Welcome Back

A recent article, in Newsweek, states that activism for AIDS is returning. Something that I have been wondering about for some time.

I have always been a supporter of the movement, but in recent years I was quite dismayed that so few people were seemingly concerned or active in doing things about awareness etc.

I was most surprised, when teaching, at how little correct information kids seemed to have. Both high school and middle school students still carried around such outdated ideas about HIV/Aids and all related issues. So I had activists and speakers come in to school and do presentations. I personally continued to make donations, wore tee shirts and ribbons and bracelets to keep myself visible. I have looked for local groups, but there are none around here. Sadly, one would have to go to Cleveland to find the nearest activist group. Even on a college campus the cause has lost momentum.

"In my early days as a board member and earlier, there was a great deal of concern, worry, angst about HIV that has settled into this kind of benign complacency," says Marjorie J. Hill, CEO for the Gay Men’s Health Crisis. Many people, she says, thinks AIDS can be treated with a pill, and that living with the disease is now similar to living with diabetes or heart disease.

Of course, HIV/AIDS is not nearly under control: it affects 33 million people worldwide, and in America, it's the No. 1 killer for women under 35, according to the MAC AIDS fund. The Centers for Disease Control reports that new infections have not declined in the past decade, and while people under 30 are at the greatest risk, so are those in their 50s and 60s. As patients living with HIV/AIDS get older, more potential side effects of the drug cocktails become apparent, including premature aging and dementia. And while many people think AIDS as a medical condition is no big deal, people are still afraid to confront it. "The stigma against people with HIV is still so strong," says Hofmann, who notes that fear of social consequences has kept many patients silent. '

How can it be the number one killer of women under 35 and people are just not that interested anymore? Especially when it is just not a "gay disease" any more! Like they say, the stigma is still quite strong, and people do not want to talk about or be associated with it.

Not only was I personally involved with someone who died from AIDS complications, but my brother-in-law had been the first person in Northeast Ohio diagnosed back when it first came out as a named disease and he was an active motivator in and with issues involving HIV/AIDS for many, many years. Sadly it did not kill him. Asthma did.

Even though I have many conflicting feelings towards my employer I am at least happy to say that they do make donations, like yesterday fro World AIDS Day, they donated 5 cents from EVERY hand crafted beverage sold. We sell mugs and coffee for the cause.

There are many other places, such as the GAP, who sells tee shirts, there are others who have bracelets that will make donations from their purchase. There are those still involved and still caring.

Maddness

I watched this show once or twice, it was humorous and snarky, but not anything I want to go out of my way to DVR. That being said I did have to laugh when Time asked in a recent article if the show was "anti-Christian". Who cares!! I am SOOOO tired of this whole movement, started by the Christians, that suggests that everyone is out to get them.

For a better part of this year we have had to endure an onslaught of articles and news chatter about how the entire well-being of Christians is at stake. Maybe they just need to get rid of their televisions, stop reading books other than the Bible, and just stick with folks of a similar mind. Seriously, maybe they need to find new places to hang their hat and leave the rest of the world alone!

There is still a great deal of unoccupied land in the Western U.S.

Wake Up and Smell the Coffee

Had my eyes opened. Took my corporate blinders off. The company comes across with all their cool,"we support causes and act on conservation", B.S. Yet they are really just another corporate entity complete with typical conservative values, beliefs and behaviors.

Guess the economy must be getting stronger because our fearless leader is giving himself a nice raise, or maybe it is just a cost of living increase! He had seemed to be feeling our pain when he decided to take a salary of $10,000 in 2009, but looks like he is jumping up to 1.3 million for 2010. Mama must need a new pair of shoes!!

That aside, I don't know him personally so I can only speak about the people that are in my personal orbit. That is where this all begins. I just am not the cookie cutter type management people that fit in with them. Seems that their idea is to use me for some ones maternity leave and then let them stay at my current location and move me a drive from home. Or I could just turn down the promotion, stay where I am and make enough money to get by AND go back to subbing until I can get back in to a school.

I went to a training class this week and they sent my boss a really crappy e-mail about my look and a few other tid bits. They had asked for us to share anything that we felt needed to be anonymous and then they went and included that in the e-mail too! Now this is going to stir up a whole ton on crap for me and others at work. So much for trust and anonymity. Assholes.

John says that I have been doing WAAAAY too much for my boss and the company for no increase in pay. That is just how I am and I am sure that some of you can relate. You just want to see stuff get done and you are driven and want it to be done right. I have always been a leader. That is how I ended up in charge of many different organizations etc.

