Author: Reggie Jackson

“Senator Mitt Romney proposed a hazard pay raise of up to $12 an hour for essential workers such as health-care and grocery store employees facing greater risks during the coronavirus pandemic.” “15 gifts to give essential workers during the coronavirus pandemic” – USA Today As I see ads on TV celebrating our “essential workers” I’m somewhat amused. Amused not because they are funny, but amused because four months ago these workers were for the most part hidden in plain sight. They are the masses that keep our economy churning, many of them for poverty wages. In a way it...

“I don’t think I’ll ever reach the mental capacity to ever watch the video. I saw my son come into the world and seeing him leave the world is not something… that I’d want to see ever.” – Aubery’s mother Wanda Cooper When George Zimmerman killed 17 year-old Trayvon Martin on February 26, 2012 in Sanford, Florida the black community there was outraged. The killing did not make the national news right away. It was not until the story spread on social media that blacks around the country heard about the story. Eventually the story became a huge driver...

“A village without the elderly is like a well without water.” – African Proverb “I wish I would have listened, when I was a kid, to my elders or people who had my best interests at heart, and then I wish I would have been more conscious at that age also.” – Metta World Peace (formerly Ron Artest) As we see the devastation being wrought across the world due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, the greatest tragedy is the loss of our elders. Nursing homes and other centers of life for our elders have become breeding grounds for the...

The recent response to the alarming number of deaths in the black community in pockets around the country has been tepid, in my opinion. Many have written and responded that we need to do better, but what has really changed? Even as we are seeing in Milwaukee County an leveling out of COVID-19 deaths in recent weeks, blacks still account for an exorbitant number of cases and deaths as compared to their share of the population. As we look at where the largest clusters and concentrations of cases and deaths are, an alarming trend has shown its face. In...

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana “Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.” – Edmund Burke In the age of the novel coronavirus and the disease it causes, COVID-19, we can look to the past to learn some really valuable lessons. The Spanish flu, which began in Kansas, killed nearly 700,000 Americans. On of the hardest hit cities was San Francisco. The first case of the influenza in the city was on September 23, 1918, when Edward Wagner was admitted to a hospital and eventually placed on quarantine...