A VACCINE AGAINST IGNORANCE & FEAR

By Steve Villano

Scientists, infectious disease doctors and public health advocates were hit with a double-whammy over the past few weeks.

In the valiant quest for a vaccine to prevent the spread of AIDS, the most promising AIDS Vaccine candidate in years failed in two major clinical trials which the entire medical world was watching. Some of those receiving the vaccine in clinical trials conducted in Africa, may have become more likely to become infected with the HIV virus than those who did not.

It was, as HIV virus co-discoverer Dr. Robert Gallo said, "the equivalent of the Challenger disaster in AIDS research," but even that only represented one facet of the tragedy. Another damaging aspect of the dire development was that it reinforced an already powerful prejudice that exists within communities of color that HIV/AIDS was deliberately engineered to kill black people. It's an unfounded conspiracy theory--believed by large segments of the black community worldwide--that dates back to the Tuskegee syphilis experiments in the U.S, and the polio vaccine clinical trials done in Africa decades ago. In fact, in many mostly Muslim nations, polio has made a deadly resurgence, because many in those countries believe that the polio vaccine is nothing more than a Western plot to infect whole populations with AIDS. Consequently, there are enormous challenges ahead for not only the discovery of a viable AIDS vaccine, but for distributing vaccines that have already been developed for diseases that can be controlled or eliminated, like polio or measles.

That's why its so maddening that at almost the precise moment the grim news about the AIDS vaccine was being made public, a group of well-to-do women in San Diego, California--where a measles outbreak is occurring--are refusing to have their children vaccinated for basic childhood diseases, out of a completely unproven fear that such vaccines cause autism.

One of the San Diego mothers conceded that by not having her child vaccinated against measles--which kills 250,000 children a year in countries where the vaccine doesn't reach everyone--she knew she was putting other children at risk. Another acknowledged the existence of "measles parties," where uninfected children are brought by their parents and intentionally exposed to children with measles, so they can be "naturally" exposed to the disease.

The bitter irony here is that in a rich, fortunate place like San Diego, California, where citizens have access to some of the best health care in the country, and childhood vaccines are in abundant supply, an unfounded, not-medically supported myth is circulating and putting everyone's child at risk of being infected with a virus for which we have already discovered the vaccine.

Don't we have enough work to do on AIDS--in finding a viable vaccine, that could save millions of lives--to be subject to such know-nothing, anti-science nonsense that threatens the health of all of us? Perhaps the first vaccine we need to develop is the one which eradicates ignorance and fear.

Non-Profits and Media Outlets

Non-profit organizations are forever strategizing how best to get their message before the public and media companies are always assessing the role they are able to play in supporting the communities they serve.

What do the two have in common? They both are trying to figure out how to serve their clients, and fine tune doing that successfully. The motivation may be different but the goals are, in broad strokes, the same. Lately, this common denominator has been on my mind.

Each year, Cable Positive hosts an awards ceremony that honors, in thirteen categories, those networks that provide outstanding HIV-related programming in the cable industry entitled The Positively Outstanding Programming (POP) Awards.

Through the Tony Cox Community Fund, Cable Positive provides grants to local AIDS Service Organizations who partner with their local cable system to use media as an advocacy and outreach tool.

There is no question that HIV/AIDS is still an epidemic. There is no question that media can play a role in helping to change the attitudes and behaviors of consumers. There is a question, at least in my mind, as to why media isn’t being used more, and more effectively, to address the issue of HIV/AIDS.

Although I see some exceptional examples, I am not seeing nearly as many as I would like to or think I could be seeing. I know that there are many reasons for this and it isn’t my intent to minimize the challenges that exist for both the non-profits and entertainment industry.

It would be my wish, as long as HIV and AIDS exist, that I have an office full of POP Award entries and media advocacy is second nature to all non-profits--regardless of size.

I may have a way to go before I get my wish but that is one of the most exciting elements of being part of the Cable Positive team—the belief that media can and is absolutely a force of change in this epidemic.

