Check Your Blood Pressure, Before It Checks YOU!

(image courtesy of Google images)

Recently, someone close to me revealed his fight with Hypertension. In light of recent media reports regarding deadly Staph Infections and other maladies, it's easy to forget about Hypertension. But we shouldn't forget it, as it predominantly affects the black community in an adverse way.

Brian has had this "1000lb gorilla"(as he refers to Hypertension) riding his back, for over 10 years now.
Today, you or someone you know is fighting this same fight. I have at least 3 people in my family, and the youngest was diagnosed in her early 20's.

Please take the time to scroll down and read Brian's story below (look at the statistics!) and offer words of encouragement to him on his blog Brian's blog.
He's one of us, and I'm sure he'd appreciate the love & edification.

MY PRIVATE BATTLE!

Hello World!

Instead of writing about the "going on's" of my life, I decided to touch on an illness that I suffer with that is known as the "silent killer", High Blood Pressure.

I equate having High Blood Pressure with having a 1000 pound gorilla riding your back. For me it zaps me of energy, causes me tremendous headaches, and at times makes me physically ill. I was diagnosed with High Blood Pressure while I was running for State Representative in Tennessee back in 1996. Because of my physical build , I never thought I would be stricken with High Blood Pressure. I always assumed it was a condition "fat " people suffered from.Because I was a high school and college athlete, I have always been in great condition. Yet I failed to take in account that because of a family history of High Blood Pressure, I was a prime candidate to fall prey to this sometimes crippling sickness.


When I was in law school in Birmingham, my condition of High Blood Pressure seem to worsen causing me to go to the hospital on several occasions. There were even times when I would collapse due to elevated pressure, only awakening in the emergency room.

I am on medications now that control my blood pressure, yet I have to be focused on making sure that I take the medicine properly.

This week , I ask all of the readers of the Files of Brian Clay,to monitor your blood pressure. For your family's sake ....They Need you!.... I want you around! STAY HEALTHY!

Statistics

African Americans and people of African descent in the United Kingdom have among the highest rates of hypertension of any race or ethnic type in the world.¹

• 35% of African Americans have hypertension, which accounts for 20% of the African American deaths in the United States - twice the percentage of deaths among whites from hypertension.¹
• Compared with whites, hypertension develops earlier in life and average blood pressures are much higher in African Americans.²
• African Americans with high blood pressure have an 80% higher chance of dying from a stroke than in the general population.²
• African Americans with high blood pressure have a 20% higher chance of developing heart disease than in the general population.²
• African Americans with high blood pressure have a 4 times greater risk of developing hypertension related end stage kidney disease than the general population.²

Claiming "Native American Indian?"--Well, they're Not Claiming You! (Indians are expelling tribal members)

Indian tribes expel members
source

PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island (AP) -- Dennis Champlain's grandfather helped win federal recognition for the Narragansett Indian Tribe. Champlain himself has danced in tribal powwows and teaches his children that they are Narragansetts.

Dennis Champlain and his extended family were removed from the rolls of the Narragansett Indian Tribe.

Yet the Narragansetts say he is no longer a member of the tribe.

Champlain and his extended family are among thousands of people removed from American Indian tribes in recent years, often amid tribal squabbles or when a casino comes to town. In Rhode Island, the Narragansetts' removal of about 140 of roughly 2,400 members has become an issue in Saturday's election for the tribe's chief sachem, or leader.

Tribal officials say they have the right to decide who is a member and to prevent fraud by people angling for a share of gambling money. But many of those kicked out complain they have little recourse to fight what amounts to an attack on their identity.

"We're in the process of a redefinition of tribal identity at its core," said David Wilkins, a political scientist at the University of Minnesota and a member of North Carolina's Lumbee Tribe. "It's ramping up in a way that's really quite frightening to a lot of Native people."

Wilkins traces most purges to four factors: internal political squabbles, stricter racial requirements for membership, punishment for gang or drug-related crime and, most often, during debates over sharing casino profits.

A 1978 U.S. Supreme Court ruling said the federal government should not intervene in most tribal membership disputes, leaving appeals up to the tribes.

