Sunday, July 29, 2012

Does IT Get Better!? "A Brighter Day Is Going To Come"

"HIV is something you Live with every day for The Rest of your Life.
You may never die Of HIV/AIDS, but you will always die with It..."

This video made me really stop & think about it & the last almost 21 years of my life... Does IT Get Better, really!? IMHO, there ...are actually 3 answers; YES, Maybe & NO. Yes, because I've seen & experienced it. Maybe, because it depends on changing Attitudes, Behaviors, Hearts & Minds. NO, in my case because I don't see the Maybe's happening before I reach the End of My Journey. So why do I do what I do!? It's in gratitude for the time, energy & resources I've been given "To use the Rest of My Life the best I can so that the people and places through which My Journey leads me will remain a little bit Better for Me having passed their way..."
Ultimately; this has come down to trying to do the things that our established Agencies, Non-profits, Organizations, etc Can't, Don't or Won't.

HIV/AIDS, primarily because of others fear, ignorance, indifference & hate; has robbed me of my ability to work as demonstrated by "Perkins", has placed me in the ranks of the fixed low-income poor, and has left me open to the additional ignorance, indifference and hate heaped on this class of Americans...
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
“A Life lived in Fear, Is a Life Half-Lived…”
Independence Weekend and Equinox (Greater) Cincinnati’s GLBT PRIDE Event's return to the Region/City’s Living Room has come and gone…
I wanted to share my thoughts on the Equinox Experience and its impact on the Concept & Vision for Our Northern Kentucky PRIDE Event to be held in conjunction with The Human Rights Campaign’s “National Coming OUT Day” on October 11th. I want to commend the work & Vision of the organizing group of Volunteers, Patrons and Board Members, especially the concept of Piggybacking with a National Day of Recognition. As you may be aware, October has also been HIV Awareness Month in the relics of our ACTUP past and this year will mark my 19th year Living with HIV and aids.
"Outside show is a poor substitute for inner worth." –Aesop
Don’t compromise yourself. You are all you’ve got. - Janis Joplin

Somedays, Life in The HIVe's a Bitch!!!

For the POZ CommUNITY At Large on The South Bank; a HIVe of support, education, information, abundant in shared experiences aglow with the warmth of acceptance for all who shall seek us out... WELCOME!!!
My Stories - 1991 thru 2002
All the Colors, in all the Flags and the Faces of All the Nations, Causes, Countries, Cities, Counties, Corporations, Denominations, Monarchies, Municipalities, Papacys, Religions, Republics, States, Territories can only be found in one place on the Globe...

"In the Rainbows Beam..."
Greetings!
I logged these thoughts shortly before departing Wallace Woods and "The Holiday House"!

In the article "2002 for beginners - Start the New Year with 8 Resolutions You Can Make and Keep", Timothy Murphy advises:
"#8 - FREE YOUR HEART, FEED YOUR SOUL: Not to get all Oprah on you, but if you're going into 2002 with old resentments - against an ex, family or fallen-out friend - either patch things up or let the anger go. According to Everett Worthington, a psychologist who studies the health effects of forgiveness, "by giving an unwarranted gift to someone who doesn't deserve it, we find paradoxically that it is we ourselves who are freed from that bondage." That can mean lower levels of stress, depression, blood pressure - all coups for HIVers.
So that leaves just you and the universe. How do you talk to each other? Whether it's through an organized house of worship, some form of meditation or prayer, volunteering your time to others or even just a conscious gratitude that every day is a gift, reaching out to something bigger than yourself may greatly enhance all those pills, powders, and protein shakes. (Studies correlate more prayer with more CD4 cells - honest!) And keep in mind these words from HIVer Mark V.: Any experience - be it sex, nature, art or hilarity - can be spiritual if you are present for it."." From the January issue of POZ
This struck me because I consider Oprah one of my mentors and try to practice forgiveness as she once defined it: "Forgiveness is giving up the Hope that the past could be different". It also struck me because over the last ten years, I have come to learn that by giving an unwarranted gift to those who don't deserve it, it is I who is freed from that bondage of anger.

I had read this article weeks ago and set it aside in my commentary file. I was reminded of it as I watched Tom Hanks' stunning performance in "Philadelphia" again last night. I was watching for two reasons - to remind myself of how it still really is out there, and to write down this passage
The Precedent: "The Federal Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as a reference for this Supreme Court decision: "Subsequent decisions have held that AIDS is protected as a handicap under law not only because of the physical limitations it imposes, but because the prejudice surrounding AIDS exacts a social death which precedes the actual physical one.
This is the essence of discrimination - formulating opinions about others not based on their individual merits but rather on their membership in a group with assumed characteristics."

In many ways, I consider that I died and have been a dead man walking since October 3, 1991. Most assuredly since October 10th, when Perkins learned my status and "constructively discharged" me.

My mission is to continue reaching out to something bigger than myself so that I may enhance all those pills, powders, and protein shakes; to live to tell as long as I am able and to share my experiences with any one who may benefit from what I've learned.
"He who conceals his disease cannot expect to be cured."
... an Ethiopian Proverb

"Community in Search of an Identity" By Mary Fisher

Flying back to New England yesterday was interesting. I've always loved this part of the country and have enjoyed splendid times here. My husband, Brian, and I met and lived in New York. Brian died in 1993 and is buried in New England. It was in New England that I first met Larry Kramer, the founder of ACT-UP, who has since become a great friend. Larry is one of the nation's finest playwrights, and he never fails to make me laugh. I was standing on a stage in New England, substituting for Arthur Ashe who wasn't feeling well, when the announcement came that Arthur had died. I let my mind review all those moments yesterday, flying from Florida where my sons and I moved recently to be nearer family. New England is important territory to me, and you're important people.

