Massachusetts Republican state Senator Scott Brown's recent victory to fill Ted Kennedy's U.S. Senate seat has sent political shockwaves across America. To outsiders, Massachusetts has long been known as "Kennedy Country", the bastion of liberalism in America. But to Massachusetts voters, electing Republicans is no new phenomenon.
Republican William Weld was elected governor in 1990. At that time, Massachusetts was in the middle of a fiscal crisis, state unemployment was above 10%, the state's bond rating was almost junk status, and consumers and businesses were drowning under new taxes to finance the state's growing debt burden.
Weld won on an anti-establishment, anti-tax platform and capitalized on voter anger over the economy, growing budget deficits, and unchecked government spending by Democrats who had controlled both the governor's office and the state legislature since 1975.
In a similar way, Brown was able to harness voter discontent, this time aimed at the Federal Government, over trillion dollar budget deficits, huge increases in government debt, one party control, and the general perception that the Obama administration and the Democratic controlled Congress have moved too quickly in trying to pass national health care.
But without Independent voters, Weld's and Brown's message would have fallen on deaf ears.
Massachusetts Democrats currently control the state's 10 congressional seats and all five statewide offices (governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state and state auditor). The lower house of the state legislature is comprised of 160 members, 16 of which are Republicans. The upper house, the Senate, has 40 members, five of which are Republicans (one of which is Brown).
The state is heavily Democratic, however in terms of registered voters, Independents, Democrats and Republicans comprise 51%, 37% and 11% of the voting population, respectively, so Independents are the driving force in statewide elections.
The year Weld was elected governor, Independents surpassed Democrats as the largest voting bloc. Weld was successful in ushering in a new era for Massachusetts Republicans by leveraging support from Independents -- the soccer moms and middle class working families who liked his conservative fiscal policies but more liberal positions on social issues. He and his Republican successors, Paul Cellucci and Mitt Romney, kept control of the governor's office for 16 years because of their broad appeal among voters who do not identify as either Republican or Democrat.
Brown similarly was able to mobilize Independents, with his down-to-earth personality and image as a barn jacket wearing, pickup truck driving guy who is not beholden to ideology. His "I answer only to my conscience" stump speech resonated with swing voters who are tired of the business as usual polarization in Washington that prevents Democrats and Republicans from working together to solve our national problems.
With Brown's victory, the Republican Party is at an inflexion point. Mid-term elections are less than a year away. By beating the Democrats on their home turf, Brown single handedly rejuvenated Republicans everywhere in a way that few other people could have done.
But to repeat Brown's success outside of Massachusetts, the Republican Party will need to open up their tent, become more inclusive and support moderate candidates who have widespread appeal among Independents -- the swing voters who decide elections. If they can broaden their message to include candidates who call themselves Republican even if their views on social issues are not totally in sync with those of the Republican Party, as Massachusetts goes, so may America come November.
#smartLinkGrid1175927693 { width: 540px; } #smartLinkGrid1175927693-title {font-family : Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:15px;font-weight: bold;color: #2d648a;line-height:18px;text-decoration: none;background-color:white;} #smartLinkGrid1175927693-title:hover{text-decoration:underline;}.smartLinkEntry1175927693-title{font-family : Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:11px;font-weight: bold;color: #666666;background-color:white;line-height:13px !important;text-decoration: none;}#smartLinkGrid1175927693-item:hover{text-decoration:underline;}#smartLinkGrid1175927693-itemtitle{display:none;}.smartLinkLauncher{cursor: pointer; vertical-align: middle; margin: 2px 3px 0 0 !important;background:none;padding:0px !important;;border:0px none !important;max-width:14px;width:14px;} #smartLinkGrid1175927693 div { margin: 0 }Books & More From John Stimpson
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
State of the Union: Obama Walking in the Footsteps of FDR
Last week in his State of the Union address, President Obama openly admonished the Supreme Court for their decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. For me, it was my favorite part of his address. The Justices present in the gallery gasped. How could he rebuke them in the State of the Union? This was simply not something a sitting President should be doing. To quote the President, he said to the Supreme Court and the world listening, that
the Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission will "open the floodgates for special interests, including foreign corporations, to spend without limit in our elections." The President continued, that with this decision it is possible for American elections to be "bankrolled by America's most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities." I have to agree with President Obama and I applaud his courage and his conviction in outing the court on this one.