It is hard to back off and let go. Today made it much easier. My regional person was in and did not even speak. Walked right past me as if I was nothing and that is the person who knows about my desire to get promoted AND is responsible for said promotion! Hell, even my boss did not introduce me to the regional other guy even as I was standing there putting my coat on!!

Needless to say I am tired and pissed off with the whole bunch and ready to throw in the towel, but like most of middle class America I am stuck because I need the health care. I am just another statistic stuck in a job I hate because I need the health care.

Moral,Schmoral!!!

Something needs to happen with the health care system in this country. End of story. I won't claim to have all the answers or even begin to dissect all the arguments.....BUT.....

I am sick, sick, sick to death of hearing about the abortion issue holding crap up. I am tired to death of people STILL using this outdated argument as a reason to argue!!!! I can not believe that there are so many kids/families out there who can not afford to care for themselves and yet abortion is still a sticking point.

This article, at Newsweek, points out that there are MANY other so called "moral issues" involved in our health care debate than just abortion.

Married Gay, Stoned and Vacationing in Cuba

Slate magazine says that it is time to end the prohibition on gay marriage, travel to Cuba and the legal stigma attached to pot.

Aside from the Cuba issues they are topics that I have felt strongly about and have spoken of often. It's time.

Weird is Good

We must overcome the notion that we must be regular. . . it robs you of the chance to be extraordinary and leads you to the mediocre. Ute Hagen

Today's Meditation: In our family, "Weird is good." Whenever one of us does something that goes against the norm or that seems to be a bit strange, we tell that person, "You're so weird!" And the response is always, "Yeah, and weird is good!" In this way we allow ourselves to stray from the normal--and not just to stray from it, but to embrace the abnormal, the different, the unusual. In the regular things of life, there's very little--if anything--left to be discovered. Because so many people strive to be "regular" every day of their lives, they take away the new and the extraordinary from that regular side of life, and they convert it into the boring and the usual. Mediocrity rules in the regular because the regular doesn't encourage us to take chances or to move in new directions or to try to find the new and extraordinary. Our whole lives long, we're encouraged to be regular by teachers, parents, friends, relatives, and other members of society. If we're "regular" kids, we won't embarrass our parents. If we're regular in the classroom, the teacher won't face any new or different challenges. There are times when being regular can be valuable. My employer would like it if I can maintain a certain degree of regularness in my job. My step-kids would appreciate it if I'm regular in my financial dealings so that they don't face serious financial problems in their future. But regular doesn't have to rule our lives. There's much of the extraordinary out there in the world, and if we're to find it, then we have to look for it. And we can't do that by settling for mediocrity and boring status quos.

Questions to consider: From where do we get the notion of the value of being regular? What kinds of new and different things do we discover when we're focused on conforming to what society sees as "regular"? What's the value in settling for mediocrity?

I loved this thought today. It has been a very long time since anyone, including myself, have seen me as a "regular" person. I tried for many years to change my image and inner self. Tried to be what I saw as acceptable in society. By the way I dressed, wore my hair etc. That was also a big part of my "church shopping" years as well. The trying to fit in and be a regular part and person of the acceptable parts of society and the community.

It wasn't until a few years back that I began to find my way back to my "real" self. The person that I had been in my early 20's. The girl that did not fit into any particular mold. The girl that read a great deal and questioned many things. A funny thing happened as I was bringing her back....I began to feel comfortable, once again, in my own skin! But....I also began to face opposition from the "main stream". I had forgotten how that felt. The churchy folk did not care for the "real" me and that was when I saw the hypocrisy and silliness of it all and got out of there ASAP!

I had been brainwashed for much of my child's life thinking that in order to be a good parent that I had to look and be just like the rest of them. I had to do things the way they all did them. I let myself be molded by mediocrity.

Now that I am free from it all I have discovered so many exciting things about life and myself and my place in the world. I enjoy it all so much more while traveling to a different drummer. Finding your own beat can make all the difference.

Doing the things I need to do in my work life, even when I was teaching, can all still have a flavor of me. I don't have to succumb to the demands of the status quo. Freedom is liberating. Breaking the bonds of regularity & mediocrity has made all the difference!!

Viva la difference!!!

Playing Dress Up

My pal and I dressed up as beverages today at work. Our other friend dressed as "Toddlers and Tiaras". I hope to have some of those pictures later. I wanted to get therse out there. It is the first time in a very long time that I have actually made something to wear for Halloween. It was fun and a big hit as well!!