It is a fundamental core belief of mine that anyone can make a difference if they have the drive and opportunity. It is exciting to be part of an organization, and an industry, that not only encourages that drive but pushes you to continue to create those opportunities; opportunities that encourages and cultivates that drive in others.

Cable Positive’s Youth AIDS Media Institute is a perfect example of that but you will have to wait for my next entry to hear more on that.

Knocking Down Stereotypes, Just by Standing There

There are some people whose very lives—their very existence—are a victory, an affirmation of life, and a bold statement against simplistic stereotypes that harm all of us.

Regan Hofmann, Editor in Chief of POZ Magazine, is one of those people. Her fundamental honesty and compassion, and her bravery in living each day and tackling the tough issue of stigma toward HIV positive people serve as a profound profile in courage. Couple that with Regan’s keen understanding of the power of media—print and all forms of electronic media—to educate and inform people about the disease, and you can perhaps begin to see the enormous importance she plays in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Regan Hofmann is a key partner of Cable Positive’s. She has been HIV positive since 1996, and she stunned the Cable industry at the Cable Positive Annual Benefit on March 4, simply by acting as our host for the evening and speaking passionately about her status as an HIV positive person.

The power of Regan’s presence as an HIV positive HIV/AIDS activist and educator, is not only in the fact that she is “living with, living with, not dying from the disease.” It is also who Regan is. She is a young, soft-spoken, heterosexual white woman, striking in her appearance and composure that smashes every single stereotype that many want to believe about people with AIDS. She is a Board Member of the National Association of People with AIDS, a Board Member of the Names Project, has appeared on “Oprah”, is a part of Kenneth Cole’s new media campaign to raise HIV/AIDS awareness, and appeared, along with Gloria Reuben, in Cable Positive new documentary “Positive Voices: Women & HIV,” which has aired on Showtime Networks, and is being requested by hundreds of AIDS organizations across the country.

Just by standing before a large audience, or appearing on television, or writing in the pages of her beloved POZ Magazine, Regan Hofmann is a force for change because she is living evidence that HIV is not a “gay” disease or a “black” disease, or a “third-world” disease, but a matter for the entire human family to face.

She told the Cable industry leaders attending the Cable Positive Power Awards two weeks ago that “by openly discussing HIV, you de-stigmatize what is nothing more than a retrovirus; when we can see AIDS, and talk about it, we can heal people, and prevent others from getting it.” And this brave leader, activist & AIDS educator had high praise for the corporate social responsibility practiced by the Cable industry in this fight: “Your incredible efforts move us ever closer to the day when we will celebrate not only the power and the passion of this brave industry, but also one day, maybe, the end of AIDS.”

Powerful words from a courageous person whose sheer presence makes an astounding statement against the stigma surrounding people who are “living with” this disease.

Sex & Sexuality

In the midst of a red-hot & historic Democratic Presidential primary campaign there are very few things that could knock Candidates Clinton & Obama out of the top-story position on local and national news programs. Few things, that is, except sex & sexuality.

With New York Governor Eliot Spitzer resigning this week because he allegedly purchased sex from women through a high-priced prostitution ring, New York’s tabloid newspapers had a field day and titillation topped every hour on TV. Cable and broadcast news stations jumped at the chance to delve into this deliciously devilish development, pulling out lawyers, sex doctors and even the ex-wives of former politicians from their closet of props.

Probably the most egregious example of over-reaching in an effort to show some empathy for Eliot Spitzer’s shocked and sorrowful spouse Silda, was a decision by CNN and NBC—as well as other news organizations—to make Deena McGreevey, the ex-wife of former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey, the poster child for spurned spouses.

Comparing the still-unfolding Spitzer situation to the McGreevey resignation is a complete failure on the part of each news organization to separate the most important facts of each case, in the stampede to their studios to find a sympathetic ex-spouse. In the Spitzer case, New York’s governor is alleged to have—over a period of 10 years at a cost of some $80,000—purchased sex from women through a prostitution ring, with some of the transactions occurring as interstate commerce. Additionally, his secretive method of payments have raised prosecutorial and banking questions alike, and he may have used state resources to travel to and from his liaisons.

