Part of the Series
Ladydrawers
“Growing Season,” The Ladydrawers’ exploration of the links between public health, race and food policy, continues with this month’s strip, “Epidemic,” which traces links between federal laws and the alarming rise of autoimmune diseases in the US. It’s drawn by Melissa Mendes, whose previous strips in the series – “Cultivating Policy” and “Cultivation” – looked at communities of color and food justice. It’s a personal issue for The Ladydrawers Comics Collective (try to spot ’em all!), just as it is for a growing number of people around the country.
Notes
1. The American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association, Inc. (AARDA) goes on to note,”We at AARDA say that 50 million Americans suffer from autoimmune disease. Why the difference? The NIH numbers only include 24 diseases for which good epidemiology studies were available.” The American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association, Inc.,“Autoimmune Statistics.”
2. “There aren’t a large number of epidemiological studies published [on autoimmune disorders] because it’s very slow research – it can take 20 years. No investigator likes to do that kind of work. It’s also very expensive,” Noel R. Rose, MD, director of Johns Hopkins Autoimmune Disease Research Center, told Self in April. As for why these diseases are on the rise, Rose says, “There are good enough studies coming out to convince me that at least some autoimmune diseases are going up and going up quite rapidly. The question, of course, is why. There has to be some kind of environmental exposure, because genetics – which account for about a third of all cases – don’t change that fast. See “Autoimmune Epidemic: The Medical Experts.”
3. AARDA website, Ibid: “Autoimmune disease is one of the top 10 leading causes of death in female children and women in all age groups up to 64 years of age.”
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.