Racist panemics and how to recover
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Racist Pandemics and How to Recover

Mike Nowak , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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(September 6, 2020) If you’re like me, you can’t wait for 2020 to be in the rear view mirror. But there are no guarantees that 2021 will be any better. I’m not even going to mention the election, which has sixty percent of the country ready to jump off a cliff. I agree with the people who say that we wouldn’t be in this heap of manure if we had an even vaguely competent, responsible and empathic president. But we do not. (Be sure to get your butt out of your seat and VOTE on November 3!) As a result, tens of thousands of people have needlessly died in six months,, particularly people in minority communities. There might be more racist pandemics in the future.. We must figure out how to recover from this and subsequent health crises.

Skip to a specific segment in this podcast

00:00 Alec McClennan from Good Nature Organic Lawn Care
46:40 Rev. Brian Sauder and Dr. Jalees Rehman of Green Team Summit 2020
1:11:03 Mike and Peggy announce their departure from WCGO Radio
1:16:39 Meteorologist Rick DiMaio

That brings us to the Green Team Summit 2020, “A Just Recovery,” presented by Faith in Place. If you’re not familiar with them, you should be.

Faith in Place empowers Illinois people of all faiths to be leaders in caring for the Earth, providing resources to educate, connect, and advocate for healthier communities.

We believe that when people of faith lead the environmental movement, it is a movement focused on justice and care for our common environment. We operate from local offices serving Chicago, the North and West Suburbs of Chicago, Lake County, Central Illinois, and Southern Illinois.

The Mike Nowak Show with Peggy Malecki has supported Faith in Place for years. We were part of the Green Team Summit 2019 and we’re proud to be back as a sponsor. However, as I alluded to earlier, 2020 is a very different year. So this year, Faith in Place is holding its first-ever virtual Green Team Summit. This year, because the whole shebang is online, it will happen over four days–from September 13 to 17. Their goal is to “connect the dots between the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and racial justice.” They will do it through through FREE workshops each night. Here’s the list.

  • Everything is Connected

  • How Climate Change Impacts Health

  • COVID-19 and A Just Recovery

  • Facing Our Climate Crisis

  • Shifting to A Local Food Economy

  • The Health and Economic Impacts of Flooding in Illinois

  • Transitioning to Clean Energy

  • Why Migration Stories Matter

  • Addressing Social Isolation and Loneliness by Connecting to Nature

  • Refining the Green Team Organizing Model

  • Youth Leading the Environmental Justice Movement

You can register here.

Today we welcome Rev. Brian Sauder, Executive Director and President of Faith in Place, who will give us an overview of the summit. He is joined by Dr. Jalees Rehman, Scientist and Cardiologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His research group studies how different organs and tissues of the body respond to inflammation, which is where COVID-19 comes into the picture. He also has a blog about science, philosophy, history, culture and religion called “The Next Regeneration”.

As I alluded to at the top of this blog, COVID-19 has taken an undue toll on minorities in America.

As many as 215,000 more people than usual died in the U.S. during the first seven months of 2020, suggesting that the number of lives lost to the coronavirus is significantly higher than the official toll. And half the dead were people of color — Blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans and, to a marked degree unrecognized until now, Asian Americans.

The new figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention highlight a stark disparity: Deaths among minorities during the crisis have risen far more than they have among whites.

As of this writing, about 185,000 Americans have died due to the coronavirus. But as that story illustrates, the numbers are probably much higher–thought the corrupt and incompetent administration would have you believe they are much lower. Science doesn’t lie. Politicians do.

Dr. Rehman will be leading a discussion for Workshop 2 on COVID-19 and A Just Recovery. It will explore the root causes of the COVID-19 crisis, how the pandemic acutely affects already disadvantaged communities, and how solutions must recognize these injustices and address the same wounds that cause our climate crisis and environmental racism.

“Racism” is a strong word. But perhaps it’s time we started using those words in connection not only with social injustice, but with health injustice. Dr. Rehman sent us four studies that will be part of his presentation. They examine how COVID-19 disparities, obesity and social determinants of health such as poverty increase the risk of chronic diseases such as obesity and diabetes.

Okay. I know that most of you aren’t scientists and you’re not likely to pore over those documents. But even a cursory reading will show that the connection between COVID-19 fatalities and people of color is not an accident. We’ll learn more today when we talk to Rev. Brian Sauder and Dr. Jalees Rehman.

Plant your lawn now. Seriously.

A couple of weeks ago, we talked to Ryan Anderson from Midwest Grows Green (MGG). They were coming up on a deadline to offer one community in the Greater Chicago region FREE technical assistance for the implementation, improvement, and marketing of natural lawn care for up to two turfgrass fields. That deadline has passed, but the point here is that we were also going to talk to Alec McClennan, founder and owner of a company called Good Nature Organic Lawn Care, based in Cleveland, Ohio.

Except, for various reasons, that didn’t happen.

Well, having talked about gardening for a long time, I know that fall is universally recognized as the best time to plant cool season grasses, which are what we grow here. And I didn’t want to pass up an opportunity to talk to someone who has experience in that realm. Thus, Alec McClennan will make an actual appearance on our show today. Here’s part of his story.

Back in high school, my Biology Teacher taught us about the problems caused by lawn fertilizers and chemicals in a local trout stream. Later that year, my dad asked me to spread a popular weed & feed on our lawn. After reading all the hazardous ingredients, I refused. My dad agreed to take back the fertilizer, but told me I had to find another way to keep the lawn looking nice. And so began my passion for Chemical Free Lawn Care.

Twenty-one years later, the business has locations in Cleveland, Akron, Columbus and Indianapolis, Indiana. In preparation for today’s conversation, McClennan told me to look at piece on his website–The Worst Chemical on Your Lawn Isn’t Roundup. Here’s some information from the article.

2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic Acid, usually shortened to 2,4-D, is a very common weed killer that does not affect many grass species. It serves as the main active ingredient in many weed and feed products, such as Ortho Weed B Gon, Spectracide, and Weedone.

While this herbicide does kill undesirable plants, it also drifts easily and kills nearby plants, that were otherwise not problematic. Furthermore, like Roundup, 2,4-D is toxic to aquatic life, as well as birds, bees and your pets. Dogs raised in lawns with higher levels of 2,4-D have increased incidents of cancer. If ingested or rubbed on the skin, this chemical can make someone very sick. Some of the side effects include; coughing, burning at the site of contact, dizziness, loss of muscle coordination, nausea, diarrhea and vomiting. It can also cause nerve system damage, gene mutation, and is linked to endocrine system damage, including decreased testosterone and ovulation changes that negatively affect reproduction. 

I’ve been preaching that story for about as long as McClennan has been running his business. Nice to have some company, though. There’s a lot more that he can tell us about organic lawn care. So get your questions ready.