I want to talk this morning about what it takes to create a community, because I believe the idea of an "AIDS community" is mostly a myth. There is no such beast. Some of us have AIDS; some of us enjoy community. But we'd be hard-pressed to give any kind of definition or meaning to the idea of an "AIDS community." And it's too bad this is true. If ever there was a group in need of community, it's the group represented here this morning: people with AIDS and those who care about us. We would be a community full of suffering and stigma, but also a community full of humor and power. We could be an international community, because the virus has made us so; we could be a supportive community... if we would make us so. The virus has done a marvelous job of finding those who are Black and White, gay and straight, young and old, male and female, African and American. But we've not yet learned to imitate the virus's ability to enroll everyone in a single community...


Hello... I live in Maryland and am a foster/adoptive mother.
I have one son now whom my husband and I are in the process of adopting.
We are taking a baby next week who is 2 months old. His mother is HIV positive and the last HIV test they did on the baby was also positive. The hospital says it could be a false positive and that the neg or pos status isnt for sure until the baby is at least a year old.
I am fairly new to the world of HIV and I need to educate myself.
I had a friend die earlier this year of AIDS and it was the most heart wrenching thing I have ever gone through. I guess what I need is resources and advice or the risks of having my 8 month old son and this new baby together. I know how you can and cannot get HIV but I have a very close minded family and my mom is freaking out telling me how I am putting my 8 month old son at risk and how can I do this..so on and so forth. I also need to know health wise what I need to look for with the new baby. He was a preemie born at 27 weeks and is coming home on oxygen and only weighing 4.8 pounds.
I want this baby to have a family and to know love. No other family contacted about his baby wanted him except us. And this baby deserves a chance I think.
I am sorry this is so long. I just need some support and help. Everyone except my husband thinks I am nuts for taking an HIV baby.
Once you find out you are positive you have one of two choices, either get busy dying or get busy living, which would you chose? [hiv-aids-support] @ Yahoo Groups


U.S. Warned Against AIDS ComplacencySun Jul 7, 2002By EMMA ROSS, AP Medical Writer
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) - The United States must revive the passion it once had for tackling the AIDS epidemic, otherwise infection rates could start climbing again, the U.S. AIDS prevention chief said Sunday.

From "The NAMES Project Foundation":
AIDS Is NOT Over
Dear Media Member:
As representatives of the foremost U.S. AIDS service organizations, we urge you to consider carefully the following key points regarding the AIDS epidemic in 1997.
The past year has brought the most exciting advances in the treatment of HIV and AIDS since the epidemic began in 1981. As you know, dramatic improvements in drug therapies have translated directly into prolonged life spans for many people with HIV and AIDS. For the first time, deaths from AIDS in the United States dropped 13% across the country over the first half of last year. Indeed, new drug therapies such as the protease inhibitors have enabled many people with AIDS who once were wasting and bedridden to reclaim their lives, regain their health, and re-enter the workforce.
However, the hope felt by those of us battling AIDS is countered by new challenges. While effective combinations of protease inhibitors have thrown a lifeboat to many people with AIDS, we are still navigating through rough waters. The drugs' effectiveness and tolerability vary widely among people, and their extreme expense puts them out of reach for the vast majority of people with HIV. In fact, it is estimated that a mere 5% of all people with HIV have access to them. Even more importantly, protease inhibitors do not prevent a single HIV infection, and media messages hailing the imminent end of AIDS may actually be undermining some HIV prevention efforts. The end of AIDS will come only when an effective AIDS vaccine is developed, and the slow rate of progress in this difficult area of research will not bear fruit until well into the next century.
As representatives of the foremost U.S. AIDS service organizations, we urge you to consider carefully the following key points regarding the AIDS epidemic in 1997.
Access to the new drug therapies is the basic problem for many people with HIV. To be truly effective, protease inhibitors must be used in combination with at least two other anti-HIV drugs. Annual costs for this treatment average about $15,000 per person. Without private health insurance, Americans must rely on public programs such as the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP), a federally funded initiative to provide AIDS-related drugs to people with HIV. Most ADAPs (which are administered by states) currently are so strapped for cash that they're being forced to ration the drugs among their applicants. Inadequate federal funding of these programs is financially illogical, as the new drug therapies have been scientifically proven to reduce healthcare costs and hospitalizations among people with HIV.
When HIV-positive people actually get their hands on these therapies, a new set of concerns arises. First, will they be effective? Experts estimate that up to 30% of patients will not respond to treatment. After years of treatment with older anti-HIV drugs, their viruses may have resistant mutations that render the newer drugs useless. Second, if they do actually reduce the amount of virus in the patient's bloodstream, will he or she be able to weather the drug's sometimes crippling side effects? Protease inhibitors, for many people, are intolerable because of nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, headache, kidney stones and serious drug interactions with other medications. In fact, anywhere from 1 in 100 to 1 in 1000 patients taking protease inhibitors may be at risk for developing diabetes or hyperglycemia from treatment with these drugs, according to an advisory released by the Food and Drug Administration on June 11, 1997.
A final problem with these new treatments is understanding the best way to use them. Four protease inhibitors join seven other antiviral drugs to stock our arsenal against HIV. These therapies must be used in combination to be truly effective and to avoid drug resistance. With so many permutations at our fingertips, we don't yet understand which combination is the best, or when that combination should be initiated in the course of someone's disease. These uncertainties will only be ironed out by further clinical trials. Enlisting a physician who's informed of the latest research in this area is a life-and-death matter for people with HIV.
HIV-positive individuals who had a doctor experienced in the nuances of HIV treatments had a 31% lower risk of death than patients whose physicians were the least AIDS-experienced, according to a 1996 University of Washington study.
Protease inhibitors do not prevent new HIV infections.
Despite the exciting advances in treatments, new HIV infections remain relatively steady at 40,000-50,000 Americans per year, according to estimates from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, the epidemic is losing its gay, white male face more and more every year. Increasingly, the faces are those of women, youth and people of color, and unfortunately it is these groups of people that have the least access to quality medical care. These changing demographic trends demand that we tailor new HIV prevention programs to better serve groups at increased risk. Some of the facts on where the epidemic is moving:
*AIDS is now the leading cause of death among African Americans. Black men are almost six times more likely to get infected compared to white men, and black women are 16 times more likely to get infected than white women.
*Fifty-two percent of AIDS cases occurred among African Americans and Latinos, yet these two population groups represent an estimated 13% and 10%, respectfully, of the total U.S. population.
*Half of all HIV infections happen among individuals who are 25 or younger, and one in four happen among individuals 20 or younger.
*HIV is spreading almost six times as quickly among women as among men.
*Elsewhere in the world, the situation is far worse. Last year, almost 3 million people around the world were infected with HIV. Most of them were under age 25, and half of them were women. 400,000 new HIV infections occurred among children.
*Protease inhibitors are doing nothing to curb this rising tide of new HIV infections. In fact, these new therapies may be exacerbating the situation. Media reports of AIDS becoming a chronic manageable illness, and whispers of possible viral eradication, may lead some people to become less vigilant with safer sex and safer injection practices. Some liken protease inhibitors to the "morning after pill." Indeed, San Francisco has become the first city in the United States to offer a controversial "post-exposure HIV clinic," in which patients who've had unprotected sex or shared needles to inject drugs will receive immediate antiviral therapy in an attempt to prevent HIV from "taking hold" in the body during these first few critical hours of HIV infection. It is yet to be seen what the consequences of this program will have on the behavior of individuals in the community.
*As an example, through its National High School Quilt Program, in 1997 the NAMES Project Foundation is taking the AIDS Memorial Quilt to three high schools in every U.S. state. The Quilt serves as the centerpiece of a week of HIV prevention activities for high school-aged youth, and serves as a catalyst for discussion of AIDS and its related issues. Nearly 90% of students surveyed said they would take steps to avoid HIV infection as a result of seeing the Quilt.
*To meet the needs of women with HIV-and help head off the spread of HIV among women-New York City's Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC) in late 1996 launched its Department of Women's Education Services. In addition to safer-sex workshops for women previously sponsored by GMHC, the department also will hold a series of community forums, collaborate with other community-based organizations in the creation of new support groups, and coordinate agency-wide services for women to better serve its female clients.
*With HIV infection rates on the rise among youth ages 14-20 in the Seattle/King County, Washington area, the Northwest AIDS Foundation has launched Project ACTION to address this disturbing trend. The program works with local business to install low-cost condom vending machines in locations frequented by youth. In addition to condom vending, the project also focuses on community mobilization, media and peer education. The goals of Project ACTION are to make condoms readily accessible to sexually active youth, create a strong health promotion message, and train youth to conduct workshops that teach HIV prevention, abstinence and gotiation and refusal skills to delay the onset of sexual activity.
..."
U.S. AIDS cases and HIV infections have remained fairly stable since 1998 at
about 10,000 new infections every three months, but that overall stability may
mask reported increases in HIV infections among heterosexuals, said Dr. Ronald
Valdiserri, deputy director of the National Center for HIV, STD and TB
Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

