Today, when I awake, the routine troubles of my life will greet me with customary fury as they have as long as I can remember; and the media will report on the grander troubles of humankind, proliferating like a cancer around the globe as they have for centuries. I'll still have to find a way to deal with all that.

But I also know that today, in my 61st year, having been born under segregation in Nashville, I will sit in my living room here in my adopted hometown of Pacoima, and I will see unfolding around me in every direction, "from sea to shining sea," an America never before revealed in the full splendor of its promise and possibility.

Today, as sunlight spreads across the frosted rooftops of our nation, I will watch - with expectation and humility - the pageantry and drama of Barack Obama's inauguration. And as that singular and ineffable moment plays out, I will be a living witness to a principle-affirming, liberating and transforming fact of history being made - there in Washington, back here on the West Coast, and resounding in every American home.

I know this because the events unfolding in our lives today will affirm, in writing, in flesh and in fact, that now and for all time, there should be no bar to human potential for any American, no matter their gender, race or station; and that America, for all its limitations and failures, is still a land of epic ideas and achievements, and of unimaginable possibility.

Until today, this reality was never fully verifiable.

It certainly wasn't in 1959, when my parents moved across the tracks from east to west Pacoima. It didn't matter that my mother was a teacher and my father a decorated World War II vet, or that he was now a senior research scientist with the Rand Corp. Our white neighbors painted messages on our walls reading: "Black Plague, Don't Let It Spread." They burned crosses on our lawn and waged a yearlong campaign of terror and harassment against us.

In 1960, my parents sued our neighbors in state court and won the first successful anti-discrimination suit for fair housing in San Fernando Valley history. Over time, we became friends with some of our former enemies, and my father, a living embodiment of the dreams they tried to deny him, chose to forbear, though he never forgave the indignities visited upon his home in the name of American liberties he had pledged his entire life to preserve.

I will imagine my father today, not in heaven where he went in 1995, but here in this perfect home he made on Earth, sitting by the fire with my sweet mother, stroking his trimmed white beard, an unlit pipe in his mouth, pride and contentment on his face, watching President Obama on the flat-screen.

And I will recall those iconic leaders of Pacoima who he proudly worked alongside, my political and moral mentors, now gone: Margaret Avery, and Rev. Hillary and Rosa Broadous; Bishop Benjamin and Katherine Crouch; Freddie Carter, the peerless barber whose shop, Stylesville, was ground zero of African-American gossip and debate for a generation; I will think of "Mother" Ida Kinney, who died this past New Year's Day at the age of 104, at least with the comfort that today was coming. America's debt to them was left unpaid.

Many of those elders were Southerners, and some from my family tell a funny story about growing up in rural Alabama in 1935. They'd learned that the brilliant new president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was to make a whistle-stop nearby. They threw on their best clothes and rushed down to the segregated train station. But the viewing stand designated for black folk was situated on the backside of the yard, and when Roosevelt stepped onto the platform, he could not see my mother's half of the adoring throng. He saw only an audience of white folk. And though my mother and her cousins peered under the belly of the train, "You couldn't see nothin' but his feets," one of my cousins bemoaned. "You'd be glad," another added. "You did good to see that."

Like the lyrics of a blues song, the story is vivid and telling and funny and painful all at once; and it is a true depiction of what it was like to exist as a Negro in 20th century America - a being without personhood, forever "invisible," as novelist Ralph Ellison put it. The Negro had been cast in the American story as a commodity whose worth was assessed, so the Founding Fathers said, at "three-fifths of a man," a patently grotesque and absurd standard of humanity that has, across the centuries, engendered the very cancers of injustice - moral and civic - that America was created to transcend.

Though I realize that Obama's election will not erase the racial enmity and rank intolerance that threaten our body politic, I also know that today I stand upon elevated ground, fertile and abundant, in full view of perspectives denied my ancestors. This is ground I once thought I trod upon, but now know I never had until today - the hallowed ground of American liberty and opportunity.

With the vistas before me unobstructed, the view is sublime. Whoopi Goldberg said as much when she told her chat-mates on "The View" that the election of Obama meant she could "finally feel like I can put my bags down for the first time." Today I witness the living confirmation of Goldberg's bittersweet formulation. To steal a Booker T. Washington line: I can finally "cast down my bucket where I am."

