My Sochi Rant - Sorry, Will try to make it be the only one...

"Yes, a Jedi's strength flows from the Force. But beware of the dark side. Anger, fear, aggression; the dark side of the Force are they. Easily they flow, quick to join you in a fight. If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will, as it did Obi-Wan's apprentice."  ~Master Yoda, Episode V Emipre Strikes Back

So, I do try not to be too political or preachy on here – but at the end of the day, as my lovely wife will point out when my rants become slightly too intense, that is what this is for. So, like any good slightly too sure that my beliefs are the right ones person, I will rant here – but I do apologize in advance.

Look, I am not trying to reinvent the wheel here. I get that the XXII Winter Games are underway in Sochi, and I do get that no matter how much I yelled and screamed, they were never going to not be there. That is not the way life works, and blahity blah blah blah I know, I get it, I hear you, I acknowledge the logical and exact arguments and facts. With the disclaimer out of the way –

What the hell. Seriously….SERIOUSLY? How exactly did that decision happen? Flashback to 119^th IOC Session – July 2007 – Guatemala City: Um, I dunno. Let’s not give it to someone who has had it dude, that is so last century…Well man, I don’t know. We need to decide because there are 13 fun zones in Guatemala City I want to explore…Well, does it matter, just pull a name out of a hat…But we want it to seem more important than that…So who are the surviving bids again? UMMMMMM – I dunno, bubba you want to check that out for us?...Oh um, Sochi, Russia; Pyeongchang, South Korea or Salzburg, Austria – And here I interject not a what the hell but a WTF – did you get the bids from your asses, but hey what do I know, I excelled at English and History in school, not political sway and geography, so back to the decision making process – Well, we have to knock it down to two before we can go sight see, so let’s vote. Okay, by overwhelming numbers, Salzburg, Austria is OUTSKI. Yeah, it is a HUGE gem of culture and history. It is even know and has been voted as one of the best-preserved cities. It is FREAKING gorgeous, and gave us Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, not to mention was some of the set for “The Sound of Music.” – Another side note, Original Sound of Music here people, don’t talk to me about any LIVE Carrie Underwood Version – However, Salzburg is just, I dunno, too boring. They will most likely be able to handle the different cultures and beliefs that come with having athletes from ALL OVER THE FREAKING WORLD there for 2 weeks – they are a huge tourist city, no, no, no. They are way too capable. DUDE I KNOW – Russia, they seem like they are totally caught up and over dissolving the USSR and losing the Cold War. Lets reward their often 18^th century mindsets, and the fact that they still think that every poor decision they have ever made as a nation is just damn liberal westerners misinterpreting their close minded and hateful views with international attention – totally where the 2014 Olympics are! Pass the blunt, because we must obviously be very, VERY high.

Then, Putin took office (for an unprecedented and possibly illegal 3^rd longer term) in 2012. He went from officer in the freaking KGB to politician. He took over when Yeltsin resigned in 1999, and became President in 2000, holding the position for 2 consecutive 4 year terms. In 2008, he was made Prime Minister and in 2011, under a new law extending the Presidency to 6 years, he ran again – though there were protests, he won in 2012 and will be in power until 2018. Though many feel that Putin has done many good things domestically (especially financially) for Russia, he has been plagued with scandal since 2000 with the Kursk submarine incident, to allegations of fraud, to the 2002 Moscow theater hostage incident to the Beslan school hostage crisis – hmm, many hostage incidents I see – to being marked by most outside countries and organizations as decidedly undemocratic and very dictator like. With his new term, Putin has made strict anti-LGBTQA laws, faced many protests and shown an alarming alliance between the Kremlin and the Russian Orthodox Church – an unseen alliance level since the days of Russian communism.