About 1 million Americans are infected with HIV, which causes AIDS.

The lack of additional progress against the virus likely stems from several
factors, including the large number of infected people who either do not know
they have the virus or are not getting treatment.

"Today's epidemic is very different from the one we faced a decade ago. The
populations at risk, the attitudes about infection and the science of HIV have
all changed. And so must our prevention efforts," said Valdiserri, who
presented new research at the International AIDS Conference in Barcelona.

More than 15,000 people from around the world have gathered here for the
weeklong 14th International AIDS Conference, looking for solutions to an
epidemic infecting 40 million people worldwide, more than half of them in
Africa.

Dr. Peter Piot, executive director of the U.N. AIDS program, said Sunday there
was no indication the epidemic is leveling off worldwide, and strategies known
to prevent its spread still are grossly underused.

Scientific discoveries in HIV and AIDS also seem to be merely incremental,
experts said. New drugs that do the same thing — but slightly better — are
emerging, but there's no vaccine or blockbuster treatment around the corner.

Making more progress against HIV will require getting more people tested and
treated early in their infection, and developing drugs that work better and are
simpler to take, Valdiserri and other experts said.

However, the ultimate goal is to prevent infections from occurring in the first
place.

Valdiserri presented research on new HIV infections in 25 states to provide a
snapshot of the situation in the United States. There is no national HIV
surveillance program, so complete nationwide figures do not exist.

The 25 states exclude California, New York and Florida and account for only one
quarter of the HIV infections nationwide, he said.

Because 13- to 24-year-olds are more likely to have been recently infected,
trends in this age group are a more accurate indicator of recent HIV infection
patterns, Valdiserri said. Diagnoses among that group remained somewhat stable throughout 1994 to 2000.

"This seeming stability may not tell the whole story," Valdiserri said.

When the researchers examined the statistics by risk group instead of age
group, a different picture emerged.

"There have been slow but steady increases among heterosexuals, with diagnoses
increasing 10 percent between 1998 and 2000," he said.

The majority of those infections — 75 percent — were in black Americans, with
black women accounting for almost half the cases among heterosexuals between
1994 and 2000.

While Latin Americans account for a low proportion of HIV cases in the 25
states studied, at a national level they are disproportionately affected.

The first step to making progress now is to recognize that the HIV epidemic is
different today than it used to be, Valdiserri said.

