Friday, May 7, 2004
This little light of his is going to shine bright
Michael Connett of Covington tries to improve the world around him where he can.
He spreads mulch around plants in a paper-thin sliver of land, hoping to create a front yard. He hangs windsocks and angels and rainbows to turn a bland brick wall into colorful art. He also tries to better the world for others being ravaged by HIV/AIDS. Connett, 49, was diagnosed HIV positive in October 1991. He has been living with AIDS since 1996. And he does what he can for others like him. He has established a living trust, with the funds designated to go to AIDS organizations after he dies. The windows of his home that face the street are plastered with educational material about HIV/AIDS - including a poster with a cow wearing galoshes that says, "Wear your rubbers." He is on no medications for the disease. There is a waiting list for the pharmaceuticals, and he wanted to give up his spot on the drug program for somebody younger. "In the back of my mind, that adds a little more urgency to the things I try to do," he says. Now Connett is doing his best to coordinate a local event for the International AIDS Candlelight Memorial on May 16. "We have to let the people living with AIDS in this area know that people here still care," he says. On that day, thousands of individuals - more than 3,000 communities in 85 countries - will participate in the world's largest and oldest annual grass-roots HIV/AIDS event. The memorial is designed to honor the memory of those lost to HIV/AIDS, show support for those living with the disease and raise awareness. (www.candlelightmemorial.org) Connett was inspired to initiate a candlelight memorial here after seeing the memorials in Batavia for Pfc. Matt Maupin, the Clermont County Army reservist being held hostage in Iraq. "Don't the 28.9 million who have died of AIDS merit some show of support from this community?" Connett asks. "Don't they deserve something, too?" Connett had hoped to launch a grand event: people from all over Greater Cincinnati holding candles on the Purple People Bridge, which links Newport and Cincinnati. Memorial luminaria flickering along the span. Representatives of Northern Kentucky and Cincinnati AIDS organizations, handing out educational materials. Free AIDS testing. The problem is that he's getting very little help. Local AIDS organizations, which rely on very little government money and charitable donations, have too little funds to offer their support. Connett has little funds himself. Most of all, there's way too much complacency and apathy when it comes to AIDS. This disease is still a very real threat - not just to one neighborhood or community, but to everyone. There's just no drive or desire to discuss it anymore. "There's a dinner here or a support group there, but things aren't like they used to be," Connett says. "Everything might not work out this year, but that's OK," he says, hopefully. "But next year when we say we're going to light up the Purple People Bridge, we'll really light the sucker up." The theme for the international candlelight memorial event is "Turning Remembrance into Action." It means doing things like Connett does - print a poster about the event and hang it on a window, light a candle and stand on the Purple People Bridge, tie a red ribbon somewhere. Most of all, never stop talking about the devastating impact of this disease. On May 16, Connett might be the only person standing on the bridge, remembering those who died. But sometimes that's all it takes. For information, http://www.southbankhive.com/welcome.html
"I used to be afraid of dying, I'm not anymore. I'm more afraid of what happens to the people who live" from "And The Band Played On
"We must make people everywhere understand that the AIDS crisis is not over; that this is not about a few foreign countries, far away. This is a threat to an entire generation, that it is a threat to an entire civilization..."
There are some people who live in a dream world, and there are some who face reality; and then there are those who turn one into the other." --Douglaus Everett
"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...
http://www.hivcouncil.org/mary_fisher.htm
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...
http://www.hivcouncil.org/mary_fisher.htm
Public Event · By South Bank HIVe CommUNITY-Based Network
Columbus Day Holiday Weekend - Sunday October 7th Noon - 6:00 pm
On the heels of AIDS 2012, The International HIV/AIDS Conference; a gathering to Come OUT & Stand Up! To MOVE Our CommUNITY FORWARD: Our Next (Re-Elected) President Must Continue to Lead the World on HIV/AIDS!
To paraphrase Phill Wilson's AIDS 2012 address: You see, I am a 3-fer. I am White, I am Gay, I am HIV+ clinically diagnosed with AIDS plus -according to AARP I could check off the senior box 7 years ago as well. But it is not lost on me all the things I am not. I am not a woman, a black man or a transgendered person. I am not an Asian Pacific Islander, Latino, Native American, Black or an immigrant. I am not an injecting drug user, sex worker, homeless (although I've experienced that) or the victim of domestic violence. But I know this; I know that we will not stop AIDS in this country unless ALL of those voices are included. ALL of what I am and am not must be a part of the conversation...
EVERYONE Living with HIV MUST COME OUT. WE All must come out. Living Openly & PROUDLY with HIV, not only confronts HIV STIGMA, but it also helps build DEMAND for Essential Services. Openly HIV positive people SERVE as living, compelling reminders of the importance of knowing one's HIV status and that also communicates that it is possible to live a full healthy LIFE with HIV and THAT IS IMPORTANT!
"My greatest fear is that WE will squander this OPPORTUNITY..."
A Brighter Day Comes:
To paraphrase Phill Wilson's AIDS 2012 address: You see, I am a 3-fer. I am White, I am Gay, I am HIV+ clinically diagnosed with AIDS plus -according to AARP I could check off the senior box 7 years ago as well. But it is not lost on me all the things I am not. I am not a woman, a black man or a transgendered person. I am not an Asian Pacific Islander, Latino, Native American, Black or an immigrant. I am not an injecting drug user, sex worker, homeless (although I've experienced that) or the victim of domestic violence. But I know this; I know that we will not stop AIDS in this country unless ALL of those voices are included. ALL of what I am and am not must be a part of the conversation...
EVERYONE Living with HIV MUST COME OUT. WE All must come out. Living Openly & PROUDLY with HIV, not only confronts HIV STIGMA, but it also helps build DEMAND for Essential Services. Openly HIV positive people SERVE as living, compelling reminders of the importance of knowing one's HIV status and that also communicates that it is possible to live a full healthy LIFE with HIV and THAT IS IMPORTANT!
"My greatest fear is that WE will squander this OPPORTUNITY..."
A Brighter Day Comes:
I DO NOT own the background music track, no infringement intended!
Pics & Video of the Goebel Park layout & facilities to aid in the planning process:
Pics & Video of the Goebel Park layout & facilities to aid in the planning process:
