“There are literally two Americas,” Martin Luther King announced on the grounds of Stanford University, in a 1967 speech that has since become known as “The Other America.” “One America is beautiful for situation. That America is flowing with the milk of prosperity and the honey of equality. I’m sure that each of us is painfully aware of the fact that there is another America, and those who live in inadequate, substandard and often dilapidated housing conditions, and year after year in this other America, thousands, even millions of young ppl are forced to attend inadequate, substandard schools.”
Almost 50 years later, WNHH host Tom Ficklin still finds himself stirred and ill at ease after hearing the quotation, struck by how very true it still rings in much of the New Haven community. A substantial part of that, he says, is the issue of health care and the divide between those who have sufficient coverage and those who do not.
Courtesy Marcus McKinney
He’s interested in doing something about it. He goes to conferences on the topic. He listens back to audio from King, Ted Kennedy, and Curtis Robinson to inform his views. And he talks to leaders in the community about how the issues relate to the city around him. On his weekly broadcast on WNHH radio, he welcomed Marcus McKinney and Nkemdilim Anako, regional vice president, community health equity and health equity programs coordinator at St. Francis Care, to share their views on the issue, and speak about how St. Francis is battling that from a community healthcare perspective.
Courtesy Nkemdilim Anako
To listen to the full episode, click on the audio below, or get it free for download on Soundcloud, iTunes, or any podcatcher by searching under “WNHH Community Radio.”