There is a growing group of people infected with HIV who face a lifetime of
maintaining safe sexual practices. Those people are living longer, healthier
lives thanks to new treatments, and they continue having sex.

Valdiserri said research suggests that almost 70 percent of people recently
diagnosed with HIV report being sexually active within the last year. Between
57 and 75 percent said they used a condom the last time they had sex.

For those without the disease, the growing pool of HIV infections means a
greater chance of becoming infected and an even greater need to protect
themselves, Valdiserri said.

"Americans ... don't have the same sense of urgency or crisis which
characterized the early years of the epidemic," Valdiserri said. "Some are
becoming bored with HIV after 20 years, some are simply tired of the messages
and behavior change. And many didn't realize they were signing on for a
lifetime of condom use."

Many people speak of complacency now that HIV is treatable, and some even are
skeptical that further progress can be made in the United States, Valdiserri
said.

"We can't sit back and wait for a vaccine. Instead, we must renew HIV
prevention in the United States," he said.

"We must revive the passion with which the U.S. once faced the HIV epidemic,
with a strong and pre-eminent focus on preventing the spread of the virus."
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Saturday, July 14, 2012

July 2012: The WORLD's MOST RENOWNED HIV/AIDS EXPERTS GATHER IN AMERICA!

"Community in Search of an Identity"