Today, I recall Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.' s reminder that our Founding Fathers had signed "a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

That "promissory note," which King admonished had come back to the American Negro marked "insufficient funds" - that note, bloodied and tainted by 500 years of duplicity, racial oppression and injustice - has now been formally redeemed. And it is the inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama that redeems the promise of equality, freedom and human dignity that Thomas Jefferson wrote into the Declaration of Independence.

Today, I'm seeing the grandeur and beauty of American life without a barrier, without squatting on the backside of a train yard. I am standing on my home turf, shoulder to shoulder with Americans of every age and kind. One lovely outcome of Obama's victory is that I do not feel like running through the streets exchanging high-fives with my fellows. Now is the time to do everything in my power to ensure that the coming years point the way to American success, and with it, my own.

Today, I will applaud our new president and sip champagne with my friends, and I will sing "America the Beautiful" as clearly and sweetly as I can. And once my interlude of song and celebrations are done, I will roll up my sleeves and engage the troubles and terrors that fate now rains down on my head.

Not only because it is a matter of life and death, but because I believe - in a deeper, more spiritual and emotional way - that we are called upon now to show our resolve, our inventiveness, our courage, our resourcefulness, our efficacy, our steadfastness and the fullness of our humanity, in pursuit of the values our Constitution enshrines and now confirms - in writing, in spirit, in person and in deed - on this Inauguration Day.

Emory Holmes II is a laborer and writer, and a 53-year resident of Pacoima. 

NAMI Urban Los Angeles joins Community Partners in Care (CPIC)

Underserved African American and Latino communities have lower access to appropriate care for depression, poor resources to implement practice quality improvement (QI) programs known to improve outcomes, and often confront historical issues of distrust. However, African Americans and Latinos improve more in outcomes after participating in a comprehensive depression treatment program than comparable Whites. In order to improve depression care in underserved communities, effective interventions are needed at three levels: evidence-based treatments, QI strategies, and community based implementation strategies that can be applied across the diverse services agencies supporting underserved clients. Community engagement promotes organizational and community member participation and leadership in goal setting, program development and implementation, and evaluation by shifting the authority for action to the community. This project will evaluate the effectiveness of a community engagement approach to improve depression management skills and adoption of evidence based depression quality improvement programs among health care providers, such as physicians, nurses, and case workers. It will also identify facilitators and barriers that lead to differential uptake of the intervention by providers and evaluate differences in provider depression management skills on patient depression outcomes.

For more information about Community Parters in Care, visit their website at www.communitypartnersincare.org

Landmark Legislation Signed into Law

From NAMI California by Gabby Hyman, Editor, October 3, 2008

In a victory for consumers and families, The House of Representatives today approved landmark mental health parity legislation that will outlaw discrimination by health insurance providers when paying for treatment for Americans suffering from mental illnesses or substance abuse. The 263-171 vote, approving the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008, was part of the financial bailout package signed by President George Bush.

In its inclusion of the Wellstone Act, the House ended a 20-year struggle for parity for consumers and family members, and a 12-year battle led by Senator Paul Wellstone and, following his death, his son David. It is estimated that roughly 67 percent of adults and 80 percent of children requiring mental health services do not receive help, in large part because of discriminatory insurance practices

In sum, the bill represents a triumph for those who have struggled for decades to receive equal health insurance coverage from their employers or from self-paid health plans without artificial limits on inpatient/outpatient visits (in or out of network) or for emergency care to treat mental illness, dual diagnosis, or substance abuse. The legislation applies to group health plans of 51 or more employees.

As written (courtesy of the House bill text), the legislation:

• Requires group health plans to apply the same beneficiary financial requirements to mental health or substance-related disorder benefits as they apply for medical and surgical benefits, including limits on deductibles, co-payments, and out-of-pocket expenses.
• Revises the definition of "mental health benefits" to include substance-related disorder benefits.
• Requires plan administrators to make the criteria for medical necessity determinations with respect to mental health and substance-related disorder benefits available to plan participants, beneficiaries, or providers upon request.
• Sets forth the minimum scope of mental health and substance-related disorder benefits under a group health plan. Requires such plans offering out-of-network coverage to apply the same coverage offered for medical and surgical services to mental health and substance-related benefits.
• Allows group health plans an increased exemption of 2% of the actual costs of coverage of mental health and substance-related disorder benefits in the first plan year after initiation or 1% in each subsequent year. Revises the similar exemption for small employers.
• Makes the amendments made by this Act applicable to plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2009, and to group health plans under a collective bargaining agreement at the expiration of such agreement or by January 1, 2009.
• Requires the Secretary of Labor to: (1) annually sample and conduct random audits of group health plans to determine compliance with this Act; and (2) provide assistance to plan participants and beneficiaries in complying with the requirements of this Act.
• Declares that nothing in this Act preempts state laws that provide greater consumer protections and benefits than those provided by this Act.
• Increases from 15.1% to 20.1% after December 31, 2008, and before January 1, 2015, the minimum Medicaid drug rebate percentage drug manufacturers must agree to for covered outpatient drugs.
• Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to set forth new requirements for the hospital exception to the general prohibition against physician referral of Medicare patients for certain services to facilities in which such physicians or their immediate family members have financial interests (self-referral).
• Requires hospitals to develop procedures to prevent conflicts of interest, ensure bona fide investment, and safeguard patients. Requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish policies and procedures to ensure compliance with such requirements and to conduct audits to determine if hospitals have violated such requirements.
• Increases the amount available to the Physician Assistance and Quality Initiative Fund (PAQI Fund) in 2013.
• Requires the Comptroller General to: (1) evaluate the effect of the implementation of this Act on the cost of health insurance coverage and related matters; (2) submit biannual reports to Congress on obstacles faced by individuals in obtaining mental health and substance-related disorder care under their health plans; and (3) report to Congress on the availability of uniform patient placement criteria for mental health and substance-related disorders for guiding determinations of medical necessity.

Finally, Equal Rights to Treatment and Coverage

Despite oppositions from many employers and insurance companies who claimed the legislation would drive up costs, the House version of the bill (as well as the Senate version passed recently), prohibits limitations on coverage or increased co-pays for treatment.

According to bill proponents, many of the 35 million Americans who suffer from mental illness or substance abuse diseases each year will finally receive assistance as a result of what is being termed the Civil Rights Act of the new millennium.

The bill pivots on the distinction of parity: equal treatment for insurers, no matter the illness. Typical annual limits include 30 visits to a doctor or 30 days of hospital care for treatment of a mental disorder. Such limits would no longer be allowed if the insurer had no limits on treatment of conditions like cancer, heart disease and diabetes. Insurers could still deny coverage if they find that a service is not medically necessary.

“Illness of the brain must be treated just like illness anywhere else in the body,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, told The New York Times.

“I have a mental illness, and I am fortunately getting the best care this country has to offer because I am a member of Congress,” said Representative Patrick J. Kennedy, Democrat of Rhode Island and chief sponsor of the House bill. Mr. Kennedy has been treated for depression and drug dependence.

The main Republican sponsor, Representative Jim Ramstad of Minnesota, a recovering alcoholic, said, “I am living proof that treatment works and recovery is real.”

“This is a historic day and a great civil rights victory for millions of Americans who have been unable to access mental health treatment,” said David Shern, Ph.D., president and CEO of Mental Health America. “With approval of this bill, we will tear down the walls of stigma and discrimination and the open the doors to the power and promise of treatment and recovery. It recognizes that mental health disorders are every bit as debilitating, and just as treatable, as cancer and diabetes. With economic problems making it even harder for Americans to afford treatment and driving up rates of depression and family difficulties, passage of this law is even more important.”

"This bill is a major achievement, one I know my dad would be proud of," said David Wellstone. "This bill will go a long way to ease the pain and suffering of those with mental illness and addiction, and I am proud to have been part of this effort. It's a great day."

In addition to thanking Wellstone, Representatives Kennedy and Ramstad for their vigilant efforts, NAMI California expresses gratitude for the tireless efforts of Senators Pete Domenici (R-NM), Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA), Mike Enzi (R-WY) and Christopher Dodd (D-CT).

Read the entire Wellstone portion of the Bill, click here.

References: The New York Times, Wellstone.org, The U.S. House of Representatives, Mental Health America

Source: NAMI California

By the Associated Press (July 26, 2007)

LONDON, England (AP) -- Using marijuana seems to increase the chance of becoming psychotic, researchers report in an analysis of past research that reignites the issue of whether pot is dangerous.

Some experts say governments should now work to dispel a misconception that marijuana is a benign drug.

The new review suggests that even infrequent use could raise the small but real risk of this serious mental illness by 40 percent.