Henrietta's cells, and a sad anniversary.

America owes us so much and there are still some folks who refuse to show us any love. I am thinking about Henrietta Lacks and her incredible contribution to health and science. If you are reading this and you have never heard of her you should be ashamed of yourself.

But take heart, hopefully after reading this post you will be able to show off your Henrietta Lacks knowledge to your friends.

"When Henrietta Lacks was stricken with an aggressive cancer more than 60 years ago, doctors who treated her at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore took cells from her tumor without her permission or knowledge, as was common practice at the time. They soon learned that the cells were just as aggressive in a laboratory dish. Instead of dying quickly as previous cell lines had, they kept replicating at an astonishing rate, earning them the label “immortal” and making them immensely valuable to any scientist who wanted a stable base for experiments.

The cells, called HeLa cells, are ubiquitous in labs around the world and have been used in more than 74,000 research studies on almost every disease. The cells have helped researchers develop a polio vaccine and gain insights into cell biology, in vitro fertilization, and cancer, among other advances.
      

The enduring constant in this saga has been the cavalier treatment of the Lacks family by medical researchers. Neither Ms. Lacks nor others in her family were told that extracting cells from her tumor (and later taking cells from some of her relatives) was not being done for their benefit but for the benefit of science.

That condescending attitude changed last week when the National Institutes of Health announced an agreement with the Lacks family that will restrict N.I.H.-financed research on the genome of HeLa cells (not the use of HeLa cells in experiments) and place two family members on a committee to approve such research.

 

The family was especially concerned that publishing the full genomic sequence of HeLa cells would violate its privacy by revealing abnormalities in genes that could be transmitted to later generations. Although the deal does not apply to projects not funded by N.I.H., the agency hopes all researchers will honor it." [Source]

 

Taking this woman's cell for 62 years without her permission was not cool. And using her cell to replicate an endless cell line which is now being used all around the world is definitely not cool.

 

The thing is, knowing black folks the way that I do, all they had to do was ask.

 

Finally, since we are talking about History, on this day in 1906, African American soldiers stationed in Brownsville, Texas got into it with the locals of that town.

 

Read up on what happened in Brownsville and tell me if you think the actions of President Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft were that of honorable men, and why so little is known about this sad chapter of American history.   

 

 

"Born- free" Becky.

"A tea party witness from Alabama launched into emotional testimony Tuesday as she described her group’s political abuse at the hands of the Internal Revenue Service.

“We peacefully assemble. We petition our government. We exercise the right to free speech. And we don’t understand why the government tried to stop us,” Wetumpka Tea Party President Becky Gerritson said during her opening statement before the House Ways and Means Committee.

“I’m not here as a serf or a vassal,” she went on, beginning to choke up. “I’m not begging my lords for mercy. I’m a born-free American woman, wife, mother and citizen.” [Source]

Excuse me while I throw up.

So am I supposed to feel sorry for Becky? I think not.

Becky, if you think you are being persecuted as a "born-free American",  try being black in your home state of Alabama for one day. Their ancestors were not born free.

Try being Debra Simmons. You were in a five star hotel in D.C. getting all kinds of love from your right wing friends, while Ms. Simmons was getting her ass kicked and tasered in Mississippi for exercising her constitutional rights as well.

Or, try being a Negro anywhere in the city limits of Jasper, Texas, and see how that Constitution thing works out for you when you are catching a beat down in the police station.

Good for representative McDermott for calling bull s*** on what was pure "political theater", and checking patriot Becky for her whining, woe is me, grandstanding.

Of course, some on the right were not pleased, and others like Paul Ryan couldn't resist the opportunity to confirm what Congressman McDermott stated was happening. 

"McDermott said that liberal groups were also targeted during the administration of President George W. Bush, but there was no outcry by Congressional Republicans at the time. “The Republican were looking for a conspiracy where there isn’t one,” he continued.

“Let’s not forget, this happened under an IRS commissioner appointed by George Bush and was investigated by a Republican inspector general,” McDermott asserted.

“I haven’t heard a single word here about what questions you think we ought to be able to ask you about your tax-exempt request,” he said. “Anything else, like the circus that’s happening in the Oversight Committee or here, is simply political theater.”

“I’m going to deviate from my original question in response to what I just heard,” Ryan said to the laughs and applause of the hearing’s attendees.
“So, you’re to blame I guess is the message here,” Ryan said summing his colleague’s argument up to a conservative testifying about the targeting her group had received."

No Paul, you and your clueless colleagues in Washington are to blame for that ridiculous spectacle that was just as much of a waste as a group of IRS agents learning to line dance on our dime.

"America is my country and Paris is my hometown."

I am quite sure that Gertrude Stein wasn't referring to Paris, Texas when she said those words.

There is plenty to see and do in Paris, France. The Ave Des Champs Elyses; The Louvre; a wine bar in the Entrants Rouge Market; the Le Marais District, I could go on and on. Paris, Texas, on the other hand, not so much. Unless you consider pick up truck, Negro dragging , something to do.

I know they have a Main Street, and apparently they have a farmer's market as well. (That's always nice) And, they have their very own civic center, named: (Get this) The Love Civic Center. Yep, I kid you not. THE LOVE CIVIC CENTER!

Maybe it's because they don't have much to do in Paris, Texas why black folks and white folks have been at each other's throats so much. Now, of course, this was before the beerfest and our teachable moment in A-merry-ca, so this post is probably obsolete. Right now as I type this post, some of those very folks who were screaming at each other across the side walk in the hot Texas heat, could be sipping ice tea and eating watermelon slices together while they watch Hee Haw reruns.

Just a couple of weeks ago the Panthers and the KKK were squaring off in the the republic of Texas in open defiance of the O man's post racial A-merry-ca. Thank god Skip Gates and Sgt. Crow[ley] came along. They were just in time to bring us all together.

Still, I can't only rip the people of Paris, Texas. Hell they have lots of things to do around here and in Boston and look how the racial harmony thing has been working out for us. Of course we didn't have any of our Negroes dragged to death like they did in Jasper and Paris, because that has not been designated a sport here yet. Not yet. We are still pretty much into our Eagles and Phillies, and I am sure the folks up in Boston love their Red Sox and Patriots as well. Of course, that could change. Maybe we just need folks up here to buy more pick up trucks.