Book Discussion of Ripples of Hope in the Mississippi Delta: Charting the Health Equity Policy Agenda

Join Debra Bingham (David’s mother) to celebrate the December 2024 release of the book by David K. Jones (1981-2021). The discussion will explore how we as a community can move away from blaming individuals for their poor health outcomes and create a goal-based, community led health policy agenda. For more information about the event contact the bookstore – Just Book-ish

Debra believes like her son David wrote in his book, that “we can become a country in which we cannot predict how likely someone is to be healthy based on their race, their ethnicity, where they live, or other demographic characteristics – a society in which everyone has equal opportunity to be healthy in the fullest sense of the word, not just the absence of disease but ‘a state of complete physical, emotional, and social well-being.’ “[i]^{, [ii]} Of note: David died in Dorchester on September 11, 2021 – at age 40 while his book was undergoing peer review. He died in a preventable accident that occurred due to lack of investment in public infrastructure. His death underscores the main point of his book: people suffer, even die, when society does not uphold its values to protect each other.

References:

[i] Jones, David K. (2024). Ripples of Hope in the Mississippi Delta: Charting the Health Equity Policy Agenda, Prologue, Pg. 1

[ii] “Constitution of the World Health Organization”, World Health Organization, accessed September 1, 2022, Https://apps.who.int/gb/bd/PDF/db47EN/constitution-en.pdf?ua=1, The constitution was adopted by the International Health Conference, New York, June 19-July 22, 1946. It was signed July 22, 1946, by the representatives of sixty-one states and entered into force on April 7, 1948. The definition has not been amended since 1948.