Oh and lets please not forget that currently, Russia’s relationship with America is at an all time low since the F***ING COLD WAR. For the first time since 1960, the US pulled out of a summit in response to Russia granting asylum to Edward Snowden. The US feels Russian is guarding nations that are controlled by terrorists or anti-American governments – Syria, Iran, Cuba…and Russia proudly “protects” them from US interference. When Putin and the Russian government confirmed that their new anti-homosexual “propaganda” (really just anti-gay) laws would in fact be in effect for the Olympics, and that they would in fact apply to all domestic and foreign athletes, media and tourists, they seemed to be upset that us damn western nations had an issue with their internal issues – because we like you know not just LGBTQA rights so much as BASIC CIVIL RIGHTS FOR ALL – and seemed to react like a toddler who was just told that you cannot in fact go through life stomping your feet and inconveniencing all around you because you don’t like it. Also, let’s give a hand for the IOC and the way they reacted…that they will completely support Russia in this and will punish any athletes that politically act out against these anti-gay laws, as that is not what the Olympics is about.

Um. What.

So the athletes can’t be political but can be subject to another countries unjust law. Um Okay. Well you live in the land of the oblivious, say hi to Santa, and let me know how Elvis is at his next live concert. Morons.

This is where the IOC is sending the 2014 Winter Olympic Athletes. Excellent. Hey, for the summer Olympics can we just forego the ceremony and give them all guns and say ready SHOOT. Come on. Nothing may happen. I get that. There may not be one violent incident. I will say though that a non incident is not a victory here. I can honestly say that anyone who had to make the choice between not competing in the Olympics – a possibly once in a life time experience – or going and competing in Sochi will not feel that a non incident was a victory.  There are LGBTQ athletes that had to make hard choices, there are LGBTQ allies that had to weigh a decision that never should have been forced upon them. Well done IOC – way to not politicize the games – wait, I forgot, the host city can apparently politicize the games; by not listening to concerns from other countries and participating athletes, by siding with the host country the IOC can politicize the games; by making the choice to support the host city or not the tourists can politicize the games – the only people the IOC can and as they say will punish for politicizing the games are the athletes. The people who are the reason that the IOC have a freaking position at all. The people why tourists go to host cities. The athletes. So to what I am sure will be very few if any athletes that make that stand, you amaze me. You win a medal or not you are the champions to me. I stand next to you on the podium with my metaphorical fist raised as well, as if we were Tommie Smith and John Carlos in the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. To the athletes who just go and perform and live out their lifelong dream – I salute you too. I support every athlete who puts it all out there on their respective course, whether it is snow, ice or anything. I wish you all the luck, I hope you all perform how you want to and I pray to all that I hold as holy (so, Joss Whedon, Star Wars, George Lucas, TBBT, paging Dr. Sheldon Cooper) that every single athlete returns home safely, and whether a medal holder or not, with the knowledge that they are an Olympian and that is a selective and awesome club to be in.

So yeah. That is my rant. Will I boycott the Olympics – to be honest I don’t know. I will boycott a good portion of them, but again, my theory is similar to the one I have always held on the “War on Terrorism.” I don’t support the invasion of countries for nonexistent WMD. I do not support the war. But I damn well support the troops. I do NOT, and I cannot stress it enough NOT, support Russia. I think Putin and his Kremlin gremlins, and his alliance with the Orthodox Church are our generations Hitler and the Third Reich. I think this is mimicking 1936 in so many ways I want to hit people over the head with their history books. I think that the IOC is full of political, spineless morons. I feel that not enough people will speak out or step up. I do however support the athletes. Every single one of them. So a full on boycott, I don’t know. Even if I watch, I will not watch silently. I will step up and protest the only way a person on a different continent who is a no body can. I will blog. I will talk. I will be the little activist I have learned to be in my 31 years on this earth. I will do so with the arrogance and security only a lifelong American can. And I will be proud, every time I do. Because I will not sit silently by. I will shout every time you come for someone else – I will be the one there to shout you down every time. I may not be able to change the world myself but I sure as hell will not silently let it pass. So to my friends and family and whatever poor slobs got sucked into this train wreck of a rant and couldn’t get away – I support whatever opinion you have on boycotting or not. Don’t worry – I will be here to tell you what I think for those of you who care. And for those who don’t.

