From: drp@dosbears.UUCP (David R. Preston)
Newsgroups: soc.motss
Subject: Re: 'Innocent Victims' grab AIDS dollars
Date: 16 Oct 92 05:07:38 GMT
Reply-To: drp@dosbears.uucp
Organization: DosBears

In article <1992Oct13.144747.1183@spdcc.com> rdonahue@spdcc.com (Bob Donahue) writes:
>buckmr@rpi.edu (Ron Buckmire) writes:
>>
>>Regardless, the result is that adult AIDS programs are being scaled back.
>>Anyone know more about this?
>
>	Yes, we have Paul Michael Glaser's wife to thank for this.
>She is one of the primary lobbyists for this action.  She was also
>the token PWA to speak at the DNC (yes, the *DNC* not the *RNC*!!!!!!)

Did you watch the convention?! Elizabeth Glazer spoke after Bob Hattoy,
token gay man with AIDS, who said:

#I have AIDS.
#
#I could be an African-American woman, a Latino man, a 10-year-old
#boy or girl.  AIDS has many faces.  And AIDS knows no class or
#gender, race or religion, or sexual orientation.
#
#AIDS does not discriminate.  But George Bush's White House does.
#AIDS is a disease of the Reagan-Bush years.  The first case was
#detected in 1981.  But it took 40,000 deaths and seven years for
#Ronald Reagan to say the word "AIDS."
#
#It's five years later, 70,000 more are dead.  And George Bush
#doesn't talk about AIDS, much less do anything about it.  Eight
#years from now, there will be two million cases in America.
#
#If George Bush wins <again> we're all at risk [in America].  It's 
#that simple. It's that serious.  It's that terrible.
#
#[at this point, delegates broke into a chant of "No Second Term!"
#which Hattoy paused to acknowledge.  He cleared his throat, said
#"this is hard," and continued...rjw]
#
#I am a gay man with AIDS.  [and] If there is any honor in having this
#disease, it's the honor of being part of the gay and lesbian
#community in America.  We have watched our friends and lovers
#die, but we have not given up [hope].
#
#Gay men and lesbians created community health clinics, provided
#educational materials, opened food kitchens, and held the hands
#of the dying in hospices.
#
#The gay and lesbian community is <a> [an American] family in the 
#best sense of the word.  President Bush, we are a million points of 
#light.  But you are [just] too [morally] blind to see us.
#
#Mr. President, you don't see AIDS for what it is.  It's a crisis
#in public health that demands medical experts, not moral judges.
#And it's time to move beyond your politics of denial, division
#and death.  It's time to move George Bush out of the White House.
#We need a president who will take action.
#
#A president strong enough to take on the insurance companies that
#drop people with the HIV virus.  A president courageous enough to
#take on the drug companies who drive AIDS patients into poverty
#and deny them life-saving medicine.
#
#[and we need] A president who is not terrified of the word 
#"condom."  Every single person with AIDS is someone worthy of <your> 
#caring [for].  After all, we are your sons and daughters.  Fathers 
#and mothers.
#
#We are doctors and lawyers.  Folks in the military.  Ministers
#and rabbis and priests.  We are Democrats.  And yes, Mr. President,
#Republicans.  We're part of the American family.
#
#[and] Mr. President, your family has AIDS.
#
#[and] We're dying.  And you are doing nothing about it.
#
#[Listen, I don't want to die, I don't want to die, but I don't want 
#to live in an America where the president sees me as the enemy. I 
#can face dying because of a disease, but not because of politics. So 
#I stand here tonight in support of Bill Clinton, a man who sees the 
#value in each and every member of the American family. And although 
#I am a person with AIDS, I am a person with hope, because I know how 
#different my life and all our lives could be if I could call my boss 
#Mr. President.
#
#Martin Luther King once said that our lives begin to end the day we 
#become silent about things that matter. 50,000 people took to the 
#streets in New York today because they will no longer be silent 
#about AIDS. Their action gives me hope. All of you came here tonight 
#-- millions more are watching in America; obviously we have hope. 
#And hope gives me the chance of life. I think it's really important 
#to understand that this year, more than any other year, we must vote 
#as if our lives depended on it. Mine does, yours could, and we all 
#have so much to live for.
#
#Thank you.
#
#Act up, fight back, fight AIDS.
#
#Now I am honored to introduce a woman who has been an 
#inspiration to millions, who has been living with HIV for 11 
#years. The co-founder of the Pediatric AIDS Foundation. 
#Elizabeth Glaser.

>	This should send a strong message to those who think
>that voting Democrat in 3 weeks will somehow "save" us.  In the
>end it's just a change of the litter box, a new receptacle to dump
>the smae ol' shit.

Well, it's time to change the litter box, time to shovel out
the stable, time to hose down the pig pen. We've got to dip
Bill Clinton in butter milk, tie a ribbon around his neck, and
send him to the fair. Because the fox is guarding the hen house,
stocking it with right-wing cluckers. And a horse named Veto is
riding herd on the cows -- only lost one stray out of 37 break-aways.
The civil rights field has lain fallow too long, we mustn't cast
our seed upon barren ground, this isn't the time to wonder overly
much whether we'll have a bumper crop, when we haven't a crop at
all. We have to plant our seed now -- later we may need to weed
it; we'll certainly dump fertilizer on it. It may be a tough row
to hoe, but such is our lot in life. Sometimes you have to ruffle
a few feathers to make an omelette....

--
         David R. Preston   drp@dosbears.uucp dosbears@netcom.com
              Information gladly given but safety requires
               the avoidance of unnecessary conversation.
            D. R. Preston 584 Castro St. #614 SF CA 94114 USA