By Mary Fisher

Flying back to New England yesterday was interesting. I've always loved this part of the country and have enjoyed splendid times here. My husband, Brian, and I met and lived in New York. Brian died in 1993 and is buried in New England. It was in New England that I first met Larry Kramer, the founder of ACT-UP, who has since become a great friend. Larry is one of the nation's finest playwrights, and he never fails to make me laugh. I was standing on a stage in New England, substituting for Arthur Ashe who wasn't feeling well, when the announcement came that Arthur had died. I let my mind review all those moments yesterday, flying from Florida where my sons and I moved recently to be nearer family. New England is important territory to me, and you're important people.
I want to talk this morning about what it takes to create a community, because I believe the idea of an "AIDS community" is mostly a myth. There is no such beast. Some of us have AIDS; some of us enjoy community. But we'd be hard-pressed to give any kind of definition or meaning to the idea of an "AIDS community." And it's too bad this is true. If ever there was a group in need of community, it's the group represented here this morning: people with AIDS and those who care about us. We would be a community full of suffering and stigma, but also a community full of humor and power. We could be an international community, because the virus has made us so; we could be a supportive community... if we would make us so. The virus has done a marvelous job of finding those who are Black and White, gay and straight, young and old, male and female, African and American. But we've not yet learned to imitate the virus's ability to enroll everyone in a single community.
One of the things that has divided us, historically, is politics. During Bill Clinton's last run for the presidency - 1996 - I was invited to speak at an AIDS-related event in Little Rock, Arkansas. It was an awards night for regional folk who'd made significant contributions to the fight against HIV. The room was packed with social workers, people with AIDS, family members, religious leaders, a few politicians and journalists - in other words, the room was packed with Democrats. Out of deference to me, every speaker had been very discreet never to mention politics or Republicans, until the community awards were being handed out, and the last recipient wanted to talk.
She was a wonderful, elderly public health nurse: bright, quick, tiny, 77-years-old and feisty. And you could hear every politically correct person in that room stop breathing when she reached up, grabbed the mic and said - and I quote - "I've had it with them dumb Republicans."
"For fifteen years," she said, "I've talked to them dumb Republicans. Over and over, I've explained there ain't but three ways you can get AIDS: swap needles or blood, have sex, or get born with it. And, for 15 years, them dumb Republicans been askin', 'But cain't you get it from mosquitoes?"'
She paused for a moment, and then she said: "I'm tellin' y'all tonight that, from now on, I'm gonna' tell 'em, 'Yep, you can get it from mosquitoes - but only in three states: Florida, Louisiana, and Arkansas. 'Cause them's the only places mosquitoes grow so big Republicans can have sex with 'em."'
Of all the stories I've collected while traveling the road to AIDS, this is probably my favorite. I love telling it because it's not only funny; it's important. To develop a community, people need sources of common identity, of shared history. We get this, usually, through stories. Stories give our lives texture and color, pathos and laughter. They make us ashamed or they make us proud, but most of all they make us an "us."
In one of the commentaries on his great story, Roots, the late Alex Haley explained why he had written the book in the first place. He told this story: When African slave ships were bound for the American market, the ship's captains would observe their cargo to see which captive man seemed most like a leader. Then, two or three days at sea, they would take the identified prisoner to the deck where, surrounded by all the other captives, the ship's crew would use red-hot tongs to rip out his tongue, searing his mouth in the process. Slave captains feared revolt. They feared insurrection. But what they feared most was stories - stories that gave the slaves a history, an identity, a sense of value and worth.
And so it is. Without stories, we will have no community; and without community, we will lack a sense of our own value and worth. That's why stories matter.
When first I was diagnosed with HIV in 1991, and when first many of you joined the fight, the AIDS community had its own story. It was a story of mysterious reports and sudden wasting, of an unnoticed community of hemophiliacs whose lives were suddenly being cut short and a previously hidden gay community whose fabric and texture was suddenly, brutally, being exposed by AIDS. Headlines told stories of families making three discoveries simultaneously: their brothers were gay, their brothers were sick, their brothers were dying.
Part of the story was told quietly by the Names Project Memorial AIDS Quilt founded by Cleve Jones and friends. It was told in the ritual unfolding of panels in temple basements and college gyms across the nation. Walking the edge of the Quilt, the mother - who'd insisted to her bridge club that her son had died of cancer - found courage to tell the truth, to tell his story, to crochet a memory into a panel about the size of his coffin. How many stories have you and I heard? How many times did the whisper of unfolding panels make us shiver, and tear-up, and grab hold of the hand next to ours? In their refusal to let us go anonymously to the grave, Cleve and Company assured a memory of the stories.
Part of the story was blared into cameras and screamed into the night by Larry Kramer and his ACT UP warriors. They loaded press releases and aimed them at The New York Times; they loaded condoms and threw them at the president's motorcade. In their rage, they told another story about AIDS: about those who believed gay men deserved to waste away, about those in power who preferred prejudice to compassion and cowardice to honor. So important was their story, and so powerful their fury, that I dreaded them when I spoke to the 1992 Republican Convention. I feared they would say I had sold out; that I didn't understand because I was a woman, not a gay man; that I didn't belong with them, because I'd come from a family with means whose father spoke to presidents.
Both the Quilt and ACT UP are, today, mostly memories. The past presidential campaign was the first in the history of AIDS that the Quilt, in all its grief and glory, was not lain across Washington's Mall. ACT UP is still alive, but Larry is fighting as much to open the doors for organ transplants as for AIDS funding.
The image of the Quilt and the echo of ACT UP remind us that, once upon a time, the American AIDS community did have a common story. All of us - gay or straight - had tasted the stigma championed by select Members of Congress and leaders in a series of Administrations. The story of being disenfranchised by a virus was our story; it belonged to all of us. It helped make us a community.
All of us - male or female - had known the rage that built within us, the grim, unbending suspicion that if AIDS was a death sentence, people in power did not mind. We rallied and we protested. Tom Hank's Philadelphia was our story, our fight for dignity. It gave us a sense of community.
But time, dying and treatments moved on. The gay community was so decimated by the plague that cohesion gave way to collective denial. Leaders were mostly people with the virus; sickness took those who avoided coffins. Elizabeth is dead. Arthur is dead. Paul is dead. It's hard to lead when you're dead. And the rest of us, mostly, just went home to live or to die, but mostly to hide.
The hardest thing to find in the AIDS epidemic today - whether you are a physician or a policy buff, an activist or a journalist - is anything fairly resembling an American AIDS community. We can use the phrase, "American AIDS community," but it has no substance. We are not one anymore, no matter how a virus may be touching each of us. We are divided into silos of interest and self-interest, a few advocates and many drug manufacturers, researchers and physicians. We are divided by economics and geography and ethnicity. We are seen less as a national community than as a government category. We are not a political force. We are, in fact, just barely a political issue.
Communities need rituals by which to remember a common tradition. That was the role of the Quilt; it told the AIDS community's story as a growing story of a swelling epidemic. The community's rituals have mostly faded now. We folded them up with the Quilt in the Fall of '96. We put them, mostly, away. Even the red ribbon has now been buried under drawers full of other ribbons symbolizing other causes.
I am not wishing for some “good old days” when people with AIDS were dying left and right. I'm not wistful for the agony of those years, or naive about the vast improvements that have been made in the treatment of AIDS. I am grateful for the advances. But I am haunted, and some days distraught, at our collective and profound loss of community.
And it is not only an American community for which I long; it is a global AIDS community. I've stood in the African dust with sisters whose children are dying. I've looked across acres of orphans while holding the hands of my own sons. This is not an academic exercise for me, or an emotional appeal for Americanism.
Most Americans believe there is no need to have an AIDS community because they believe AIDS has a cure, just like diabetes. They believe AIDS is an African problem because people in Africa can't afford to be cured; if only those Africans had more cash, they too would be fine. When I try to explain that AIDS is not cured, most Americans believe I'm merely whining. There's a cure - they're sure of it, they know it. African American youth believe it because of Magic Johnson. Other folk believe it because what else would a "manageable disease" be, if not "cured"? And, let's be candid: We haven't done well ourselves at getting out this message - perhaps because some of us also wish it were cured in our own lives.
Which brings me back to the matter of stories. A community is, in many respects, a group of people bound together by a common story. What made Israel "Israel" is a common story brought down from Fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. What makes the Ute people or the Navajo people a "people" is not simply common DNA, but common stories. What sets the DeAngelo family apart from the Hernandez family and the Jones family is their uniquely woven set of stories called "family tradition." It's stories that tell us who we are, where we belong, where we find our place among others. The absence of such stories means we are, in some profound ways, orphans - which is why so many of those with AIDS today have no context, no support systems, no advocates. They are without the community that defines us and cares for us and makes us, somewhere between cradle and grave, human.
Stories are our way of making sense out of what cannot be explained, our way of making endurable what could otherwise not be endured. Paul Rudnick, the wonderful writer, once explained why gay men have written comedies about AIDS. "Only money, rage, and science can conquer AIDS," he said. "But only laughter can make the nightmare bearable."
One of the reasons I love telling the story of that sainted public health nurse and her Republican-loving mosquitoes is because it says something of the AIDS community. If you knew nothing of AIDS political history, it wouldn't be funny. But it plays on our American story, and our sense of the impossible. It's like Jewish humor or Italian humor; it's "inside humor,'' an AIDS community joke. Besides, it makes us laugh - which makes the nightmare bearable.
So here's my call to you today. I want you to start gathering, and shaping, and telling, and publishing stories. That's right: stories. We need to humanize AIDS again, taking it out of the dusty realm of statistics and projections and patient charts. We need to reattach AIDS to something human, something that slashes into a family and matters to a congregation. Both the media and the politicians know the numbers, what they don't know is that the numbers matter. They think of them as one story told a half- million times. We need to help them understand, and we need for ourselves to remember, that they were and are not one story told endlessly. They are a half-million stories, told one precious life at a time. And if we can raise our eyes to see on the distant acres of orphans and miles of dying brothers and sisters, the volume of stories to be told is truly countless.
My goal this morning is personal, not political. But I wish you would help shower the current Administration in Washington DC with stories of AIDS that explain realities, not theories. In particular, I wish those of you with contacts on the Republican side of the aisle would use them. I am an appointee to the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS where we need a profound understanding of human stories lest we advocate profoundly inhumane policies.
I have, for example, always held that the surest way to avoid sexual transmission of HIV is to avoid sex. Abstinence is a useful tool of prevention. But consider my own story, and that of so many other women: I contracted AIDS in my marriage...where abstinence is improbable if the relationship is to continue. Thus, when we wander into something called "abstinence only" I believe we've moved from prevention to philosophy, from strategies that save lives to a lone strategy that will take lives. The only way I know to counter the moves we hear, see and fear, is to reach for honest stories. Because when a Congresswoman needs to move a piece of legislation, she puts out a call to her district for stories. Those stories become human when they appear in legislative rooms as witnesses and in press reports as examples. It's why a President plants families in the House Gallery during his State of the Union, why USA TODAY leads any policy story with people affected by the policy. The number "six million" has no meaning until you attach it to Anne Frank's story.
They fact that we have let the American AIDS community grow mute and scattered; the fact that our numbers are being reported but our story isn't being told - it is, if you'll forgive me putting it this way, what is killing us. The CDC reports 900,000 Americans with HIV. And in the corridors where power-brokers do their work; in the press rooms and editorial boards where the American mind is shaped; in the lobbying firms who want these monies for their clients - they know, they absolutely know, that there is no clamoring, protesting, voting American AIDS community.
We must find ways to reach the Secretary of State. Colin Powell has described the international AIDS crisis as a profound and moral responsibility that rests not solely, but seriously, with him. He's drawn the line between hopelessness borne of AIDS and terrorism that easily flows from such hopelessness. The Secretary of State knows the numbers. What he will need to generate support among others is stories: stories that show Americans care about AIDS, stories that rise from families who have lost loved ones and can identify with the African mother staring at her soon-to-be-orphans. To mount an American response, he needs to know that there is an American community of interest - not just pockets of professional self-interest - in AIDS. (What do you think America's policy toward Israel would have been for the past 50 years if there were no American Jewish community?)
Governor Thompson is now Secretary Thompson. For him, AIDS threatens to be a budget problem on one side and a philosophic problem on the other. If he is to advance our cause, then he needs witnesses. And we must tell him and others the truth.
What could speed creation of the AIDS community is adding your individual stories to the legacy of millions of others. What matters most isn't your case load or patient profiles, your agency budget or therapy of choice. Our jobs and systems do not define us. We discover who we are when, after an impossibly long day of work with paper and people, we finally give up and go to bed. And there, somewhere in the dark, you hear the voice of someone with whom you once knew romance. When he says, 'I love you," you drift off to sleep. And if she says, "I can't go on like this...," you stay awake. In the end, you see, it isn't our statistics that define us; it's our story.
If you want to support one another as social workers, clergy, caregivers and people with AIDS, you need time to tell each other stories, not just statistics. You need inside humor. You need to be not only members of a coalition but members of a community. If I had a wish to waste, it would be this: I wish I could get you to tell stories to each other and to me: the ridiculous and the sublime, the funny and the sad. Stories lift us up, inspire us, shake us from the professionalism and soberness that tend to associate with events such as this.
When a few years ago we created the Mary Fisher Clinical AIDS Research and Education Fund at the University of Alabama, what drew us there was a physician - my physician - Michael Saag. His name appears on scholarly papers every week. His break-through research has saved more lives than I can imagine. I know the importance of research and discovery to Michael. I know why the numbers matter to him. But it isn't statistics that will enable Michael, or any of you, to re-engage and build an AIDS community. It's stories. Let me give you an example on my way out - a story taken from I'll Not Go Quietly, a book we published in 1995.
"Billy Cox came out of his hospital bed in Birmingham, Alabama, to bring me a hug in Montgomery.
I'd first met him a year earlier at the University of Alabama at Birmingham where I was visiting Michael Saag. Michael wanted me to meet Billy, to see his spunk and spirit. 'Billy's the boxer in the ring,' Michael once observed. 'The doctors and nurses and medical staff, we're just the trainers in his corner. His friends and family are his fans, cheering him on.'
Now, a year later, I'd come to Montgomery to speak. But what I said there was not as eloquent as the events that soon played out in the life of Boxer Billy and Cousin Michael.
Six weeks after he'd brought his hug to Montgomery - seven years, four months, and three days after testing positive for the AIDS virus - Billy Cox died. November 23, 1994.
On Billy's last day, Michael Saag was leaving town for a few days and stopped in just to say good-bye. When he heard Billy's labored breathing, he called the family together and told them the end was near. And then - as nurses and old friends and Billy's family crowded into the room, forming a remarkable community bound only by love for the boxer - Michael rested his head on Billy's chest and, unashamed, before the crowd, sobbed, 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry.'
Science has limits. Even community has bounds. But no one will ever know what love might do."
A community is defined by its stories: stories of victory and loss, of heroes and scapegoats, of tragedy and triumph. For the American AIDS community to become community again, we must find ways to tell the stories again, to let others know that after Billy Cox came others, each with a name, each with a purpose, each with a life.
In my own story, you are the heroes. You are the ones whose stories matter most, whose values need to shape policies, whose passions need to find headlines. You are the ones to whom I want to point my growing sons when they set out to find role models. I want them to look beyond their father's New England grave to see you here, still at work a decade beyond Brian's dying. I want them to know that, should I leave, there is a community that will catch them as they fall.
If you will tell your story, we can build our community. Whether I am here to see it happen, or merely know it is coming, either way I can promise my children a more secure future.
And this is the promise with which I leave you: When we finally become a community, and we pause for a moment to see the rightness of its cause, we will hear a very ancient voice calling out to us. It will be a voice full of understanding and courage, full of compassion and hope. Even now, here, if we listen closely, we will hear that voice. It has a six-word message aimed most at those ready to give up and give in. We heard it first from the lips of an ancient rabbi. You hear it now, from me, as surely as if it came from God: "Grace to you, and peace."

