A Healthy Collaboration to Improve Children’s Health

Ed. Note: This blog is cross-posted from the Environmental Protection Agency.

When we travel to cities and communities large and small, we see first-hand the direct link between a healthy environment and healthy lives, especially for our country’s children. But as we observe Hispanic Heritage Month, it’s worth remembering that too many of our children, especially in minority communities, live in unhealthy environments that lead to unhealthy lives.

Scientific studies show that minority children who live, learn, and play in low-income communities are at a greater risk of environmental health problems such as asthma, lead poisoning, pesticides exposure, among others.

In 2009, approximately 70 percent of Hispanic children lived where air quality standards were subpar, contributing to higher incidences of asthma and other respiratory diseases. In fact, Puerto Rican American children have among the highest levels of reported current asthma as compared to all other racial and ethnicity groups. In the United States, nearly 1 in 10 school-aged children live with asthma every day, those most affected live in lower-income communities of color.

These health disparities are more than just hospital visits and more medicine. They also mean more missed school days, and a higher incidence of obesity due to less exercise.

That’s why improving children’s health and fighting for environmental justice are critical to the work we do. And that’s why we’re proud that EPA and the National Hispanic Medical Association (NHMA) have collaborated with federal, state, and community partners to increase awareness on key environmental health issues, particularly among the most vulnerable minority populations.

Just last year, EPA and the NHMA actively participated in President Obama’s Task Force on Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks to Children, which launched the Coordinated Federal Action Plan to reduce racial and ethnic asthma disparities. This plan now provides a framework for federal agencies with measurable goals and outcomes to enhance environmental health among our nation’s children in partnership with our healthcare professionals.

Another key way to fight health disparities is increasing access to quality health care. The Affordable Care Act will help by connecting people to high-quality, affordable health insurance through the new Health Insurance Marketplace, Medicaid expansion, and consumer protections like prohibiting discrimination on the basis of pre-existing conditions, such as diabetes or asthma that disproportionately affect minority communities.

But if we are serious about addressing large scale public health disparities, especially for our children—we must be serious about reducing carbon pollution and fighting climate change.

Climate change is more about extreme weather. It’s also about children’s health. It’s about clean, healthy air they breathe. The carbon pollution that fuels climate change brings about hotter weather—worsening levels of pollen and smog and leading to longer allergy seasons and increased heat-related deaths, especially for children.

The urgency to act on climate change couldn’t be clearer. That’s why we’re proud to follow President Obama’s leadership to bring communities together so we can take simple steps at home and in our neighborhoods to reduce the adverse impact of a changing climate and do right by our children.

As we travel the country, we see that a healthy environment means healthy children. And as we observe the end of Hispanic Heritage Month, it’s our promise to the American people to continue fighting for cleaner water, cleaner air, and stronger public health standards for all of our children and families—regardless of who they are, where they come from, or where they live.

Gina McCarthy is the Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Dr. Elena Rios serves as President & CEO of the National Hispanic Medical Association, (NHMA), representing 45,000 Hispanic physicians in the United States. She also serves as President of NHMA’s National Hispanic Health Foundation affiliated with the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, New York University, to direct educational and research activities.

Commemorating the Fourth Anniversary of the Shepard-Byrd Hate Crime Prevention Act

Ed. Note: This blog is cross-posted from the U.S. Department of Justice

“Using new tools and authorities, including the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, we’ve improved our ability to safeguard our civil rights and pursue justice for those who are victimized because of their gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. We will continue working to guarantee that – in our workplaces and military bases; in our housing and lending markets; in our schools and places of worship; in our immigrant communities and our voting booths – the rights of all Americans are protected.” - Attorney General Eric Holder testifying before Congress May 15, 2013
 

In 1998, Matthew Shepard— a 21 year old student at the University of Wyoming was robbed, tortured, tied to a fence along a country road and left to die by two men who offered him a ride home from a local bar.

That same year, James Byrd Jr.—a 49-year-old African-American man living in Jasper, Texas—also accepted a ride home from three men. They drove him to the remote edge of town where they beat him severely, tied him by the ankles to the back of a pickup truck, and dragged him to his death.

The investigation into Matthew Shepard’s death found strong evidence that his attackers targeted him because he was gay. In the case of James Byrd Jr., the three men responsible for his killing were well-known white supremacists. His brutal murder stands as one of the most nightmarish recent incidents of racially motivated violence.

But while the men responsible for the Shepard and Byrd killings were later convicted of murder, none of them were prosecuted for committing a hate crime. At the time these murders were committed, neither Wyoming nor Texas had a hate crimes law, and existing federal hate crimes protections did not include violent acts based on the victim’s sexual orientation and only covered racial violence against those engaged in a federally protected activity, such as voting or attending school.