A Little About the Winter Olympics History

On Friday, February 7, 2014 the XXII Winter Olympics will be rung in at the Olympic Stadium in Sochi, Russia. This comes 90 years after the first meet, which now known as I Winter Olympics, was known then as International Winter Sports week in Chamonix, France (the French Alps of course). That kicked off on January 25^th, 1924 with 6 total sports and 14 total events. Being somewhat new, it captured the imagination of spectators and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) held the next one in St. Moritz Switzerland in 1928, dubbing it the Second game of the Winter Olympics. Scandinavians, who had been holding the Nordic Games in Sweden every 4 years since 1901, dominated the Chamonix games, and the United States skated away with a lone medal. The 16 nations that participated were so fond of the event, it led to the IOC planning the St. Moritz Games, and retroactively claiming Chamonix as the madly successful I Games of the Winter Olympiad.

The history of the Winter Games is a rich and somewhat convoluted one. There are 12 countries that have attended every Winter Games held – Austria, Finland, Great Britain, Canada, France, Sweden, Hungary, Poland, Italy, Norway, Switzerland and of course, the United States. Half of them have medaled in each game and the US is the only one that has taken at least 1 gold in every game, included the lone medal it took in the inaugural games of 1924. The countries of Germany and Japan have both been banned from times at the Winter Games, and are the only 2 countries that have. There have also been 2 cancellations of Winter Games, in 1940 and 1944 respectively, both due to WW II. The 1936 games, IV Olympic Winter Games, were held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Bavaria, Germany, and the 1936 Summer Olympics had been in Berlin, Germany…this was the last year that had both Winter and Summer Games in the same host country, though the 2 year break between games we know now would not take effect until the 1990’s, with the Summer and Olympic games on the same every 4 year cycle.

In 1986 the IOC decided that the Winter and Summer Olympics needed to be put onto separate 4 year cycles. This was for a multitude of reasons, but it was hugely logistical. The cost of putting on an Olympic games is astronomical, for the host city/country, the participating nations, and the athletes and yes for the IOC. It also takes a lot of planning and effort. It also relieves the sponsors and gives more time for bigger packages, and better investment. The construction generally included in an Olympics also takes a lot of time, and this helped hosts to really make plans and execute well, without rushing. It took effect in the early 1990s, with the 1992 Summer games in Barcelona, Spain and the 1992 Winter games in Albertville, France, with the next Winter games to start the new cycle a mere 2 years later in 1994 in Lillehammer, Norway (though more commonly known to most as Kerrigan – Harding grudge match).

Now, I am not going to pretend that I am not an Olympic Geek. I am. I watch the winter and summer Olympics religiously. Ironically, my least favorite part is generally the Figure Skating, though it appears to be almost everyone else favorite and gets oh so much coverage. I am 100% an Olympic watching, any sport is a good sport, gotta love it fan. Little actually research was needed for this piece, as it is part of my ridiculous useless knowledge arsenal. What has the Olympics on my mind however is sadly not the impending Games, the opening ceremony, the excitement or any of that. It is that we are repeating history. In 1936, nations went into Germany for TWO separate games as it was the last year the the Olympics were in the same host city for both. Countries poured in, and no matter what concessions Hitler and the Third Reich made, they were not enough. With what was happening to people being stripped of their rights, persecuted, herded into camps and killed the world went in and said and did nothing. Is that what is going to happen now? Are we as advanced nations going to go into Sochi Russia and say nothing of the way that people are being treated there? Are we going to allow them to classify homosexuals as second class citizens, and even extending their hatred to tourists? All that remains to be seen I guess, and all I can say is I hope not. So my excitement for the Olympics this year is tempered as I am a huge activist for not only Gay Rights but Civil Rights in general. I find it hard to stand by and keep my mouth shut. I just pray others will as well.

Chinese New Year

Since it is still January and since I get sucked into my own quests for knowledge like no other I am going to continue on my last blog touching on the history of New Year. This time, I got to thinking about the Chinese New Year. It is the one different New Year tradition that the majority of people I run into have at least heard of – whether it be to know what year they were born in or the festival surrounding it, this ancient tradition has captured the attention of many people the world over.

Since 1912, China as a country has celebrated the calendar New Year on December 31^st – January 1^st with the majority of the world. The Chinese New Year is not a set calendar date, and is still celebrated today as Spring Festival, starting on the first new moon of the New Year and ending 15 days later on the full moon.  The Chinese New Year is always on a different day, since it is based on a combination of the lunar and solar scheduled movements. This causes an extra month to be added in every few years – the equivalent to our leap years. There is a lot of history and tradition seeped into every aspect of the actual Chinese New Year ceremonies, from religious ceremonies to all of Heaven and Earth to recognizing the ancestors and all their sacrifice (family specific).