© 2002, The Mary Fisher Clinical AIDS Research and Education (CARE) Fund. Reprinted with permission of Mary Fisher.
THE RIVER CITY NEWS MORE COVINGTON NEWS THAN ANY OTHER SOURCE:
DAY PLANNED TO HELP REBUILD SIXTH DISTRICT PLAYGROUND
The playground that burned at Sixth District Elementary School in Austinburg will get some TLC from the community on Saturday, July 21. The playground renovation and beautification project that was planned before the fire will proceed as scheduled, but with a larger mission. The event will run from 11:00AM to 2:00PM and will feature the following activities:
  • Adopt a Plant Make a donation to the renovation efforts by purchasing a plant and then placing it in one of the the commemorative garden plots
  • Soak the Superintendent For just two bucks you'll get three chances to dunk Covington Independent Public Schools Lynda Jackson and other community leaders
  • Share your ideas There will be an interactive booth to share ideas on what should be at the rebuilt playground
  • Volunteer Sign Up and Donations If you have experience in construction, landscaping, planting, and/or painting you can sign up for upcoming community build events
  • Make a donation!
There will be plenty of opportunities for the kids, so bring them! The event is sponsored by the Covington Independent Public Schools, Keep Covington Beautiful, the Center for Great Neighborhoods, and Gateway Community & Technical College.
Wait, what? President Barack Obama is the "smallest government spender" since Eisenhower? Who's reporting this? Wait, Forbes? Interesting: So, how have the Republicans managed to persuade Americans to buy into the whole “Obama as big spender” narrative?
It might have something to do with the first year of the Obama presidency where the federal budget increased a whopping 17.9% —going from $2.98 trillion to $3.52 trillion. I’ll bet you think that this is the result of the Obama sponsored stimulus plan that is so frequently vilified by the conservatives…but you would be wrong.
The first year of any incoming president term is saddled—for better or for worse—with the budget set by the president whom immediately precedes the new occupant of the White House. Indeed, not only was the 2009 budget the property of George W. Bush—and passed by the 2008 Congress—it was in effect four months before Barack Obama took the oath of office.
Accordingly, the first budget that can be blamed on our current president began in 2010 with the budgets running through and including including fiscal year 2013 standing as charges on the Obama account, even if a President Willard M. Romney takes over the office on January 20, 2013.
AIDS 2012: Listening, Learning and Working Together to Help Turn the Tide
HIV Policy & Programs July 12, 2012 By Howard K. Koh, M.D., M.P.H., Assistant Secretary for Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

