Calming a City

Today, Bob tells the story of Adora Iris Lee, civil rights pioneer in the 1970s, leader of the fight against HIV AIDS in the 1980s, a public health specialist, and community organizer who is now working with a team of experts to bring meditation to families in the high-crime neighborhoods of Ward 8 in Washington, DC. Adora hopes to use their work as a model for communities around the world.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Stay Calm as a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
to Stay Calm, your daily dose of calmness. I'm Bob Roth,
and I've been teaching people to meditate for fifty years,
helping them to stay calm under pressure, reboot and re
energize their lives, and basically be a happier, healthier version

(00:22):
of themselves. And now I want to help you do
the same. Ready, sit comfortably, take a few deep breaths,
and let's begin today's journey. What do you think Washington,
d C? Would be like if ten thousand people, adults
and kids incorporated a few minutes of a stress reducing

(00:43):
meditation technique into their daily lives in much the same
way as millions of people already incorporate a few minutes
of physical exercise. What would happen to sickness rates, crime rates,
trauma rates, graduation rates, rates of drug abuse? What would
happen to the quality of life for the whole city?

(01:03):
I raised the point because the idea of ten thousand
people meditating in Washington, d C. May not be so
theoretical or pie in the sky. In fact, it could
happen sooner than you think. A demonstration project is now
underway in the heart of the district's Ward eight, the
area with the highest death rates from COVID nineteen and
gun violence, and highest poverty levels in the city. The

(01:28):
project is being led by a team of top meditation
experts who are working with local government and community agencies
to bring transcendental meditation for free two people in d
C who may need it the most. Today, I want
to tell you about a woman who is part of
that team working to bring calm to an entire city.

(01:48):
Meet a Dora iris Lee. A Dora was born and
raised in Newark, New Jersey, in the nineteen fifties and sixties.
Her activist parents encouraged her to be fully involved and
engaged in social change. For a Dora, it was a
moral imperative. She worked in the civil rights movement in
the South in the early nineteen seventies, earned a master's

(02:11):
degree in public health from Yale, and headed up the
HIV AIDS Agency in Washington, d C. During the peak
of the pandemic in the nineteen eighties. She also helped
to write the landmark report on toxic waste and race
that launched the environmental justice movement. A Door also found
time to earn a second master's degree, this time and divinity,

(02:35):
and become an ordained Christian minister. And she worked with
elderly people who are dying of cancer and newborn children
who weighed less than two pounds, who were fighting to
stay alive. For most of us, that would be a
full life, but not a Dora. She kept going, learning
and serving. She spent years traveling and working throughout Africa,

(02:57):
the Middle East, and Eastern Europe, implementing in a valuating
programs for preventing HIV AIDS. Then, finally, five years ago,
the Door thought she'd had enough. She returned to Washington
and prepared for a life of retirement, which included some
community work. But a Door said that even in retirement
she felt tired. She started looking for something to center herself,

(03:21):
to calm herself, to re energize herself. She sought out meditation,
trying different practices. She liked them, but kept looking for
something easier, something that might work just a little bit better. Coincidentally,
if there are coincidences, just down the street from her
house in Ward eight was an amazing community center called

(03:44):
the Ark, which housed the meditation center. But Dora learned
transcendental meditation there and loved the techniques ease and simplicity,
and within a week she was working side by side
with Rena Boone, executive director of the Meditations Center, and
three other powerful women. Today, they are partnering with Children's

(04:05):
National Health Care System, Howard University Hospital, and other health,
community and government agencies to deliver the meditation as an
antidote to the high crime, sickness, and poverty rates in
that part of the city. Obviously, meditation won't make all
the problems miraculously disappear, but a Door says, it will

(04:25):
allow us to better handle our problems and find creative solutions,
and that we all know is more than half the battle.
Like everyone, a Door is deeply concerned about what's happening
in the city and the whole country. She sees a
lot of people advocating for change, in particular young people.

(04:46):
Change has to come, a Door says, But to make
the change real, to make it stick, it's going to
take time. This is a marathon, not a sprint. The
fact is, these young people need a tool to help
them stay center, collected and calm so that they can
go to the distance. Otherwise they're just going to burn out.

(05:07):
It's a long journey, and I think these young people
will find transcendental meditation a very helpful tool on that road.
They will benefit, but so will our community and really
the whole world. All right, let's end this time together
doing something that I think should be a feature of
our everyday life, and that's appreciation and gratitude. So let's

(05:29):
take thirty seconds of quiet, thirty seconds to take a break,
just take a moment. It turns out when we do that,
it's good for our health as well. I'll be right back,

(06:09):
all right. Thank you for joining me today. I hope
you heard something that inspires, that uplifts you and that
you can incorporate into your own life. This is Bob Roth.
Stay calm, hey, all of you out there. I'd love
to hear from you. You can send me your stories,

(06:29):
your questions, or anything else on your mind. Just connect
with me on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram at meditation Bob.
You can also send me an email at meditation Bob
Roth at gmail dot com. I look forward to hearing
from you.