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Special radio series will run through the holidays on Tuesdays at 10 am on WOLB 1010 AM, "where information is power."

WOLB 1010 AM Radio series by BMORENEWS draws support of clergy, clinicians, community

By Doni Morton Glover, www.bmorenews.com

(BALTIMORE – November 15, 2009) – Many people dread talking about depression, let alone mental health. After all, there is a certain stigma associated. The very notion is lowly, un-spirited, and obnoxious (Who needs that?).

However, experts and commoners alike estimate that black Baltimore, in particular, has more than its share of health and wellness issues. David Miller, co-host of the first show on Tuesday, agrees. He, like NAACP Baltimore “Doc” Cheatham, are concerned that good mental health is being depleted and twisted otherwise. 

Further, with the holidays coming upon us, one can only fathom how many people out there are hurting, without food, or are void of the essential things others tend to take for granted on a daily basis.

Join BMORENEWS’ publisher Doni Glover each Tuesday through the holidays as we discuss how to move black Baltimore forward in the midst of this mental/social/spiritual crisis on Tuesdays from 10 to 11 am on Radio One’s “Empower Hour”. That’s WOLB 1010 AM in Baltimore “where information is power,” after the Larry Young Morning Show.  

“Empower Hour” is the longest-running customized show on WOLB and is in its 10^th year. The show is paid-for by the Professional and Continuing Studies Division at Sojourner-Douglass College.

CALL FROM KEVIN BROOKS

I was compelled to do this series. Why? To me, it’s real simple. All I have to do is take one look at Historic Pennsylvania Avenue during the midday and I will see all I need to see: People hurting. Drugs, alcohol, unemployment and under-education are but a few items that come to mind.

Anytime a grown man is out there selling and hustling and doin’ his thing without regard for others, the message is clear to me.  

After one visit, it is quite apparent that black Baltimore is not living like other parts of Baltimore. Thanks to my incredible network of friends, everyday I make it my business to travel to see something other than chicken boxes, half-and-half’s, and Mondawmin Mall. I’d rather see foxes and deer than zombies and rats. Go figure!

However, as Lauren Hill suggests, not everybody has that access: “Access to education, access to opportunity, access to love.”

Many people in Baltimore live within a small radius: 6 square blocks. For many of us, that’s the extent of our world.

However, life is so much more. From the hills of Jamaica to the forests of Africa to the sands of the Middle East, the possibilities of life for an urban dweller are so much more than what many of us see daily. The possibilities of life are, in fact, almost endless.

I got a call this week from Kevin Brooks. The educator called and said that he had heard Tuesday’s show (It was the kickoff for our radio series on health and wellness in black Baltimore). As he noted that his wife is a psychological clinician, his words resonated and were truly encouraging and appreciated. He said that he ‘got it.’He may not have known how inspiring he was.

You see, for a brief moment, I hesitated before initiating this series. I asked myself if what I was feeling about our community was on point with the masses. I asked myself if the people would feel me.

Apparently, they do. No, not the “victim” stuff about the white man doing this and doing that. This is more about what we can do for ourselves.

I know that Baltimore is a tough town in which to live and that we tend to self-medicate and repress issues just to make it from one day to the next. And it is not always drugs or alchohol; sometimes, it is a messed-up attitude, shopping, eating, gambling and the like. Excess in any department pretty much yields the same unmanageability.

With the holidays upon us, I know that people are hurting even more. I know that the issues of worthlessness and hopelessness are even more magnified.

In a nutshell, people must ultimately confront their issues and their fears. ‘Cause for the sake of Christmas day, we have been compelled to feel like we have to have this and we have to have that … when, truth be told, things can never heal us.

LOVE PEOPLE, USE THINGS          

I believe that us black folks in Baltimore have become too used to failure and not accomplishing what we set out to do. I believe that we, the people of the darker hue, have come to not only accept failure and disappointment but expect nothing but the less.

Sure, we look fly. But, at the end of the day, being fly can never even scratch the surface of the deep, dark, muddied pasts than many of us have. Only something better can yield peace, like some therapy and some prayer. 

I am reminded that despite the games we play that seem the norm, despite the chicanery that seems to engulf us, we, the people of the darker hue, are so much more. Always were. Always will be.

Hence, in the middle of the conversation, our thoughts and aims and desires tend to fall on restless hopes and dreams. We find ourselves focused on what we don’t have and what we cannot do. I simply don’t think this way. I think that the impossible is indeed possible and that the un-doable is indeed do-able … with faith in God and a little help.

Instead, as Munir Bahar reminds, “We should be focused on what we do have and what we can do.”

Again: To me, it’s real simple.

I have come to believe that God, indeed, has a purpose for all of our lives. We have to simply come to believe in the vision He has implanted in our souls … no matter the difficulty or adversity.    

Join us Tuesday, November 17^th as we continue on this journey … in search of a healing:
“Empower Hour” News Talk Show
on
WOLB 1010 AM in Baltimore
10 to 11 am
(Every Tuesday through the Holidays)
Call-ins welcome at 410.481.1010

Tags: black baltimore, health and wellness