Articles by Steven Gilchrist

A ccording to a report created by U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and U.S. Representative Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) there is a national crisis in American dental care.   On June 7, 2012 Cummings and Sanders – the chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Primary Health and Aging, introduced legislation to address the inefficiencies in the American dental care system.   Approximately 130 million Americans do not have dental insurance.   ¼ of American adults 65 and older have lost all of their teeth.   More than 75% of American adults over 30 have gum disease.   Additionally, about 17 million low-income children do not go to the dentist every year. On June 26, 2012, PBS aired a documentary about the U.S. dental care system on the investigative news program FRONTLINE .   The 50 minute documentary, Dollars and Dentists , analyzes current economic trends and patient access in the dental care industry.   The documentary is a joint investigative pie...

H ave you ever imagined a world without trees?   Trees are a vital part of the earth’s ecosystem.   Trees offer protection for farmland, provide shade for homes and streets, and trees also help fight the greenhouse effect.   There is a national recognition day that celebrates the importance of trees to the environment. National Arbor Day is celebrated each year on the last Friday in April. Julius Sterling Morton (1832 – 1902) founded Arbor Day.   Morton was born in Adams, New York and he graduated from the University of Michigan in 1854.   Later, Morton and his wife Caroline Joy French moved to Nebraska.   Morton served as acting governor of Nebraska from December 5, 1858 to May 2, 1859. President Grover Cleveland appointed Morton as the 3 rd U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, a position he served in from 1893 to 1897.   In addition to being an agriculturalist, Morton was a journalist.   He was the editor of the Nebraska City News – Nebraska’...

E very year the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recognizes March 24 th as World Tuberculosis Day.   On this day, the CDC and the world community promote methods for people to learn more about tuberculosis – one of the deadliest diseases in the world.   March 24 th is an important day concerning tuberculosis because it was on March 24, 1882 when Dr. Robert Koch, a German physician, discovered Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacteria that causes tuberculosis (TB). According to the CDC, tuberculosis has been an ailment that humans have suffered with for thousands of years.   Approximately 2 billion people are infected with M. tuberculosis.   “Each year, nearly 9 million people in the world become sick with TB disease, and almost 1.5 million deaths are attributed to TB,” according to the CDC website.   Since 1993, the rates of tuberculosis infections have significantly declined in the United States; however, the disease disproportionately affe...

T his past February, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, displayed works of art by 10 African American artists in honor of Black History Month.   Edmund Barry Gaither, the director of the Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists, hosted the African American Artists Tour.   To see an online tour of the exhibit visit: http://www.mfa.org/explore/multimedia-guide/african-american-artists The exhibit included artistic works from the early 19 th century to the present.   The artwork was spread out across different sections of the museum.   I was able to locate all of the works in the exhibit through a self-guided tour.     Some of the artists represented were Norman Lewis, Archibald Motley, Art Smith, and Kara Walker. In 1963, Lewis was a co-founder of Spiral – an artists’ discussion group that was involved in the Civil Rights Movement.   Smith (1917 – 1982) created jewelry “characterized by flowing organic forms that show the inf...

O n October 25, 2003, the Boston Women’s Memorial was dedicated.   The idea for the memorial was developed by the Boston Women’s Commission.   The memorial, which is located on the Commonwealth Avenue Mall, was sculpted by Meredith Bergmann.   The memorial depicts three bronze sculptures of important women in Boston’s history.   The sculptures pay tribute to the lives and contributions of Abigail Adams, Lucy Stone, and Phillis Wheatley.  Boston Women's Memorial sculpted by Meredith Bergmann Stone (1818 – 1893) is shown with a pen in her hand and Wheatley (ca. 1753 – 1784) is shown with a quill pen in her hand.   Stone was one of the first women in Massachusetts to graduate from college.   She was an abolitionist, orator and founder of The Woman’s Journal – the leading women’s suffrage publication of the era.   Wheatley was born in West Africa and sold into slavery.   Later she would go on to be the first African American to publish a book – ...

R ecent news headlines have been dominated by the tragic death of award-winning singer and actress Whitney Houston.   Houston died in Beverly Hills, California last month in an apparent drowning.   Although the cause of her death was ruled an accident, much of Houston’s career was consumed by drug abuse.   Similar to Houston there are other entertainment stars who died young, partially from the effects of alcohol or drug abuse.   Other celebrities who have passed away at a young age include: Michael Jackson, Amy Winehouse, and Heath Ledger.   Each of these deaths were tragic, however, circumstances regarding alcohol and drug overdoses are not confined to Hollywood superstars.   Statistics indicate that prescription drug abuse amongst the general U.S. population is now an epidemic.   “In 2007, approximately 27,000 unintentional drug overdose deaths occurred in the United States, one death every 19 minutes.   Prescription drug abuse is the fas...

Cambridge, MA. - Charles Sumner (1811 – 1874) served as a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts for 23 years.   Sumner was born on January 6, 1811 in Boston, Massachusetts.   He attended the Boston Latin School and later graduated from Harvard College in 1830 and from Harvard Law School in 1833.   After law school, he started a legal practice in Boston.   In 1851, Sumner was elected to the U.S. Senate as a member of the Free Soil party.   Sumner would serve in the U.S. Senate until his death on March 11, 1874.   As an abolitionist, Sumner was an outspoken critic of slavery.   His ardent antislavery beliefs put him at odds with a number of his political colleagues.   In May 1856 during an impassioned diatribe on the Senate floor, Sumner condemned southern slave owners.   His speech was titled “The Crime Against Kansas.”   In response to Sumner’s criticism of the South, Congressman Preston Brooks savagely assaulted Sumner in Senate chambers on...