Commentary

COMMENTARY: We must approach ending Alzheimer’s with the urgency it deserves

LOS ANGELES SENTINEL — This week, thousands of researchers, scientists, clinicians, advocates, and concerned Angelenos convened at the Los Angeles Convention Center to discuss one of the most urgent health crises of our time: eradicating Alzheimer’s disease and all forms of dementia.

Published

7 years ago

July 28, 2019

Oakland Post

By Congresswoman Maxine Waters

This week, thousands of researchers, scientists, clinicians, advocates, and concerned Angelenos convened at the Los Angeles Convention Center to discuss one of the most urgent health crises of our time: eradicating Alzheimer’s disease and all forms of dementia.

Each year, the Annual Alzheimer’s International Conference (AAIC), serves as the world’s largest week-long summit that is dedicated to discussing the latest scientific breakthroughs and innovation that will improve our ability to detect, treat, and ultimately, find a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. As I walked the halls of the AAIC, I was so pleased to learn about scientific advancements, such as the possibility of a new test to determine an individual’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s and new research suggesting that healthy lifestyle choices – including a healthy diet, exercise, and cognitive stimulation – can significantly reduce the risk of dementia. These breakthroughs will save lives and help us advance our mission of stopping Alzheimer’s disease in its dangerous tracks.

As the Co-Chair of the bipartisan Congressional Task Force on Alzheimer’s Disease, I have been engaged in this fight for many years and know all too well how devastating this disease can be for patients, families, and caregivers. There is currently no effective treatment, no means of prevention, and no method for slowing the progression of the Alzheimer’s disease, which affects 670,000 people over the age of 65 in California alone.[1] More than 5.6 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s, and by the year 2050 that number will have more than doubled.[2]

I led a years-long effort in the House to create the first ever Alzheimer’s semipostal fundraising stamp, which was formally accepted by the U.S. Postal Service in November 2017. The stamp has already raised $915,000 for Alzheimer’s, and more than 6.7 million stamps have been sold.[3] I am also proud to have joined with my colleagues to increase funding for Alzheimer’s research at the National Institutes of Health to a historic total of $2.3 billion in fiscal year 2019. Moreover, when I called for an additional $350 million in 2020, 129 of my congressional colleagues, representing both political parties, supported my request. While meeting with scientists at the AAIC, I was especially gratified to see that the increases in research funding for which I have fought so hard are being put to good use.

However, research – while critical – is not enough. As we search for a cure for Alzheimer’s, we must simultaneously pursue commonsense measures that support caregivers and ensure that patients have access to the resources and funding they need to fight this tragic disease.

For the past decade, I have also led efforts in Congress to expand funding for the Missing Alzheimer’s Patient Alert Program, which helps local law enforcement officials find persons with Alzheimer’s who wander and reunite them with their families. Congress also passed the BOLD Infrastructure for Alzheimer’s Act, which provides for the development of a robust Alzheimer’s public health infrastructure across the country by establishing Alzheimer’s Centers of Excellence. The BOLD Act’s interventions will support early detection and diagnosis, reduce the risk of hospitalizations and cognitive decline, support caregivers, and reduce health disparities – but only if the law is fully funded – and Congress has yet to provide the funding.

Confronting the many challenges of Alzheimer’s disease requires a comprehensive approach. I am pleased that Congress is beginning to take this issue seriously, but it is past time for all legislative bodies, at the state, local, and federal level, to join in this fight. As a country and a global society, we must approach Alzheimer’s disease with the urgency it deserves. Our futures and those of our loved ones are depending upon it.

Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), Chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee and Co-Chair of the Congressional Task Force on Alzheimer’s Disease

The article was originally published online by the Southern California News Group

This article originally appeared in the Los Angeles Sentinel.

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Arts and Culture

COMMENTARY: Black Music is the Sound of Black Freedom: Let Us Reclaim Both This Juneteenth

Black Music Month started when Black Music Association members Ed Wright, Kenny Gamble and his wife, journalist and radio host Dyanna Williams were able to persuade President Jimmy Carter to establish the observation on June 7, 1979.

