November Sweeping

Obama Standing Firm on 2nd Term Agenda

Karanja Gaçuça

Straight from his reelection President Obama is forging full steam ahead with his second term agenda, which is already looking almost as ambitious as the first. Having passed healthcare, a feat that escaped Presidents over a century, a trillion dollar plus stimulus and financial reform to name some of the most major achievements, one might have been forgiven for wondering what the president might have to do during his second term.

Having met Monday with leaders from Capitol Hill, President Obama followed Tuesday with his first meeting with non-elected officials, with a meeting with Labor leaders including Richard Trumka and progressive organizations including Moveon, as if in a nod to suggest that the middle income and worker constituencies represented by these leaders come first.

These have already been a few news filled days, what with the salacious ever emerging details of General Patreus’ indiscretions, and now General John Allen, Obama’s nominee to be the next NATO Allied forces commander.  His confirmation hearings were set to begin Thursday November 15^th have now been postponed pending an investigation.

Given all of the above, and especially after last week’s election, I was expecting this week to be somewhat of an anti-climax with regard to political news, but I’ve been very pleasantly surprised.
President Obama on Tuesday made news when he asserted that he “would not budge” on the question of the Bush tax cuts for the top 2% of the population that earn over $250,000 in income per year.
The President went on to meet second, it must be noted with leaders of business, I suppose to demonstrate that he’s willing to hear their concerns also, but first and foremost as he asserted during his press conference Wednesday 14^th, his mandate being to look after the workers of the middle class and those aspiring to join the middle class. I would much rather that he would just simply come out and use the word the poor rather than “those aspiring to join the middle class”, but the message is well taken and judging from media coverage and polling, well taken by both the media and the public.
Without using any explicit language to talk about a mandate or political capital a la George Bush after his reelection in 2004 where he eat John Kerry with a mere 286 electoral college votes, President Obama was far more subtle about his win. His demeanor however, revealed a strength and confidence that can only be exuded by a president very well aware of the very strong and clear mandate that his decisive win against Mitt Romney has provided him.
It has gone largely unnoticed, especially given that the final polls just before the election suggested a very close race, and indeed election night results looked relatively tight, but in fact, the president won very decisive margins across all of the battle ground states. For example, Obama’s win in Colorado was a whopping 5 points, having beat Romney 51% to 46%. This was a state where some of the final polling put Romney ahead of Obama, but in fact in keeping with the Obama campaign numbers, was more in line with similar convincing wins such as in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. http://www.politico.com/2012-election/map/#/President/2012/

Stories Behind Facing AIDS: Why Do I Face AIDS?

By AIDS.gov

Karen Walker

Through the Facing AIDS photosharing initiative, you and your community can join the thousands of Americans who are helping reduce stigma and promote HIV testing by putting a face to AIDS for World AIDS Day (December 1) and beyond. Karen Walker, a nurse and a mother, wrote this powerful description of why she is Facing AIDS as part of the AIDS.gov Facing AIDS anti-stigma photo initiative.

Why do I Face AIDS
By Karen Walker

I face AIDS because of my life experiences with two small children who became my foster children in 1984. At that time, my husband and I had three adopted children living in our home, along with two unwed teen mothers and their babies.  We received a frantic phone call asking if we would please take a 4-year-old girl and her 8-year-old brother whose mother had died the day before from AIDS.  The children had not yet been told of their mother’s death, but the foster mother in whose home they living, upon hearing of their mother’s diagnosis, demanded that the state child welfare worker come and get the children immediately.

 When the worker arrived, the children had been placed outside on the steps with their belongings and had not been allowed back into the house. On the drive to our house, they were told of their mother’s death.  We were only supposed to be an emergency placement for one night as we already had seven children in our house, but it soon became clear that no one else would take them, so we agreed to keep them until the state could find them a permanent home.

They lived with us for 14 months, during which time the first HIV antibody test became available.  I brought the two children to a hospital to be tested and we learned that the little girl was HIV positive, having contracted the disease in utero.

After 14 months, an adoptive home was found for them with a single parent in another part of the state, but their lives were immediately pitched into turmoil. Their pre-adoptive mother had gone to register them for school and a school official had revealed the little girl’s HIV status, breaching confidentiality. An article appeared in a local newspaper that a child with an AIDS-related condition was trying to enroll and all “heck” broke loose. She was never allowed in school that year, and her brother could only attend with a court order and police escort, walking through picketing parents and TV crews, despite the fact that six lab tests showed that he was HIV negative.  For the first week of school, parents pulled their children out of his classes. It was only after the State Commissioner of Education advised those parents that their children would be considered truant, that they agreed to leave their children in school. The boy’s desk was isolated in the classroom, he was not allowed to play with anyone on the playground, and he was told not to use the drinking fountain.

At home, the children had bricks thrown through their windows, they were asked not to attend church, and they endured people running away from them in public places. Life became unbearable for them, and after 6 months, the adoption failed. A social worker came on a Friday to pick up the little girl, and on Sunday, we drove out and picked up the little boy.

Shortly thereafter, we legally adopted the boy. For many years, the state wouldn’t tell us where his sister was.  When they did tell us, we found that she had been moved to another state, and was in a great home with people who were in the process of adopting her. Sadly, she passed away 3 weeks after her 21st birthday from an AIDS-related illness, but at least we were able to be a part of her life again.

THIS IS WHY I FACE AIDS EVERYDAY. The discrimination and stigma are less than they were in the mid-1980s, but they are still very real for many people. I will fight for as long as I can, or until the stigma is gone, and a cure is found.