Four years ago today, President Barack Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crime Prevention Act. This landmark legislation, championed by the late Senator Ted Kennedy, greatly expanded the federal government’s ability to prosecute hate crimes.

The law enables the Justice Department to prosecute crimes motivated by race, color, religion and national origin without having to show that the defendant was engaged in a federally protected activity. The Shepard-Byrd Act also empowers the department to prosecute crimes committed because of a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity, gender or disability as hate crimes.

The law also marked the first time that the words, “lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender” appeared in the U.S. Code.

Under the leadership of Attorney General Holder, the Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division and U.S. Attorney’s Offices around the country have used the law to address the most serious hate crimes. Over the last four years, 44 people in 16 states have been convicted under the Shepard-Byrd Act for their discrimination and crimes against others on the basis of race, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.

Just this month, the Civil Rights Division brought federal hate crimes charges against two Latino men associated with the Compton 155 street gang in California. These men attacked a 17-year-old African-American who was walking down a street in the city of Compton—striking him in the head with a metal pipe—and pointed a gun at another African-American juvenile who was present. Both attackers admitted their actions were substantially motivated by race and color.

Earlier this year, a Justice Department investigation and prosecution in response to the beating of an Atlanta man resulted in the first conviction in Georgia under the sexual orientation provision of the Shepard-Byrd Act. In this case, two men pleaded guilty to assaulting a 20-year-old gay man as he left a grocery store in Atlanta’s Pittsburgh neighborhood. Video footage of the incident showed not only physical violence but also the use of anti-gay epithets. The two men were sentenced to serve 10 months in prison on federal hate crimes charges as well as five years on state charges for aggravated assault, robbery by force, and theft by receiving stolen property and obstruction.

In addition to these enforcement efforts, the Civil Rights Division has held trainings for thousands of law enforcement officials – federal, state and local – to ensure that first responders to an assault or other act of violence know what questions to ask and what evidence to gather at the scene to allow prosecutors to make an informed assessment of whether a case should be prosecuted as a hate crime.

Four years after the passage of the Shepard-Byrd Act, and more than a decade after the brutal murders of the men for whom it was named, prosecuting hate crimes remains a top priority for the President, the Attorney General and the Civil Rights Division.

Jocelyn Samuels is Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice.

In Honor of an Inspiring Group of Volunteers

Ginny was recognized as a White House Champion of Change in Community Resilience and Preparedness. 

Being selected as a White House Champion for Change is deeply humbling and a true honor, but it is impossible for me to accept this award without acknowledging the dedicated and inspiring people I am privileged to work with throughout the entire state of Texas. The nature and demands of community preparedness require a strong team of individuals who work together to ensure the safety of our communities, cities, regions and states when disaster strikes.

These individuals all come together to assist elected officials, community leaders and first responders whenever they are needed. Throughout the past eight years, I have had the privilege of working with a team of these dedicated volunteers and emergency preparedness professionals through the Texas Citizen Corps Program. It is on behalf of these dedicated individuals that I accept this award.

In my professional capacity, I work with 24 regional councils representing 254 counties and more than 268,000 square miles collaborating to enhance service and program delivery across the state of Texas. Due to her size, topography, diverse population and vast geography, coordinating effective and efficient programs and services can present a unique set of challenges. As a solution, Texas adopted a regional approach for preparing communities utilizing 24 regional councils of government—voluntary associations of local governments formed under Texas law to assess problems, planning needs, and the coordination of services that cross the boundaries of individual communities.

In Texas, Citizen Corps is one of the regional programs assisting communities to plan and prepare for disasters together to make their families, homes, and communities safer. The program is comprised of unbelievably dedicated and selfless individuals all with a heart to serve their neighbors. The members of Texas Citizen Corps are volunteers of all skill levels and backgrounds who come together to provide support to local fire departments, law enforcement officials, emergency medical service providers, and any community public health needs that may arise. Together we have faced wide-ranging threats of natural and mad-made events including: hurricanes, winter storms, significant flooding events, tornadoes, devastating wildfires, droughts, sand storms, extreme heat, and manmade hazards such as the recent events in West, Texas and Citizen Corps teams have been an integral part of community resilience.

The importance of communities coming together to create a plan for, respond to, and recover from any event affecting a group of people in a safe and organized manner cannot be underestimated. It is for precisely this reason that I feel so honored to work with a team whose mission is to assist regions and communities with those efforts.

To those volunteers who give tirelessly of themselves at the call of your communities, this award belongs to you. I hope you will accept my most sincere gratitude for standing by the citizens of Texas and this great nation in times of need. It is impossible to express how truly blessed we are by your willingness to serve.

Ginny Lewis is the Associate Director and General Counsel for the Texas Association of Regional Councils in Austin, Texas (TARC).