Pictured: President Obama gave the Judicial Branch his own opinion in his recent State of the Union address.
As a law school graduate who hasn't read a Supreme Court Decision in several years, the decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission shocked me to the extent that I had to go running to the Internet and do legal research. This decision makes me even want to Shepardize case law again (electronically of course) and pour over dusty old law books late at night.
I wrote my law school thesis on how the Rehnquist court eroded many of the rights granted by the Warren Court. And now we have the new Rehnquist court, the Robert's Court. As some of you know, Justice Rehnquist had a somewhat narrow view of equal protection and civil rights. He interpreted the Fourteenth Amendment to mean that the Court "had no business reflecting society's changing and expanding values." It is a fact that Rehnquist voted to reject First Amendment claims 92% of the time. Ironically, the Roberts court used the First Amendment in their reasoning in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. That's right, it seems that corporations now have First Amendment rights to free speech. "Government may not suppress political speech on the basis of the speaker's corporate identity," Justice Anthony Kennedy writes in the majority opinion. "No sufficient governmental interest justifies limits on the political speech of nonprofit or for-profit corporations." Silly me, I thought the constitution gave rights to individuals not corporations.
Our sitting President, Barack Obama is a lawyer. I am sure he is a much better student of the court than myself. He has to be scratching his head at night and saying, how did these lawyers on the Supreme Court come to this decision? This decision runs counter to Section 203 of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002(BCRA), (aka the McCain-Feingold Act) the federal law prohibiting corporations and unions from using their general treasury funds to make independent expenditures for speech that is an "electioneering communication" or for speech that expressly advocates the election or defeat of a candidate.
In his dissenting opinion in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission , Justice John Paul Stevens seemed shocked that the majority felt the need to right the wrongs of large corporations not being able to adequately invest in corporate politics. Oh the inhumanity visited upon these large corporations. The rights they had been deprived of. I had to chuckle reading Justice Stevens dissent when he writes, "While American democracy is imperfect, few outside the majority of this court would have thought its flaws included a dearth of corporate money in politics. The court's ruling threatens to undermine the integrity of elected institutions across the nation." I believe Justice Stevens is now 89 years old. Like Justice William Douglas before him, I believe he refuses to retire from the court in order to uphold civil liberties. Thank you for that Justice Stevens.
Was the President right to admonish the court publicly for their decision? I think yes. Surely if corporations now have the right to free speech, doesn't the leader of the free world, the President of the United States also enjoy that right? I wrote earlier on Huffington Post about how I felt the words of FDR are shadowing President Obama. I heard those echos of Roosevelt again during the State of the Union address.
Pictured: President Roosevelt reminded the Supreme Court of their duty to not deny the essential powers of free government.
President Roosevelt also spoke out about the court in a 1937 State of the Union address. In January 1937, in his State of the Union address, President Franklin Roosevelt said, "The Judicial branch also is asked by the people to do its part in making democracy successful. We do not ask the Courts to call non-existent powers into being, but we have a right to expect that conceded powers or those legitimately implied shall be made effective instruments for the common good. The process of our democracy must not be imperiled by the denial of essential powers of free government."
I think FDR was smiling down on President Obama last week. Every 73 years, I think it is good for the sitting President to lay a little Supreme Court smack down.
Follow Mary Hall on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/Recessionista
the Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission will "open the floodgates for special interests, including foreign corporations, to spend without limit in our elections." The President continued, that with this decision it is possible for American elections to be "bankrolled by America's most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities." I have to agree with President Obama and I applaud his courage and his conviction in outing the court on this one.
Pictured: President Obama gave the Judicial Branch his own opinion in his recent State of the Union address.
As a law school graduate who hasn't read a Supreme Court Decision in several years, the decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission shocked me to the extent that I had to go running to the Internet and do legal research. This decision makes me even want to Shepardize case law again (electronically of course) and pour over dusty old law books late at night.