The ancestor portion of the ceremonies is usually the most significant, and is celebrated with a feast dedicated to them on the Chinese New Year’s Eve known as weilu (surrounding the stove). This weilu is a symbol of all the current and past generations of a family, and is meant to promote unity and honor within those generations for the upcoming year. Along with the deep traditions and religious implications of the Chinese New Year, there are many rituals and superstitions followed by the culture. For instance, the house should be completely and thoroughly cleaned before New Year’s Day, with all cleaning equipment and materials put away on New Year’s Eve. Then, after, you can sweep the floors beginning at the door, to the middle then to the corners, and not removed until the fifth day of the New Year, and never trampling on the piles. When taken out, it must go out the back door – this is due to an ancient belief that anything going out before this will be sweeping one of the family away, and to take anything out the front is to take away the good fortune or luck of the family.

 Also, at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve, every door and window should be open to let the old year leave and the New come. No cursing, no unlucky words should pass your lips, nor should anything about dying, death or ghosts, the past year or crying….as whatever passes will come to you in abundance that year. Do not wash your hair or you wash away good luck, red is a good bright color that is seen to welcome good fortune. Knives or scissors are avoided as they can cut good fortune. There are many more traditions that many may not believe in any longer but that are still done out of the view that these traditions are what connect the past with the present and the future.

The coming Chinese New Year is to begin on January 31, 2014 and the upcoming year is the year of the horse…and that is something that is a blog in and of itself, the year of and etc…so, until next time.

Another New Year - here it is, 2014

Here we are, at the start of another year. It seems to come faster and faster every year. However, being me, I don’t just count down from ten, blow the noise maker, kiss my wife and party it up. Here is how my mind works = what the hell? Why am I blowing a noise maker? Who decided this is when the calendar flips? Why do I care? The kicker is, being me, I am NOT content to shrug and move on. So, though I doubt ANYONE but me has these questions and cares, read on my friends.

The current calendar we use is the Gregorian (AKA Western or Christian) calendar. This is the most used calendar today. It is an adaptation or refinement of the Julian calendar that dates back to 1582. Now, if you were to look at a Julian calendar you would most likely not immediately see a difference. They have the same 12 months, in the same order, and of the same lengths. What then you may ask is the difference? Well, okay, you may not ask that, but again, I did. The difference is that both calendars are actually an approximation of the calendar year, the Julian calendar was simply too long by tenths of time, and actual length of 365.25 days, and the Gregorian calendar is 365.2425 days – a length difference of .002%. Seriously.  The major reason this was done was typical of the day – to correct the celebration of Easter back closer to the spring equinox as was originally decided during the First Council of Nicaea in 325. Under the Julian calendar, Easter continued getting earlier and earlier. The Roman Catholic Church worked to correct this and the Gregorian calendar was born. *Fun Fact – the Julian calendar is currently approximately 13 days behind, since the Gregorian calendar started by skipping 10 actual calendar days to get the vernal equinox back to the March 21 date that worked best for the Church.*

So, here we are, in year 2014 under the Gregorian calendar, still celebrating something that has been going since 2000 B.C. in Mesopotamia. It was really cemented in 42 B.C. by the Romans, who raised Julius Caesar to a deity on January 1^st and honored his reinvented (Julian) calendar after his murder on the senate floor. Now we have a period of remembrance, looking back at the past year, and analyzing every major event. This all culminates in a night of jubilation and partying the world over on what has become to be known as New Years Eve (NYE). On actual January 1^st, there are many traditions, from family to religious to sporting events and parades.

