Braving the onslaught of the latest COVID surge, the Mississippi Health Disparities Conference 2021 successfully pulled off a full-day of presentations yesterday at the Mississippi Coliseum complex in Biloxi. Attendees were required to mask more-or-less continuously, and as far as I could tell, compliance was excellent. Kudus to the undaunted organizers, colleagues at USM who … Continue reading “Dance for the Health of It” makes its conference debut

Two top Mississippi leaders made news this week. The first is Congressman Bennie Thompson, the only Democrat - and the only African American - in the Mississippi delegation. Thompson is chairing the House select committee's investigation of the January 6 pro-Trump assault on the U.S. Capitol, and kicked off the committee's first public session on … Continue reading Two pictures of Mississippi leadership in this week’s news; which should social workers prefer?

What, if anything, can social workers do to halt America's evident descent into a culture of death and despair? I realize that invoking language of "death and despair" may strike some as more than a little hyperbolic, but consider: The COVID pandemic continues to rage across the globe, and indeed the dominant and highly communicable … Continue reading The growing U.S. culture of death; what can social workers do?

Accumulating scientific evidence indicates the extensive physical, mental, and community health benefits of social (partner and group) dancing. Personal physical and psychological benefits - especially for older people - include, but are far from limited to, enhanced balance, flexibility, coordination, cognitive acuity, mood, level of life satisfaction, and civic and social engagement and communication skills. … Continue reading “Dance for the Health of It” relaunches

It is abundantly clear - and becomes clearer by the day - that a deeply dysfunctional politics is incapable of addressing the cascading crises confronting the U.S. and the global community. Trump may be gone (or at least out of office), but the degraded politics that produced Trump (and may well produce something worse than … Continue reading We need three things to salvage a decent future

June 24, 2021 News outlets are abuzz with opinions - right, left, and center - on "critical race theory," the scholarly movement (40 years old, by the way) that puts the social constructs of race and racism at the center of efforts to understand U.S. systems of power and privilege. From what I've read and … Continue reading Assaults on Critical Race Theory are serious business

June 17, 2021 In the struggle for social justice, professional social workers exercise a de facto "preferential option" for the poor, oppressed, and marginalized. It's a matter of the most profound, non-negotiable, ethical commitment. Surely that commitment encompasses the hundreds of thousands of unemployed workers who have already lost, or shortly will lose, supplementary unemployment … Continue reading Unemployed lose essential benefits as Fed fuels speculative feeding frenzy and debt accumulation

June 9, 2021 Mega-rich investor Warren Buffett years ago famously acknowledged the existence of a class war, and quipped "my class is winning." And how. Any doubt about just how bad the war is going for ordinary working people should be finally and fully erased by the report just published by ProPublica - https://www.propublica.org/article/the-secret-irs-files-trove-of-never-before-seen-records-reveal-how-the-wealthiest-avoid-income-tax - … Continue reading Yes, social work students, it’s a class war

June 5, 2021 The "F word" is "fascism." And yes, it's time. The indicators are too many to ignore. The Republican party is no longer the party of conservative values and virtues; it is, completely and unabashedly, the party of Donald Trump, a virtual cult. Insufficient loyalty to Trump, the Faultless and Unchallengeable Leader, is … Continue reading Is it time for social workers to use the F word?

May 19, 2021 Three-quarters of a century ago, in the struggle for worker rights, social workers were known for their support of organized labor. They should be again, for at least these four reasons: Self-determination is a core value of professional practice. Yet any realistic meaning of self-determination is stripped away by the virtually totalitarian … Continue reading Social workers should support labor organizing