AIDS Advocates to Inaugurate Obama as the President Who Will Finally Change the Way the U.S. Fights AIDS
(WASHINGTON - November 14, 2008) - One thousand people living with HIV, and allies, from across the United States. The Inauguration is organized by ACT UP Philadelphia, Advocates for Youth, Africa Action, African Services Committee, American Medical Student Association, Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project (CHAMP), Health GAP, Housing Works, NYC AIDS Housing Network (NYCAHN), Proyecto Sol Filadelphia, Student Global AIDS Campaign and VOCAL-NY Users Union. A list of over 70 endorsing organizations can be found at www.100daystofightaids.org/endorsements.
WHAT: Activists will host an "inauguration ceremony" outside the White House to inaugurate Barack Obama as the president who, during his first 100 days, will prioritize policies to end the AIDS epidemic in the US and worldwide. The AIDS activists will carry the torch for those lost in the 27-year fight to end the disease, and will look to an Obama administration to fulfill its campaign promise to develop and implement a comprehensive, transparent and attainable National AIDS Strategy, including reforms to HIV prevention, treatment, care, housing and global AIDS policies. After the "Inauguration Ceremony," advocates will march to the transition team offices and present a list of policies for President-elect Obama to adopt and advance during his first 100 days.
WHEN/WHERE: Thursday, Nov. 20th at 1 pm, McPherson Square (15th and I, NW) with March to the White House and Transition Team HQ, Washington, DC
WHY: After twenty-seven years of the HIV epidemic, no president has made fighting AIDS at home and abroad a real priority for his administration.
President-elect Obama has made historically bold commitments to reform and expand US policies geared towards fighting AIDS. His campaign pledged to develop a National AIDS Strategy that includes guaranteed treatment and care for all people with HIV in the US. The campaign pledge goes on to detail a commitment to housing as an integral part of HIV services, an end to the federal ban on funding for syringe exchange, and a call to redirect abstinence-only-until-marriage sex education funding into honest and accurate programs like comprehensive HIV prevention programs. Internationally, Obama has promised to build on President Bush’s global AIDS plan by removing the ideological strings the Bush administration attached to prevention funding. Specifically, Obama has committed to end the Prostitution Loyalty Oath and support an evidence-based approach to HIV prevention that doesn’t overly emphasize abstinence and fidelity at the expense of condoms. He has also pledged to increase funding for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, a multilateral program which fights the three killer diseases in over 170 countries and which is facing a major funding shortfall.
"President-elect Obama has made bold promises around fighting AIDS, but we also know he will face challenges, including a financial crisis. We are holding an inauguration ceremony because we share his vision of hope and change, and to show our support for implementation, in his first 100 days, of the visionary commitments President-elect Obama has made to fight AIDS in the US and around the world," said ACT UP Philadelphia member Waheedah Shabazz-el.
Obama’s AIDS Plan, released during the campaign, can be found at www.barackobama.com/pdf/AIDSFactSheet.pdf
FMI, contact: Waheedah Shabazz-El, ACT UP Philadelphia, 267.231.2647; Michael Swigert, Africa Action, 202.546.7961 or 703.472.4520
Read more from BMORENEWS.COM
TGR: Walk to Cure Diabetes by Lakrisha White:
My son, Jay, has been living with type 1 diabetes for a little over a year now. He's managing his diabetes with an insulin pump. Last fall he met with Senator Mikulski as part of JDRF's Promise to Remember Me Campaign. The campaign consists of coordinated meetings where children and teen diabetics are able to share their personal stories face-to-face with members of Congress so lawmakers can hear first hand about living with type 1 diabetes. The meetings ensure that research funding continues to be expanded and the needs of those with diabetes are included in legislation. Read in Full >>
TGR: Will Leronia Josey Make County History?:
Baltimore County Councilman Ken Oliver could have his hands full this election season - that is, if Ms. Josey decides to put her bid in for his seat. While Oliver is the first black to serve on the County Council, a loss to Josey would make her the first black woman to serve on the Baltimore County Council - a crew that consists mostly of white males. Move over, guys!
A black president; a possible black governor; seems only logical to me.
Read in Full >>
Op/Ed: Will the real responsible media please stand up:
Jim Morrison said that ‘whoever controls the media controls the mind!’ Yet today’s media has seemed to have shifted it’s interest from responsible investigative reporting to a more instant on-demand format of sound bytes and hybrid headlines.
From the advent of social media tools such as YouTube and Facebook to the reduction in senior staff and publications of print media, the lack of real journalism has ceased to exist. However who is truly to be blamed, the reporters’ who spew the untruth without proper fact checks or the consumers of such information who propagate this gossip as factual?
Read in Full >>
TGR: In Extraordinary Times: Proud to be Amongst the Living:
Despite all that is messed up, I am taken back to grandma’s favorite hymn, #325, in the good ol’ Baptist Hymnal: “We’ll understand it better bye and bye.” I’m taken back to the praying man’s visit every Monday at 4 pm and the long, long prayers he would utter. I think of drinking tea and eating Graham crackers with grandpop before grandma got home.
Friends, it is easy to focus on the negative. It is easy to throw the towel in on life. It is easy to concede, to give up, to quit. I don’t know about you, but I refuse to do so. I just can’t. I won’t. There is a certain sense of entitlement of expanded territory that I simply demand of myself and those around me, as ordained by God. I say, mediocrity is for the lame. This kid here expects the very best that God has to offer. Come hell or high water, I’ll just have to take the hits; but progress, I insist, is imminent.