I still am not sure that I get the big party and celebration.  Personally, my celebration comes on (surprise, surprise) Shark Week Eve, but this is where my lives philosophy comes in – to each their own. I want to party before the new Shark Week specials; others want to ring in the coming year. See, how I figure it…I know that Shark Week is going to be good. I will get to see old shows that I love, I will see new documentaries that are enlightening, maybe even a mockumentary I really see no need for but is entertaining. I do not know what the upcoming year will bring, so why ring it in anywhere but in my bed, with pjs ready to go to sleep. The past few years have brought huge changes, from good – marriage, career, volunteering opportunities – to bad – old jobs, fights with family and friends – to horrible – sick parents, debilitating sickness, lasting injuries. And that is how it is. I am not celebrating nor complaining about these things – life happens. Every minute of every day of every week of EVERY YEAR. It is tradition for so many people that I sometimes wonder if anyone else wonders why we litter Rockefeller Center with confetti every December 31^st or if it is so familiar to them, they don’t give it a second thought. For those who love to party it up as one year ends and another begins, I say good for you. It shows an optimism and faith I am not sure I have ever truly been able to muster up, and therefore a part of me is jealous of it. Rock on whether you are an optimist who waits for midnight with bated breath or one who does not care at all and just rolls over to spend it like you would any late night – these are the differences that make life interesting, right?

Back from Life Time Out

So, first off, I am trying to get back into this. I know I haven’t written in almost 6 months – life got crazy. I got a job that I love, but of which I skipped about 4 rungs from no responsibility to lots, and it took some adjustment. Also, with birthdays, holidays, anniversaries, injuries, etcetera, life got away from me and taking the time to write was so not in the cards. Life is starting to calm down however, and I am slowly getting back into some of the things that I let slide before.

I am reiterating – there is no theme to this blog. The one constant will be that my thoughts and interests are everywhere, and so this will be. There will be some constants – Star Wars, happy geek things, sports and the Annual Holy Shark Week Celebration. Other than that, I have no clue where my mind will take it in any kind of pattern.

I stand by what I said in my first blog. I am not a “professional writer” and you will often see a lack of polish and finish. Also, I am not unaware of the fact that I am a tad strange, and that some of my rants or as I like to think of them “flows of thoughts” are also strange. I also see the validity in my wife’s most common phrase, that she really wishes she could “YouTube this shit” so people could understand what she is subject to listening to on a daily and nightly basis. However dear (if you are actually bothering to read this one…;-p) as I often remind you – you put a ring on it, you have to listen to it.

So again, buckle up my family, friends and any poor reader who clicked on any of these links hoping it was actually knowledgeable. Welcome to a small taste of the brain and thoughts of Heather…I promise no one will get hurt, yet make no such assurances on confusion issues…

SUMMER CAMP AT 30?

BY HEATHER MARLETTE

                I know I promised to return to normal after my last more personal and kinda preachy (I can admit it…) blog. This is nowhere near that level, but I do need to take a moment to get out some personal joy I experienced this past weekend and there is no better way to do that than to write it down right? Trust me, there isn’t. Sometimes you can’t think of the words to express the great things you have seen or heard or learned, but personally I can’t always think of the words to SAY them to people, I can to write them. SO here it goes.

                        I am not a nature type person. I have always hated pretty much all things that have to do with nature, like sweating from the heat, being hot, being cold, and rocks in my shoes, insects, arachnoids, and animals of all types, mold, fungus, trees, and leaves. Well, not all things – there was a time when mud puddles were some of my favorite toys, but I am Heather and these things happen. I NOW hate mud puddles as they make my feet wet, and that could make me cold and that sucks. So needless to say, though I did enjoy playing outside when I was a kid, I liked to do it on pavement, in very populated areas. Other then my excursions to the county fair for 4-H things, I didn’t want to do wilderness or camping and I didn’t. This is important to bear in mind because the place that literally made me happier than happy can be was a camp. Like a real camp. For a woman whose catch phrase is “I don’t BELIEVE in nature” this is strange, right? It could be, and the decision to go was not one I made lightly.