I wrote my law school thesis on how the Rehnquist court eroded many of the rights granted by the Warren Court. And now we have the new Rehnquist court, the Robert's Court. As some of you know, Justice Rehnquist had a somewhat narrow view of equal protection and civil rights. He interpreted the Fourteenth Amendment to mean that the Court "had no business reflecting society's changing and expanding values." It is a fact that Rehnquist voted to reject First Amendment claims 92% of the time. Ironically, the Roberts court used the First Amendment in their reasoning in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. That's right, it seems that corporations now have First Amendment rights to free speech. "Government may not suppress political speech on the basis of the speaker's corporate identity," Justice Anthony Kennedy writes in the majority opinion. "No sufficient governmental interest justifies limits on the political speech of nonprofit or for-profit corporations." Silly me, I thought the constitution gave rights to individuals not corporations.
Our sitting President, Barack Obama is a lawyer. I am sure he is a much better student of the court than myself. He has to be scratching his head at night and saying, how did these lawyers on the Supreme Court come to this decision? This decision runs counter to Section 203 of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002(BCRA), (aka the McCain-Feingold Act) the federal law prohibiting corporations and unions from using their general treasury funds to make independent expenditures for speech that is an "electioneering communication" or for speech that expressly advocates the election or defeat of a candidate.
In his dissenting opinion in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission , Justice John Paul Stevens seemed shocked that the majority felt the need to right the wrongs of large corporations not being able to adequately invest in corporate politics. Oh the inhumanity visited upon these large corporations. The rights they had been deprived of. I had to chuckle reading Justice Stevens dissent when he writes, "While American democracy is imperfect, few outside the majority of this court would have thought its flaws included a dearth of corporate money in politics. The court's ruling threatens to undermine the integrity of elected institutions across the nation." I believe Justice Stevens is now 89 years old. Like Justice William Douglas before him, I believe he refuses to retire from the court in order to uphold civil liberties. Thank you for that Justice Stevens.
Was the President right to admonish the court publicly for their decision? I think yes. Surely if corporations now have the right to free speech, doesn't the leader of the free world, the President of the United States also enjoy that right? I wrote earlier on Huffington Post about how I felt the words of FDR are shadowing President Obama. I heard those echos of Roosevelt again during the State of the Union address.
Pictured: President Roosevelt reminded the Supreme Court of their duty to not deny the essential powers of free government.
President Roosevelt also spoke out about the court in a 1937 State of the Union address. In January 1937, in his State of the Union address, President Franklin Roosevelt said, "The Judicial branch also is asked by the people to do its part in making democracy successful. We do not ask the Courts to call non-existent powers into being, but we have a right to expect that conceded powers or those legitimately implied shall be made effective instruments for the common good. The process of our democracy must not be imperiled by the denial of essential powers of free government."
I think FDR was smiling down on President Obama last week. Every 73 years, I think it is good for the sitting President to lay a little Supreme Court smack down.
Follow Mary Hall on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/Recessionista
Classic Literature That Should Be Video Games
ew.com:
Abandon all hope ye who enter the secret code to Level 9. The first part of Dante Alighieri's pre-Renaissance masterpiece, The Divine Comedy, has been adapted into a video game by Electronic Arts.
Read the whole story: ew.com
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Abandon all hope ye who enter the secret code to Level 9. The first part of Dante Alighieri's pre-Renaissance masterpiece, The Divine Comedy, has been adapted into a video game by Electronic Arts.
Read the whole story: ew.com
Get HuffPost Books On
and
Know something we don't? E-mail us at Books@huffingtonpost.com
Sarah Palin, Inc. Has a Problem
Before this gets out of hand, I want to try to save the word "retarded," which seems robust and meaningful and evocative of so much that is silly, inept, and illogical. It really does not necessarily besmirch people who are actually retarded. That word, the specifically besmirching word, with cruel connotations, evoking the fifth grade, is "retard."
Sarah Palin's sly effort to hoist Rahm Emanuel for referring to certain liberal groups as "fucking retarded" is either a semantic stretch or, quite likely, a mix-up. She doesn't know the difference between "retarded" and "retard," nor care that there might be one.
But this is not really my subject. My subject is the one-off magazine all about Sarah Palin that is hitting newsstands across Sarah Palin country.
The Palin marketing juggernaut, with its books, television, and semantic troublemaking, has been a thing to behold. Never before has a politician, without office, or, many would argue, prospects, become such an omnipresent figure and commercial cash cow.
