The Air I Breathe Full Movie

[Barb Frison]

RobinCavendish: Let me ask you, when you look at me, what is it that you see? Do you see a creature that's barely alive? Or do you see a man that's escaped the confines of the hospital wards? Now, I have a machine under this very seat, and it breathes for me. And at home, I have a ventilator by my bed. I also have a remarkable group of friends. And most vitally I have my wife. But, as you see, I can do nothing for myself. And yet here I am. When I first became paralysed, I wanted to die. Yeah, I wanted to die, I did. But my wife wouldn't let me. She told me I had to live. To see our son grow up. So I went on living... because she told me to. Because of her, really. And with her. And for her. And every day since then, I've accepted the risk of dying because I don't want to just survive. I want to truly live. So, I implore you, you go back to your hospitals and you tell your disabled patients that they too can truly live. You all have this power to open the gates and set them free.

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Most people spend more than 90% of their lives inside buildings, and the air we breathe indoors plays a critical role in shaping human health, productivity, well-being, and learning. Respiratory infections like the flu and pneumonia are a leading cause of death in the U.S. and globally, and the risk of airborne infection transmission is greater indoors. Asthma and allergies, which can significantly impact quality of life, are also associated with poor indoor air quality.

The Building Resilient Environments for Air and Total HEalth (BREATHE) program envisions smart building systems that monitor and respond to changes in indoor air quality. Green buildings balance thermal comfort and energy efficiency and BREATHE aims to employ similar approaches to handle indoor pathogen and allergen exposure. To succeed, BREATHE will need to develop tools to sense airborne bioaerosols, assess indoor air quality exposure risk, and deliver cost-effective building interventions to improve human health.

BREATHE aims to revolutionize public health by advancing our ability to monitor and improve indoor air quality and forecast emerging health threats. To create a scalable system capable of monitoring and managing indoor air, BREATHE will engage performers across a range of expertise, including molecular diagnostic testing and biosensor instrument developers, data analysts, risk assessment software developers, property management firms, and others. The program has three technical areas: creating indoor biosensors, developing respiratory risk assessment software, and installing systems in buildings to cost-effectively deliver healthier air when needed.

With the increased attention on indoor air quality and technological improvements in environmental surveillance, ARPA-H can bring together researchers and engineers to collaborate and accelerate an integrated solution for healthy indoor air.

Uniquely, BREATHE requires performers to form teams to achieve the goals of the program. Teams should aim to capture a breadth of technologies, methodologies, and other relevant aspects within each Technical Area. To facilitate this process, we have created a teaming page where prospective performers can share their profiles and learn more about other interested parties.

Over the past several days, I have received numerous messages of care and support from friends, neighbors, and acquaintances, each of whom simply wanted to express their concern for how I might be feeling in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. For many, I am perhaps one of the only African-American men in their social or business circles. Others, especially those who know me well, are cognizant of my own personal experiences with racial violence. Their expressions of love and support are rooted in the fact that the circumstances surrounding the deaths of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery are strikingly similar to my own accounts of an attack on my father over fifty years ago, one I witnessed as a little boy. What my friends may not know, but surely suspect, is that each report of racial violence at the hands of a police officer or group of men brings to the surface the vivid memories of that terrible night.

On a hot summer Friday evening, my little sister asked my parents for strawberries. We lived in a predominantly Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and so all of the stores were closed. But my sister wanted strawberries, and my father wanted to get them for her. So, he loaded me, my sister, and my baby brother into the back seat of our car, and drove to another neighborhood to get strawberries. As we returned home, my father noticed that we were being followed by another car. Suddenly, that other car swerved in front of us and stopped, forcing our car to halt at the curb. In an instant, three white men, all in their twenties, jumped out of their car and rushed to ours. They dragged my father out of the car, and began to beat him with tire irons, a crow bar, and a baseball bat. They did this in full view of his three little children. When neighbors came out, the three men jumped back into their car and sped off, leaving my father for dead on the hood of our car. I can still see his hand reaching for me against the windshield covered with his blood.

While my father survived that night, he lived the rest of his life with a surgically reconstructed eye socket, complete with a plate in his face that set off metal detectors. But his were not the only scars that those men left. If it were not for our neighbors, I often wonder whether my little sister, baby brother and I would have survived that night. I often think about my failure to remember the license plate number when asked by the police. And while I can still see the taillights of the car through that bloody windshield, I know that those men will never have to answer for what they did to us. At least not in this life.

As an African-American man, I have had the experience of being pulled over by a police officer, with no apparent or expressed reason for the stop. I have been berated and verbally abused, without receiving a ticket or a warning. The most scarring of these events occurred in front of my two little boys, who are now grown, African-American men themselves. The police officer was intent on nothing more than humiliating and emasculating me in front of my small children, hoping to provoke me to respond. At that moment, I remember thinking that the most important thing I could do for my sons was to survive the encounter. Still, I have often thought about what lasting scars may have cut into their psyche by watching what that officer did to me that night. I often wonder what my sons think of me, as a man, and as their protector, knowing that I could not fight back.

Like many African-American men, my experiences are far too common. While they have never left me, these memories are all too frequently brought back to the surface by watching the videos that have become routine on American televisions and mobile telephones. The callous murders of unarmed men like Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd are real for me. That could have been my father. That could have been me. That could be either one of my sons. And in a very real sense, like many other African-American men, I am George Floyd. Except, I can breathe. And I can do something. I must do something.

Second, I will work with Notre Dame faculty, alumni, and benefactors to fully fund fellowships for, and actively recruit, exceptional applicants for our Juris Doctor program committed to the cause of civil rights. Our goal will be to provide Notre Dame lawyers for every community in this country to stand vigilant against violations of civil and human rights, wherever those threats might arise.

One thing that each and every one of us can do is to end the cycle of hate by ending the separation that leads to it. This racial separation and violence will not end until we stop waiting for African-Americans to enter our circles. Each of us needs to get to know people who differ from us. We must all make a conscious decision and effort to expand our circles.

Diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer, theologian Dr. Richard R. Gaillardetz started sharing his thoughts and reflections on CaringBridge and signed off each entry with the Latin phrase "dum spiro, spero" ("While I breathe, I hope"). In his chronologically compiled essays, Rick moves through his final season of life seeking insight from his Christian faith, while discovering new meaning in the signs and symbols that mark familiar liturgical seasons and celebrations. He explores fears and doubts, joys and sufferings, and the graces and blessings he encounters along his final journey. With shots of humor, a few sports analogies, and a sprinkling of quotes from Karl Rahner, Rick offers wisdom for all in his poignant exploration of what it means to be a person of faith, entering the paschal mystery, ever hopeful for the life to come.

Richard R. Gaillardetz (1958-2023), held the Joseph Chair of Catholic Systematic Theology at Boston College. He published numerous articles and authored or edited twelve books, including An Unfinished Council: Vatican II, Pope Francis, and the Renewal of Catholicism and Keys to the Council: Unlocking the Teaching of Vatican II (co-authored with Catherine Clifford), both published by Liturgical Press. He was a contributor to Give Us This Day. Gaillardetz was a delegate on the US Catholic-Methodist Ecumenical Dialogue and served as president of the Catholic Theological Society of America between 2013 and 2014.

Clean air is a fundamental necessity for everyone to live, grow, and thrive. That is why we are proud to partner with Bloomberg Philanthropies and C40 Cities, to tackle air pollution in cities across the world. By advancing action at the local level, promoting new data and technologies, and building a robust network to share valuable lessons along with fostering community cohesion, we are collectively empowering cities to improve air quality and address one of the greatest public health problems of our time. Together, we can create a future where everyone can breathe clean air.

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