I got an e-mail from the Pride Center of the Capital Region that if I was interested, they were looking for counselors for their first ever summer Leadership Day Camp for LGBTQA Youth. I love the work I do with my Youth Group kids, and I knew a few of them were going. Also, the Pride Center of the Capital Region is staffed by people who are very good at their jobs, but more than that by people who every day go out and try to make a difference through their professional and personal lives. These are people who astound me every day, who do what so few are willing to do and do it publically. They are honestly amazing people who I love to work with and learn from literally every time I see them or work with them. Then there are the kids. Going into this I only knew a quarter of the kids going to the camp, but the ones I did know, they are amazing. They are these kids who stand up and say no, we aren’t normal and we won’t bend to the pressure of society to try and make us normal. We aren’t going to lie down and date people of the opposite sex until we get to college to make you happy. These kids, anyone who meets them could never believe the things you hear about kids today. They aren’t the mean little cliques who exclude anyone outside of the bubble they have made for themselves. They are the kids who stand back, look around to see who is being excluded and then walks over and sits down with them. I could write blogs and blogs, and books full of the greatness of these kids, just the ones I knew going in. Now that I went and met the rest of them – well, neither my talent is good enough or my life long enough to write the praises of the kids I was privileged enough to meet this weekend.

Anyway – I got this e-mail and at first was like UM yeah, is that gonna be in a Hotel or Nature, because I think we are having a definition issue here – camping for me is where it’s not my sheets on the nice actual bed and it’s not my preferred brand of toilet paper. Then I realized it was a day camp, so there was a pause in my immediate NO. I have been behind this idea since the start. A camp where LGBTQ youth and their allied friends can come and relate to each other in a completely safe environment - that is an idea I can completely get behind! So, despite my loathing and chosen methodology of not believing in nature I said Yes – sign me up Scottie…more accurately sign me up James, but I digress. So I signed up. Now, I did this in typical Heather fashion, so the week before I was out until late each night leading up to and running around to get ready. We went, and I have never done anything like a leadership camp before, as a youth or adult and it was a little nerve wrecking. What happened in actual detail that is for the youth and adults that were there. I can say that at the end, looking at these kids sitting in a circle debriefing the first year, begging for it to go longer, I was very emotional. I don’t like to cry in front of people, and managed not to, but these kids and this staff, and my fellow volunteer AC’s, and the EMT/nurse/tech who also came as a volunteer…words cannot describe the bond I feel with them all. If any of you have seen a new saying on twitter #hotterthanhot, and if it is annoying you, e-mail me, I will do the whole cheer for you and you can blame my partner in crime, fellow crew AC and new platonic life partner/soul mate for it.

In all seriousness I saw that future LGBTQA youth isn’t waiting to take up the fight when we are gone, they are already joining in. The best feedback I heard from a camper was that he woke up for it on Saturday morning going oh yeah, going to gay camp – but left after the whirlwind two days just having gone to camp. There were specific workshops geared towards LGBTQ issues of course, and it was a constant conversation topic. However, many of the kids don’t see this as anything special, because they are members of the LGBTQA community, and they don’t see it as weird to talk about it or learn about it. So these kids signed up for a LGBTQA Leader Ship Day Camp, and really just got a Leader Ship Day Camp. There were some issues here and there, things we could do different, maybe even better. But every single kid learned, had fun, made a friend, and felt like they final had a place where they were free to be them, that it was okay to like who they like, identify however they identify and know that there is honestly no judgment and no fear. That my friends was a beautiful beautiful thing, and unless you have seen something like it, you may understand what I am saying, but it may seem cheesy to you, because you do not get it. Watching them, I kept having this quote from my all time writing mentor Superstar Joss Whedon (told you, will almost ALWAYS bring it back to him) in an introduction video in 2011, he said “…I want to make some noise. I want to make a joyful noise, I want to make too much noise. I want the neighbors to complain. I’m tired of being polite about something that matters.” Yes I do Mr. Whedon, and so I have been and what I learned this weekend is so do this amazing adults and youth, and so we have and so we will.

Now, I would say I promise next time will be a normal sarcastic/sassy blog, but apparently I was wrong last time so I make no promises. Thank you for indulging!

AN OPEN PLEA TO FUTURE GENERATIONS ON HIV/AIDS

BY HEATHER MARLETTE

                        This is an issue that I care very deeply about. It is not one that directly affects me, but I have felt deeply about it since child hood, and more so since my tenure at UAlbany. There I meet some of what I truly believe to be the kindest people around, and one of them was named Jamal. Jamal and I became fast friends, and he said it was because I liked to listen and he liked to talk, so we were made to be friends. Jamal is not someone that I ever really broadcasted our friendship, or that I felt needed to be connected with at all times, neither one of us were that people. Every morning before class and every day between our classes, if we weren’t with other people we migrated towards the fountain. We always met up at the same picnic table in nice weather, and near the same vending machines in bad. Jamal was an older guy, a returning student who had had life take some nasty turns on him and who was trying to accomplish some goals in his life so he could make peace with his past before he died. 

