Democracy, Technology and The Civil Rights Project

Democracy has been defined as a political system in which the whole people make, and are entitled to make, the basic determining decisions on important matters of public policy. While the United States is often touted as the world\u27s leading proponent of democracy, many U.S. citizens find themselves unable to engage in one of the central acts of democracy—creating public voice through public engagement. Public engagement in the United States is constrained by our inability to talk through our shared, complementary and divergent values. This lack of public engagement and our inability to speak in a public voice is also driven by a cultural tendency to reduce complex public issues to simple for or against policy positions. The process of building a public voice in the United States is further complicated by the vast racial, ethnic, linguistic and economic diversity, and the imbalance of power that exist among these separate sectors of our society. The history of this country is replete with the struggles of people to overcome these power imbalances and create opportunities for their voices to become an integral part of the public voice. But, as the 21st century approaches, these same citizens find themselves on the brink of a new battle over citizen participation. This battle is being defined around access to and use of technology. Currently, most Americans are merely bystanders watching the rapid advances in technology shift the political, economic, and social terrain in which their viability as citizens is being determined. For members of the African-American community, and indeed for all communities of color and for economically disadvantaged communities, their ability to participate as equal citizens will now, in part, depend upon their ability to shape the technological world that is redefining the concept of public discourse and public involvement in the political process

Cigarette Smoke-Related Hydroquinone Dysregulates MCP-1, VEGF and PEDF Expression in Retinal Pigment Epithelium in Vitro and in Vivo

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of legal blindness in the elderly population. Debris (termed drusen) below the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) have been recognized as a risk factor for dry AMD and its progression to wet AMD, which is characterized by choroidal neovascularization (CNV). The underlying mechanism of how drusen might elicit CNV remains undefined. Cigarette smoking, oxidative damage to the RPE and inflammation are postulated to be involved in the pathophysiology of the disease. To better understand the cellular mechanism(s) linking oxidative stress and inflammation to AMD, we examined the expression of pro-inflammatory monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), pro-angiogenic vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and anti-angiogenic pigment epithelial derived factor (PEDF) in RPE from smoker patients with AMD. We also evaluated the effects of hydroquinone (HQ), a major pro-oxidant in cigarette smoke on MCP-1, VEGF and PEDF expression in cultured ARPE-19 cells and RPE/choroids from C57BL/6 mice.MCP-1, VEGF and PEDF expression was examined by real-time PCR, Western blot, and ELISA. Low levels of MCP-1 protein were detected in RPE from AMD smoker patients relative to controls. Both MCP-1 mRNA and protein were downregulated in ARPE-19 cells and RPE/choroids from C57BL/6 mice after 5 days and 3 weeks of exposure to HQ-induced oxidative injury. VEGF protein expression was increased and PEDF protein expression was decreased in RPE from smoker patients with AMD versus controls resulting in increased VEGF/PEDF ratio. Treatment with HQ for 5 days and 3 weeks increased the VEGF/PEDF ratio in vitro and in vivo.We propose that impaired RPE-derived MCP-1-mediated scavenging macrophages recruitment and phagocytosis might lead to incomplete clearance of proinflammatory debris and infiltration of proangiogenic macrophages which along with increased VEGF/PEDF ratio favoring angiogenesis might promote drusen accumulation and progression to CNV in smoker patients with dry AMD