This week, many in the HIV community are finalizing plans for participation in AIDS 2012 Exit Disclaimer– be it in person, via webcast, or via social media. I feel honored to join my federal colleagues to prepare for the U.S. government’s presence at this historic meeting. The current wave of activities reminds me of the preparation for, and participation in, my first International AIDS Conference, AIDS 2010, held in Vienna, Austria. That summer of 2010 was a time of great significance in our efforts to combat HIV/AIDS, both in the U.S. and around the world. President Obama had just released the first-ever National HIV/AIDS Strategy that outlined a bold new vision for our response to the epidemic.
During the conference, I was privileged to participate in an opening day session entitled, “Discussion on the National HIV/AIDS Strategy” and hear from many other leaders in the HIV community. A few of these conversations were recorded in these podcasts: a conversation with Dr. Jack Stein on Drug Control Policy and a conversation with PACHA members Helene Gayle and Phill Wilson. I also recorded a podcast on HIV travel restrictions.
In the two years since AIDS 2010, we have witnessed new milestones in policy, science and service. These developments include:
Presenting these and other accomplishments will contribute to making AIDS 2012 Exit Disclaimer a landmark conference. I am proud to report federal employees from across the government had more than 500 abstracts accepted and will have the opportunity to share their exciting research findings. And, finally, I would like to call attention to two critical sessions:
  • On Sunday July 22 from 1:30-3:30 PM, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will sponsor a satellite session entitled, “Achieving the Goals of the U.S. National HIV/AIDS Strategy: Future Directions.” Please join us in the convention center in Session Room 9. After the session, Dr. Ronald Valdiserri, Director of the Office of HIV/AIDS and Infectious Disease Policy, will share a summary of the key points in a blog on AIDS.gov.
  • On Monday July 23 in the daily plenary scheduled for 9-10:30a.m., Dr. Anthony Fauci, NIAID Director, will discuss “Ending the HIV Epidemic: From Scientific Advances to Public Health Implementation”. If you are not able to attend the session, Kaiser will provide a live webcast Exit Disclaimer of the session.
AIDS 2012 Exit Disclaimer is an exceptional chance for dialogue about moving toward an AIDS-free generation and for sharing progress in turning the tide together. I invite everyone to follow the conference at USG@AIDS 2012. My federal colleagues and I will post updates daily on the AIDS.gov blog. Please join me and experience this historic event.
Yes Darlin', I DO Agree... We need to get these Northern Kentucky - South Bank - Covington LGBT Residents and Our Allies FIRED UP To GO FORWARD! E.G.: JULY IS NATIONAL HIV/AIDS AWARENESS MONTH!? It is also the 25th Anniversary of The Names Project Foundation's "AIDS Memorial QUILT" which will be displayed once again in its entirety all across Washington during this year's Biennial International AIDS Conference "AIDS 2012" Talk amongst yourselves; I'm phklempt...
http://www.aids.gov/news-and-events/aids2012/
The Real World of The SoBnkHIVe...
My Stop in The Woods...
Scott Boulevard (Rt. 17-So.) Island Neighborhood Garden "Photo Copyright '99": Michael W. Connett "LIVING Trust"
"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived..." Henry David Thoreau.