McGreevey’s case was not about sex for hire through an illegal prostitution ring, but about a same-sex orientation which he could no longer hide. Granted, McGreevey—like Spitzer—may have used state vehicles or expenses to help facilitate his dates, and he found a job for his alleged lover on the New Jersey State payroll. While McGreevey’s judgement may have been bad, he did not act illegally. By lazily lumping his case in with Spitzer’s, news organizations—wittingly or not—equated his actions with Spitzer’s, and by association, put homosexuality on the same page as prostitution, which not-so-subtly stamps same-sex love as something illicit.

That kind of stigmatizing of same-sex relationships and of gays—in the same breath with prostitutes—has life and death consequences, as this year’s 10^th anniversary of Matthew Shepard’s murder shows us all too clearly. As if to underscore the danger, just this week an Oklahoma State Representative told a political group that “the gay community posed a bigger threat than either terrorism or Islam.”

I am not a fan of Jim McGreevey’s. I think his marriage to his second wife, Deena—after he already knew he was gay-- was a cruel hoax upon her, calculated to protect his political career at her expense, and at the expense of the truth of who he was. Gay Americans have a much richer list of heroes, including Harvey Milk, David Mixner, Ellen DeGeneres, Melissa Etheridge, Terrance McNally, Elton John and Cole Porter, among thousands of others in towns and communities around the world.

Gay celebrities and artists like Tony Kushner, B.D. Wong, Nathan Lane, Isaac Mizrachi, & Carson Kressley have courageously and generously donated their time and talent to Cable Positive to do messages of HIV/AIDS education and awareness seen in more than 80 million households. And, fearless Cable industry leaders like Logo’s President Brian Graden, being honored by GLAAD next week, and Here tv! Regent Entertainment President/CEO Paul Colichman, make enormous contributions to the lives of members of the GLBT community each hour of every day through the pioneering programming their networks provide.

In fighting stigma and prejudice aimed squarely at the gay community, news organizations, networks and cable systems have a lot more work to do, much more carefully and consistently than its been done.

An excerpt from my 2008 Power Awards speech:

THIS IS QUITE AN HISTORIC NIGHT—NOT JUST HERE, BUT AROUND THE COUNTRY. RIGHT NOW, IN TEXAS AND OHIO, PEOPLE ARE POURING OUT TO THE POLLS TO MAKE HISTORY IN THIS PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION YEAR—THE AIR IS POSITIVELY CRACKLING WITH UNLIMITED POSSIBILITIES.

BUT, 75 YEARS AGO TONIGHT—MARCH 4, 1933—THERE WAS ANOTHER STARKER, DARKER POSSIBILITY IN THE AIR, AND A LEADER WHO CONQUERED A PHYSICAL DISABILITY ADDRESSED THAT FEAR:

“WE NOW REALIZE,” FDR SAID, “ AS WE HAVE NEVER BEFORE, OUR INTERDEPENDENCE ON EACH OTHER; THAT WE CANNOT MERELY TAKE, BUT WE MUST GIVE AS WELL.”

FAST FORWARD FROM FDR TO OUR DVRS, TO DAVOS, SWITZERLAND, SIX WEEKS AGO—THE SONG & THE SINGER ARE DIFFERENT, BUT THE MELODY LINGERS ON:

“AS I SEE IT” SAID BILL GATES, HELENE GAYLE’S FORMER COLLEAGUE, “THERE ARE 2 GREAT FORCES OF HUMAN NATURE: SELF INTEREST & CARING FOR OTHERS. I LIKE TO CALL THIS NEW SYSTEM CREATIVE CAPITALISM,” HE CONTINUED, “WHERE GOVERNMENTS, BUSINESS & NON-PROFITS WORK TOGETHER TO STRETCH THE REACH OF MARKET FORCES, SO THAT MORE PEOPLE CAN MAKE A PROFIT, OR GAIN RECOGNITION DOING WORK THAT EASES THE WORLD’S INEQUITIES.”