Political races cost money. This one may be the first in history to make money.
Continue reading on newser.com
#smartLinkGrid1213241250 { width: 540px; } #smartLinkGrid1213241250-title {font-family : Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:15px;font-weight: bold;color: #2d648a;line-height:18px;text-decoration: none;background-color:white;} #smartLinkGrid1213241250-title:hover{text-decoration:underline;}.smartLinkEntry1213241250-title{font-family : Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:11px;font-weight: bold;color: #666666;background-color:white;line-height:13px !important;text-decoration: none;}#smartLinkGrid1213241250-item:hover{text-decoration:underline;}#smartLinkGrid1213241250-itemtitle{display:none;}.smartLinkLauncher{cursor: pointer; vertical-align: middle; margin: 2px 3px 0 0 !important;background:none;padding:0px !important;;border:0px none !important;max-width:14px;width:14px;} #smartLinkGrid1213241250 div { margin: 0 }Books & More From Michael Wolff
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Sarah Palin's sly effort to hoist Rahm Emanuel for referring to certain liberal groups as "fucking retarded" is either a semantic stretch or, quite likely, a mix-up. She doesn't know the difference between "retarded" and "retard," nor care that there might be one.
But this is not really my subject. My subject is the one-off magazine all about Sarah Palin that is hitting newsstands across Sarah Palin country.
The Palin marketing juggernaut, with its books, television, and semantic troublemaking, has been a thing to behold. Never before has a politician, without office, or, many would argue, prospects, become such an omnipresent figure and commercial cash cow.
Political races cost money. This one may be the first in history to make money.
Continue reading on newser.com
#smartLinkGrid1213241250 { width: 540px; } #smartLinkGrid1213241250-title {font-family : Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:15px;font-weight: bold;color: #2d648a;line-height:18px;text-decoration: none;background-color:white;} #smartLinkGrid1213241250-title:hover{text-decoration:underline;}.smartLinkEntry1213241250-title{font-family : Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:11px;font-weight: bold;color: #666666;background-color:white;line-height:13px !important;text-decoration: none;}#smartLinkGrid1213241250-item:hover{text-decoration:underline;}#smartLinkGrid1213241250-itemtitle{display:none;}.smartLinkLauncher{cursor: pointer; vertical-align: middle; margin: 2px 3px 0 0 !important;background:none;padding:0px !important;;border:0px none !important;max-width:14px;width:14px;} #smartLinkGrid1213241250 div { margin: 0 }Books & More From Michael Wolff
Follow Michael Wolff on Twitter:
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Demar Dorsey Michigan Bound: Longtime Florida Commit Signs With Wolverines
Demar Dorsey signed with Michigan today, surprising some since he was not even considering Michigan just a month ago.
Sports Illustrated noted that Dorsey had recently said he was "66 percent committed to Florida." He also looked at Florida State, Tennessee and USC.
Rivals.com ranks Dorsey the 13th best safety available, and 162th best player nationally.
ESPN is high on Dorsey, ranking him the second best safety and No. 13 overall.
JC Schurbutt of ESPN said Dorsey's signing was a "big boost" for Michigan's recruiting class.
Despite getting Dorsey, Michigan missed out on Sean Parker, who it heavily recruited. Parker signed with Washington.
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Sports Illustrated noted that Dorsey had recently said he was "66 percent committed to Florida." He also looked at Florida State, Tennessee and USC.
Rivals.com ranks Dorsey the 13th best safety available, and 162th best player nationally.
ESPN is high on Dorsey, ranking him the second best safety and No. 13 overall.
JC Schurbutt of ESPN said Dorsey's signing was a "big boost" for Michigan's recruiting class.
Despite getting Dorsey, Michigan missed out on Sean Parker, who it heavily recruited. Parker signed with Washington.
Get HuffPost Sports On
and
Know something we don't? E-mail us at sports@huffingtonpost.com
In Rebuilding Haiti, Fighting HIV/AIDS Must be a Top Priority
The recent earthquake in Haiti reminds us of the fragility of human life. In one instant, an entire city can be reduced to rubble, taking the lives of tens of thousands of people and devastating millions more. We can't stop natural disasters like earthquakes. But we can prevent another disaster - the HIV/AIDS pandemic - from causing undue suffering and tragic loss of life.
With the horror of the earthquake foremost in our minds as relief efforts continue, it's easy to forget Haiti's longtime struggle against HIV/AIDS. In the 1980s, the AIDS epidemic was expected to take the lives of more than one-third of the Haitian population. The stigma surrounding the disease was so severe that the US Centers for Disease Control had listed "Haitians" in addition to "homosexuals" and "heroin users" as leading risk factors in contracting HIV. As recently as 2001, 30,000 Haitians were dying of AIDS each year, leaving hundreds of thousands of children orphaned.
This grim picture changed in recent years, thanks to a coordinated international response. The prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Haiti has decreased dramatically, from a calamitous six percent of the population in 2001 to around two percent today. Before the earthquake, new infection rates were considered to be under control. And while 120,000 Haitians were estimated to be living with the disease before the earthquake, fatalities had begun to decrease dramatically. There were 7,500 deaths from AIDS in 2007, a four-fold reduction from 2001.
This progress is due to the work of a number of committed organizations in Haiti and around the world, which together have dramatically increased access to HIV/AIDS prevention, testing, and treatment services for Haitians. The Elton John AIDS Foundation (EJAF) has been proud to enable this progress by funding innovative direct care, stigma reduction, and support programs to address the widespread HIV/AIDS epidemic in the Caribbean -- the worst outside of sub-Saharan Africa.
Over the years, we've targeted our grants in Haiti to improve overall health systems and reach underserved populations. Four particularly effective organizations have been our close partners in this work. Partners In Health (PIH) has delivered patient care in Haiti for over 20 years, through a network of hospitals, clinics, and more than 120 doctors. The Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) has provided technical and programmatic support to the government of Haiti to strengthen the systems required for delivering primary healthcare services. Through the Caribbean Broadcast Media Partnership on HIV/AIDS and its local partner, CECOSIDA, media professionals have integrated HIV-prevention and treatment themes across news, talk, and entertainment formats - efforts that have reduced stigma and saved lives. We have also proudly supported amfAR's MSM Initiative, which funds HIV/AIDS services and advocacy in Haiti for men who have sex with men.
The earthquake left nothing untouched in Haiti, including the significant progress that has been made in fighting AIDS. Treatment and testing clinics were leveled. Many staff at medical facilities were tragically killed, and survivors were forced to flee the capital. Equipment and medicines are scarce. Blocked and congested roads have made it difficult for what life-saving supplies remain to reach the people who need them.
In the weeks to come, there will be additional health and logistical challenges to manage. The immune systems of those living with HIV/AIDS are particularly vulnerable to new disease when access to water, food, sanitation, and essential medicines is limited, as they are today. And because displaced people may have only limited access to condoms, we must also be prepared for an increase in new infections.
To mitigate these short-term challenges, EJAF provided both PIH and CHAI with emergency grants of $100,000 in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake to move antiretroviral treatments to facilities still standing, take on increased patient loads, and manage already under-resourced hospitals in Port-au-Prince and the Dominican Republic. PIH is handling patient triage at one of the few hospitals not destroyed by the earthquake. CHAI is managing overall operations at the hospital, in addition to moving HIV/AIDS medicines as well as medical and surgical supplies to PIH over land and by air. Leveraging its network of journalists and media partners, CECOSIDA is getting out regular and reliable information about local relief operations and health services via radio and text, with messages specifically targeting HIV-positive Haitians. And community organizations supported by the amfAR MSM Initiative, such as SeroVie, Kore La Vie, and Association Citoyenne Contre le VIH, are doing their best to regroup and rebuild.
Through regular communication with our grantees, we have been inspired by their handling of this unprecedented crisis, the speed at which they have moved to marshal resources, and how tirelessly they are working to help HIV/AIDS patients at immediate risk and in need of urgent care. We are committed to assessing the immediate future needs in Haiti and further assisting our partner organizations to strategically deploy resources and assistance where it is needed most.
But in the months ahead, after we meet the short-term needs of the Haitian people, we must focus on the long-term process of rebuilding Haiti's health infrastructure. And while much progress has been made in combating AIDS over the past decade, even before the earthquake, much work was needed to improve the nation's healthcare system. Nearly 40 percent of Haitians had no access to basic health services. Clinics lacked the capacity to distribute antiretroviral drugs to all those who needed them. Voluntary HIV/AIDS counseling and testing was not widespread, and stigma and discrimination kept many from learning their status and obtaining treatment.