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Location: Covington, KY, USA

Saturday, July 7, 2012

"South Bank HIVe Pride-July 2012: WORLD HIV/AIDS MONTH...

South Bank HIVe Pride-July 2012:

"Christmas in July"




In Honor of our new "National HIV/AIDS Awareness Month", we are proud to announce a CommUNITY Project for JULY that embraces supports every South Bank; Covington and No Ky HIV Care Region VI Resident that is LIVING with HIV/AIDS. Hhm; Isn't that ALL of "WE the PEOPLE..."!? Meantime; if you aren't Aware of WHY JULY 2012 IS Essential to MOVING FORWARD, kindly Google "IAC 2012-JULY-WorldWide-WashingtonDC-AIDS Quilt 25th Anniversary"

This project is for ANYONE & EVERYONE Infected &/or Affected and speaks to the fact that we have brothers & sisters who have fallen through the safety nets; they make too much $$$, or have an ineffective ASO (AIDS Service Organization/CBO=Community Based Organization) or CBO not serving them. Even middle class folk have needs that are beyond their personal budgets: i.e: their A/C died and they can't afford a new one right now!? Where is AVNK; here is a great program/service that they could manage and bring together a South Bank collaborative of
The intent is to work locally with established Social Service Agencies & HIV Docs... To serve those folks who live in an HIV/AIDS closet and do not meet the income guidelines to be served through the Ky HIV Care Region 6-No Ky Health and the Ryan White Care Act.
HAPPY PRIDE Y'ALL - This one's for YOU! 
NEWS ROUND-UP -- WEDNESDAY MORNING 4 JULYTHE RIVER CITY NEWS MORE COVINGTON NEWS THAN ANY OTHER SOURCE| FACEBOOK: The River City News@theRCnews on Twitter  |
by Michael Monks Email Michael|***NOTE: APOLOGIES FOR THE FORMATTING ERRORS IN THIS POST WHICH SEEM TO ORIGINATE AT BLOGGER.COM AND WHICH WILL BE FIXED AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.***
The City of Covington urges you to use safety and caution while celebrating with fireworks today. 
Other municipalities have decided to ban personal fireworks this year because the hot, dry conditions and possible high propensity for fires but City Manager Larry Klein says Covington has not taken any steps to quell personal celebrations. Instead, Covingtonians are alerted to use caution this year. Check out the information supplied by the City through the Kentucky League of Cities at the link below. HooRay!!!
SEE ALSO: Fireworks may be to blame..


WORLD CHOIR GAMES OPEN TODAY

The "singing Olympics" may be among the largest events ever hosted by the Queen City. The opening ceremony is set for today:
The Cincinnati Pops Orchestra and May Festival Chorus headline the Opening Ceremony which includes the ringing of the Peace Bell, the presentation of flags and a performance of "I Can - the Official Song of the 2012 World Choir Games" by nine-time Grammy winner and gospel star Kirk Franklin and the Cincinnati One in Song Choir, consisting of members from Voices of Unity, the Fort Wayne, Indiana 2010 Gospel & Spiritual Champion of the World Choir Games; and Cincinnati's two Champions Competition Gospel Choirs - Peace & Serenity, a group with members in Cincinnati and New York; and Calvary Choir, regional winner of the 2009, 2010 and 2011 Verizon "How Sweet the Sound" competition.
Read more about the competition, its schedule, and ticket information here


COVINGTON MAN WAS INTEGRAL IN LANDING WORLD CHOIR GAMES
Todd Duesing, a graduate of Holmes High School and Northern Kentucky University, is the director of operations at the Aronoff Center for the Arts. In 2007/2008, he was researching opportunities to fill seats at the arts center during the typically slow months of summer when he stumbled upon something called The World Choir Games: 
He called Venus Kent, sales manager for the cultural arts market at the Cincinnati USA Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB), whom he’d worked with on past occasions to coordinate arts and cultural events in the Cincinnati area. While Duesing held a strong knowledge of the city’s arts infrastructure and history, Kent brought to the table a set of connections in the regional hospitality industry that would prove instrumental in setting the framework for a cohesive, citywide effort to accommodate the massive influx of people and cultures from the games.Much like the Olympics, applying to host the Choir Games requires an extensive bid process, including creating a thorough, well-researched proposal. For the next several months, Duesing and Kent spent time exploring the city’s potential for such a massive tourist undertaking; by far the largest and most significant international event ever to take place in Cincinnati. “We both believed in it and we were ambitious … we both knew this was going to be huge,” says Kent.
From there, Kent and Duesing began soliciting unanimous go-aheads from key community stakeholders, including the mayor, police and other arts and choral venues across the city. Kent’s confidence continued to rise as she pieced together the key components necessary to unite for an event that would permeate the entire downtown landscape.

BIG PICTURE OF KENTUCKY'S EDUCATION TRANSFORMATION
From Education Commissioner Terry Holliday:
The implementation of 2009’s Senate Bill 1, the work of which is now called Unbridled Learning, is becoming a reality.
As is the case when undertaking major change or a series of changes, day-to-day challenges and pressures can become our focus and the larger picture or goals can become less clear. That is understandable given the amount of work involved with Unbridled Learning and the ongoing financial challenges faced by our state.
But it also is good to stop and remember the bigger picture, and how all of the components of this new system work together to help us reach our goal. In the case of Unbridled Learning, here are seven components that interact to produce results. With Unbridled Learning, we are trying to address all seven components.
Holliday explains all seven components at the link.
Kentucky Teacher
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