause of death among women over 40 is heart disease, according the health experts.

In an effort to create awareness among Greater Hartford residents, Hartford will host an event for Heart Disease Month and the GO RED for Women Campaign.

The City of Hartford Health and Human Services Department, in collaboration with St. Francis Hospital Phillips Women’s Heart Program, will offer free health screenings and educational sessions for women.

The event will be from 9 a.m. to noon on Feb. 3, at the Burgdorf Clinic Lobby, 131 Coventry Street. Blood pressure, blood sugar, BMI (Body Mass Index) and cholesterol screenings will be provided.

Diet, lack of exercise, gender, smoking, obesity and family history are all risk factors associated with heart disease. Learning about the early signs of heart disease and how to help prevent serious complications are very important, experts say.

According to the American Heart Association, cardiovascular (heart) disease ranks first among all disease categories in hospital discharges for women. Nearly 37 percent of all female deaths in America occur from cardiovascular disease, including stroke. Moreover, the death rate due to cardiovascular disease is substantially higher in Black and Latina women than in White women.

Heart attacks can be a silent killer, as many women are unaware that they have severe heart disease. By checking current heart status and beginning the process of maintaining a healthy heart, women can positively impact the incidents of heart disease.

The event is open to all women who live and work in the city.