In this way, the process of rebuilding Haiti is an opportunity - an opportunity not only to rebuild homes, businesses, and hospitals, but also to address the longstanding health and social challenges that have resulted in still-too-high infection rates. Without confronting these challenges, HIV/AIDS prevalence could increase to previous levels and compromise all other rebuilding and recovery efforts.
Today, the challenge of lifting an entire nation from the rubble is beyond description. But it is not beyond hope. It was only ten years ago that the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Haiti seemed insurmountable. Since that time, the resilience of the Haitian people and the dedication of international organizations saved tens of thousands of lives that would otherwise have been lost. Not even an earthquake can shake that solid foundation on which we can and will help the Haitian people rebuild.
#smartLinkGrid142945178 { width: 540px; } #smartLinkGrid142945178-title {font-family : Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:15px;font-weight: bold;color: #2d648a;line-height:18px;text-decoration: none;background-color:white;} #smartLinkGrid142945178-title:hover{text-decoration:underline;}.smartLinkEntry142945178-title{font-family : Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:11px;font-weight: bold;color: #666666;background-color:white;line-height:13px !important;text-decoration: none;}#smartLinkGrid142945178-item:hover{text-decoration:underline;}#smartLinkGrid142945178-itemtitle{display:none;}.smartLinkLauncher{cursor: pointer; vertical-align: middle; margin: 2px 3px 0 0 !important;background:none;padding:0px !important;;border:0px none !important;max-width:14px;width:14px;} #smartLinkGrid142945178 div { margin: 0 }Books & More From David Furnish
With the horror of the earthquake foremost in our minds as relief efforts continue, it's easy to forget Haiti's longtime struggle against HIV/AIDS. In the 1980s, the AIDS epidemic was expected to take the lives of more than one-third of the Haitian population. The stigma surrounding the disease was so severe that the US Centers for Disease Control had listed "Haitians" in addition to "homosexuals" and "heroin users" as leading risk factors in contracting HIV. As recently as 2001, 30,000 Haitians were dying of AIDS each year, leaving hundreds of thousands of children orphaned.
This grim picture changed in recent years, thanks to a coordinated international response. The prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Haiti has decreased dramatically, from a calamitous six percent of the population in 2001 to around two percent today. Before the earthquake, new infection rates were considered to be under control. And while 120,000 Haitians were estimated to be living with the disease before the earthquake, fatalities had begun to decrease dramatically. There were 7,500 deaths from AIDS in 2007, a four-fold reduction from 2001.
This progress is due to the work of a number of committed organizations in Haiti and around the world, which together have dramatically increased access to HIV/AIDS prevention, testing, and treatment services for Haitians. The Elton John AIDS Foundation (EJAF) has been proud to enable this progress by funding innovative direct care, stigma reduction, and support programs to address the widespread HIV/AIDS epidemic in the Caribbean -- the worst outside of sub-Saharan Africa.
Over the years, we've targeted our grants in Haiti to improve overall health systems and reach underserved populations. Four particularly effective organizations have been our close partners in this work. Partners In Health (PIH) has delivered patient care in Haiti for over 20 years, through a network of hospitals, clinics, and more than 120 doctors. The Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) has provided technical and programmatic support to the government of Haiti to strengthen the systems required for delivering primary healthcare services. Through the Caribbean Broadcast Media Partnership on HIV/AIDS and its local partner, CECOSIDA, media professionals have integrated HIV-prevention and treatment themes across news, talk, and entertainment formats - efforts that have reduced stigma and saved lives. We have also proudly supported amfAR's MSM Initiative, which funds HIV/AIDS services and advocacy in Haiti for men who have sex with men.
The earthquake left nothing untouched in Haiti, including the significant progress that has been made in fighting AIDS. Treatment and testing clinics were leveled. Many staff at medical facilities were tragically killed, and survivors were forced to flee the capital. Equipment and medicines are scarce. Blocked and congested roads have made it difficult for what life-saving supplies remain to reach the people who need them.