Tribal casinos generated $25 billion in revenue last year, according to the National Indian Gaming Commission. Tribes often split the profits by making payments to members. Fewer members can mean a larger paycheck for those left.

But that paycheck can lure people with dubious claims of ancestry. The Pechanga Band of California said it was deluged with membership claims after it opened its casino in 1995.

John Gomez Jr., 39, a Pechanga member since childhood, was kicked out in 2004. He said gambling profits were one factor: He lost free health care and a $15,000 monthly payment. But he said he and others had questioned leaders before a tribal election.

"I think a lot of it has to do with the money, but there's a lot of it that's also about the politics," said Gomez, who co-founded the American Indian Rights and Resources Organization, a group that lobbies against expelling tribe members.

The Pechanga council has said it cut members who should never have been let in.

It's not clear how many people have been removed from tribes in the last few years. There are 562 federally recognized tribes, and tribal governments are not required to report citizenship decisions. But the number is in the thousands.

Gomez's advocacy group counts at least 1,500 people ousted from 13 tribes in California.

In Michigan, the Saginaw Chippewa want to remove about a tenth of their 2,700 members due to rules that require them to be at least one-quarter Indian. Critics said it's an attempt to cut casino payments.

The Cherokee Nation voted in March to deny citizenship to an estimated 2,800 descendants of tribal slaves.

In the Narragansett election, Paulla Dove Jennings, a historian, is running an underdog campaign against the incumbent, Matthew Thomas, saying it is unfair to take people's identities as Narragansetts away.

The tribe began a review of its roster about three years ago amid a failed push to build a casino -- but there is a dispute over why. Thomas said a tribal assembly, similar to a town meeting, voted to verify all tribal membership before adding several children to the roster.

But Leslie Champlain, a cousin of Dennis Champlain, said she attended the meeting and believes the tribe did not approve an audit. She suspects tribal leadership wanted to root out dissent after her sister, a tribal councilwoman, demanded a detailed audit showing how the tribe spent millions of dollars, some of it from the gambling company Harrah's Entertainment Inc.

Thomas called Champlain's claim "ridiculous" and said he is bound by the decisions of the tribal assembly and cannot be held responsible for someone else's ancestry.

Members were asked to prove they descend from ancestors listed on an 1880 census using birth, death and marriage certificates. The Champlains had used other documents as recently as 1994. This time, it was not enough.

Dennis Champlain said he learned his family was kicked out by reading about it in a newspaper. Thomas said members can appeal to a tribal court, but the Champlains say no one ever told them how to appeal.

Dennis Champlain does not blame his fellow Narragansetts, but he calls the process unjust.

"It's not a matter of whether it's right or wrong," he said. "It's a matter of who has the power. The tribe has the power -- we don't."

*****

This sounds like a mess, but if it's to sort out fraudulent people, I understand their actions.

However, the procedure needs to be revamped in order to prevent legitimate members of the tribe from being expelled.

Condi Keeps Cool Under Fire

Woman confronts Condi Rice with 'blood' on her hands -
Protester Desiree Farooz confronts Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in a photograph taken today by Charles Dharapak of the Associated Press.
(editing, emphasis by Ivent)

Rice was preparing to testify before the House Foreign Affairs Committee when she encountered Farooz inside the hearing room. Farooz had painted her hands red, apparently to symbolize her group's claim that members of President Bush's cabinet have blood on their hands because of the way they've waged war in Iraq. source

USA TODAY has a wire story about the secretary's subsequent testimony about the Mideast peace process.

***

Ok. This pic has proven to me that I still have a ways to go yet, in my walk with Christ. There is no way on my Father's green earth would someone

be able to walk up on me with "blood" on their hands, and I not "assume the position" of getting "gangsta on that behind!"

Condi-though I still don't know a whole heckuva lot about her-gets major cool points from me. She just looked straight on forward-ROFLMBO!! hahaha

That is great training-it just couldn't and wouldn't be me!

Ok Lord, I repent. Once these major defects are removed from me, I would be able to stand in the midst of-w/out missing a beat.

But for now...LADY GO WASH YOUR HANDS AND SIT DOWN OR LEAVE TOWN. Just do somethin'.

Question. What in the world was the woman hoping to accomplish?!

That's what I thought.

;)