              See, Jamal was a very sick guy, had been sick for many years. It was the third or fourth time we were talking over cigarettes (yes, I smoked, deal) when he let me know that he was infected with the AIDS virus, not HIV, he made it very clear that he was one of the unfortunate ones that had progressed to the full blown virus. I remember him watching my face very closely as he told me, and I also remember controlling myself. Not for the reasons why he was watching me, but for my own. He was sure that this was the end of yet another blossoming friendship, as the stigmatism and fear of HIV/AIDS still controls society whether they want admit it or not when it is presented to people’s faces. NO, I was controlling my emotions, because if Jamal could see that I truly didn’t care that way about his diagnoses, I also didn’t want him to see my fear not of him but for him.

                        I looked at him, said Okay and went back to talking about how annoying it was that you couldn’t sit at the tables next to the fountain without getting sprayed. He got a little choked up, smiled and moved on as well. The flood gates seemed to open from that day forward however, and I learned that no matter the advancements, no matter the treatments, HIV and AIDS are still horrible diseases that tear at your body, mind and soul. I learned that part of what had advanced the disease in him was HIV drug resistance that causes the cocktails to become less and less effective, and allows the system to be more susceptible to the AIDS virus once more. I listened to the fact that even when they work, the drugs often make a person just as sick if not even worse than the virus itself. I realized over time that yes, it is a treatable disease – then in the early 2000’s, even more now. However, it is still one of the worst diseases that can attack a human being. More so then ever Jonathan Larson’s haunting lyrics in RENT hit home as you listen to the stories of throwing up, crying, wishing it were all over – will they lose their dignity? Will anybody care?

                        One day late in the first semester of my senior year, as I always knew would happen, Jamal let me know he was pulling out the next semester. Sporadically we e-mailed back and forth, but slowly the e-mails were shorter, some were even confusing. Then they stopped. I don’t have the confirmation on it, but in my heart, I know they only stopped because his body gave out, and he finally got to lie down and stop fighting. When I said earlier understand, he was not an older guy where he had white hair and could have had grand babies. He was in his mid-thirties when we met, about a dozen years older than me.  I know that he, as many were in the 1980’s, early 1990’s was a promiscuous gay youth who did not believe he was anything other than invincible and therefore did not feel the need to practice safe sex. Though the HIV/AIDS crisis was in full gear, he was a stupid kid that felt it could never happen to him. Here is where my plea comes into play. I work with LGBTQA youth regularly. I facilitate youth groups, and I am involved in the first ever LGBTQA camp this summer in the Upstate NY Capital Region. What terrifies me is the attitude they have towards HIV/AIDS. Sadly, it is the same attitude I see in most of today’s youth and even young adult generations. That this is a thing of the past, that the fight has been fought and that they are safe. THIS IS NOT TRUE. If you look at the numbers, due to these attitudes and people straying from safe sex and regular testing, infections are again on the rise.

 DO NOT FORGET HISTORY – when they say those who forget it are doomed to repeat it, it’s true. Trust me, I was a history major and you can see the truth of that statement in all of the books. If we for one second forget the beginning of HIV/AIDS in this country in the 1980’s we will have another one. We CAN NOT let that happen. This is a NON-DISCRIMINATORY disease people. It attacks first, and NEVER asks questions. Left untreated, it escalates quickly and unforgivingly. Please educate yourselves. Please practice safe sex. Please remember every time you sleep with someone, as much as you roll your eyes or think we are old for saying – YOU ARE SLEEPING WITH EVERYONE THEY HAVE EVER SLEPT WITH. We must restart the fight against HIV/AIDS. Yes, Mr. Larson, sadly many of them will lose their dignity – but I also answer YES – I will care. About every one of them. Every time. And even if it is just me, I will be fighting the fight, and letting them know that someone cares. Please, join me. Click below, donate even a dollar, or walk, or fund raise yourself. Please, REMEMBER

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 http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/heathermarlette/AIDSWalk2013CapitalRegion