In the weeks to come, there will be additional health and logistical challenges to manage. The immune systems of those living with HIV/AIDS are particularly vulnerable to new disease when access to water, food, sanitation, and essential medicines is limited, as they are today. And because displaced people may have only limited access to condoms, we must also be prepared for an increase in new infections.
To mitigate these short-term challenges, EJAF provided both PIH and CHAI with emergency grants of $100,000 in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake to move antiretroviral treatments to facilities still standing, take on increased patient loads, and manage already under-resourced hospitals in Port-au-Prince and the Dominican Republic. PIH is handling patient triage at one of the few hospitals not destroyed by the earthquake. CHAI is managing overall operations at the hospital, in addition to moving HIV/AIDS medicines as well as medical and surgical supplies to PIH over land and by air. Leveraging its network of journalists and media partners, CECOSIDA is getting out regular and reliable information about local relief operations and health services via radio and text, with messages specifically targeting HIV-positive Haitians. And community organizations supported by the amfAR MSM Initiative, such as SeroVie, Kore La Vie, and Association Citoyenne Contre le VIH, are doing their best to regroup and rebuild.
Through regular communication with our grantees, we have been inspired by their handling of this unprecedented crisis, the speed at which they have moved to marshal resources, and how tirelessly they are working to help HIV/AIDS patients at immediate risk and in need of urgent care. We are committed to assessing the immediate future needs in Haiti and further assisting our partner organizations to strategically deploy resources and assistance where it is needed most.
But in the months ahead, after we meet the short-term needs of the Haitian people, we must focus on the long-term process of rebuilding Haiti's health infrastructure. And while much progress has been made in combating AIDS over the past decade, even before the earthquake, much work was needed to improve the nation's healthcare system. Nearly 40 percent of Haitians had no access to basic health services. Clinics lacked the capacity to distribute antiretroviral drugs to all those who needed them. Voluntary HIV/AIDS counseling and testing was not widespread, and stigma and discrimination kept many from learning their status and obtaining treatment.
In this way, the process of rebuilding Haiti is an opportunity - an opportunity not only to rebuild homes, businesses, and hospitals, but also to address the longstanding health and social challenges that have resulted in still-too-high infection rates. Without confronting these challenges, HIV/AIDS prevalence could increase to previous levels and compromise all other rebuilding and recovery efforts.
Today, the challenge of lifting an entire nation from the rubble is beyond description. But it is not beyond hope. It was only ten years ago that the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Haiti seemed insurmountable. Since that time, the resilience of the Haitian people and the dedication of international organizations saved tens of thousands of lives that would otherwise have been lost. Not even an earthquake can shake that solid foundation on which we can and will help the Haitian people rebuild.
#smartLinkGrid142945178 { width: 540px; } #smartLinkGrid142945178-title {font-family : Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:15px;font-weight: bold;color: #2d648a;line-height:18px;text-decoration: none;background-color:white;} #smartLinkGrid142945178-title:hover{text-decoration:underline;}.smartLinkEntry142945178-title{font-family : Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:11px;font-weight: bold;color: #666666;background-color:white;line-height:13px !important;text-decoration: none;}#smartLinkGrid142945178-item:hover{text-decoration:underline;}#smartLinkGrid142945178-itemtitle{display:none;}.smartLinkLauncher{cursor: pointer; vertical-align: middle; margin: 2px 3px 0 0 !important;background:none;padding:0px !important;;border:0px none !important;max-width:14px;width:14px;} #smartLinkGrid142945178 div { margin: 0 }Books & More From David Furnish
Free Health Clinic Comes To Connecticut
The National Association of Free Clinics will offer two tons of medical supplies, more than 1,000 H1N1 vaccines and hundreds of antibiotics,and a range of other heath care necessities to Connecticut residents without health insurance on Wednesday.
All of this is provided without government support, WTNH.com reports.
WATCH THE VIDEO:
The free clinic will be open from noon to 7 p.m. on February 3rd. You can call for an appointment at (877) 233-5159 or visit the National Association of Free Clinics for more information.
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All of this is provided without government support, WTNH.com reports.
WATCH THE VIDEO:
The free clinic will be open from noon to 7 p.m. on February 3rd. You can call for an appointment at (877) 233-5159 or visit the National Association of Free Clinics for more information.
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