Published

17 hours ago

June 9, 2026

Oakland Post

Robert Johnson (1911-1938) is thought of as the godfather of blues music, especially Delta blues. The 29 songs recorded by him during his short life have been of massive inspiration to guitarists and musicians over the last 80 years. Public domain photo.

By Wanda Ravernell

Black Music Month and Juneteenth are inextricably linked – Black music is the sound of our freedom.

From the plaintive moans of the enslaved Africans’ ‘sorrow songs,’ to the fields of Civil War battle where Black soldiers picked up abandoned bugles, to the upright piano played in juke joints on Saturday night and churches come Sunday morning, our ancestors’ innovation in the face of want, fear, degradation, and hopelessness has yielded genres of music imitated ’round the world.

In 2000, Congress made it official. In 2009, Pres. Barack Obama changed the name to African American Music Heritage Month and in 2023, Pres. Joe Biden changed it back to Black Music Month, two years after he declared Juneteenth a national holiday, the result of a movement led by Opal Lee.

Our ancestors battle for freedom over these last 400 years and the music that allowed them expression of their humanity deserved to be honored.

But we may be losing sight of the value of their sacrifices.

‘Sing a Song Full of the Faith That the Dark past Has Taught Us…’

Along with the long-known exploitation of Black musicians whose recordings were stolen by record companies, the commercialization of Juneteenth feels like another kind of theft.

I had never heard of Juneteenth until I moved to the Bay Area from my hometown of Philadelphia. I didn’t know it was one of many freedom festivals celebrated by descendants of enslaved people in the United States.

Emancipation Day was Jan. 1 in Pennsylvania, April 16 in Wash., D.C., May 20 in Florida, and Aug. 8 in Kentucky. But Juneteenth, June 19, has the most renown, known in Texas as the ‘colored peoples’ Fourth of July.’

It was marked by parades, beauty pageants, rodeos, backyard barbecues and church picnics.

Yes, church.

The formerly enslaved began the day praying in thanks for their freedom just as they had prayed for Jubilee – the day of freedom – when they had chains on their feet and hands. They ‘testified’ about their past suffering and how they had managed to overcome.

And they sang.

Although, we will not hold it this year, Omnira Institute’s Juneteenth Ritual of Remembrance recalled this part of Juneteenth with prayers in the languages of the African captives. In the middle of the ceremony, a soloist would lead us in singing “Many Thousand Gone” while we took turns reciting portions of the Emancipation Proclamation, the news of freedom that took more than two years to reach Texas – two months after the Civil War ended.

“Many Thousand Gone” was famously recorded by Black luminary Paul Robeson in 1947:

“No more auction block for me,

No more, no more

No more auction black for me

Many thousand gone.”

Other verses refer to the ‘pint of salt’ and the ‘driver’s lash,’ the realities of enslavement that they had survived.

‘Sing a Song Full of the Hope That the Present has Brought Us’

All of the genres of African American music have at their root songs like that, the essence being, as Stevie Wonder, wrote, “the joy inside our pain.” So Black music is not just music. It is our story, our history, our very strength.

During the Civil Rights Movement, which peaked 100 years after slavery ended, the people testified that it was the freedom songs – based on spirituals – that gave them the heart to march, face attack dogs, fire hoses, beatings, and shootouts with vigilantes.

The music reminded them that power was in the people. That music, our music, can do so again. We don’t have to accept the commodification of the products of our culture.

The power of those songs is showing a resurgence across the South as we battle again for the right to self-determination through the ballot box.

Those songs are the voices of our ancestors, voices forged in their blood, their sweat, their tears, joy and, above all, faith. Those songs, those prayers live in our blood and our very breath.

This Juneteenth, let us reclaim those holy voices expressed in Black music for ourselves. It is our birthright. It can neither be bought nor sold. No more. Never again.

Wanda Ravernell is the executive director of Omnira Institute, sponsor for 18 years of the Juneteenth Ritual of Remembrance and Oakland’s 11^th Annual Black-Eyed Pea Festival, which will take place on Sept. 12.