SIXTEEN YEARS EARLIER, CABLE POSITIVE FOUNDER JEFF BERNSTEIN—WHO IS NOW USING HIS E-BAY MARKETING COMPANY TO RAISE MONEY & AWARENESS FOR OUR CAUSE—JOINED WITH A HANDFUL OF CABLE INDUSTRY COLLEAGUES, TO MARRY THOSE TWO GREAT FORCES OF HUMAN NATURE: SELF INTEREST & CARING FOR OTHERS, AND MOBILIZE THE POWER, REACH, CREATIVITY & TALENT OF THIS INFLUENTIAL INDUSTRY TO “EASE THE WORLD’S INEQUITIES” AND FIGHT HIV/AIDS.

ONE BILLION DOLLARS OF PRO-BONO AIRTIME LATER—AND $20 MILLION DOLLARS OF DONATIONS THAT HAVE TOUCHED THOUSANDS OF LIVES—INCLUDING SOME 275 AIDS SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS IN 40 STATES---AND, AS RECENTLY AS YESTERDAY 3 MORE IN SOUTH AFRICA—THE COLLECTIVE CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY OF CABLE POSITIVE STANDS AS A MODEL FOR INDUSTRIES AROUND THE WORLD TO USE THEIR POWER FOR GOOD.

IN OUR LIFETIMES, WE HAVE BEEN GRACED WITH—AND GRIEVED OVER—FRIENDS & FAMILY & COLLEAGUES WHOSE EVERY BREATH WAS INFUSED WITH THIS INTUITION—OF USING THEIR POWER FOR GOOD. IN HIS BOOK, “DAYS OF GRACE” ARTHUR ASHE DESCRIBES A LETTER WRITTEN TO HIM BY A 5^TH GRADER, WHO, AFTER READING OF FDR’S MARCH OF DIMESCAMPAIGN TO FIGHT POLIO, ASKS ASHE—LOCKED IN THE MATCH OF HIS LIFE WITH AIDS:

“CAN YOU FIND A WAY TO ASK ALL AMERICANS TO SEND A DOLLAR BILL TO FIGHT AIDS, AND WE COULD CALL IT THE MARCH OF DOLLARS?”

IT IS A STORY—A CHALLENGE, REALLY—OF PROFOUND SIGNIFICANCE TO ME, SINCE MY MOTHER—WHO PASSED AWAY JUST ELEVEN WEEKS AGO--LIVED WITH POLIO & PARALYSIS FOR 92 YEARS. SHE PERSONIFIED WHAT JONATHAN LARSEN MEANT WHEN HE WROTE THE LYRICAL LESSON IN THE MUSICAL “RENT” OF SOMEONE—“LIVING WITH, LIVING WITH, LIVING WITH, NOT DYING FROM DISEASE,” EVEN THOUGH THE DISEASE HE WROTE ABOUT WAS AIDS, NOT POLIO. THAT DID NOT MATTER—MY MOTHER SAW NO DIFFERENCE—IT WAS THE WILL TO LIVE, TO NEVER GIVE UP OR GIVE IN OR GIVE OUT-- TO USE YOUR GIFTS TO HELP OTHERS, THAT GAVE YOUR LIFE MEANING.

I THINK BACK TO WATCHING AN HBO MOVIE WITH HER ABOUT FDR’S STRUGGLE WITH POLIO. SHE SAT IN HER WHEELCHAIR, AS SHE WATCHED HIM HIDE THE EXISTENCE OF HIS, AND SHE REMEMBERED BEING KEPT OUT OF THE PUBLIC SWIMMING POOLS IN GREENWICH VILLAGE, WHERE SHE WAS BORN, BECAUSE PEOPLE WERE AFRAID THEY MIGHT “CATCH” THE POLIO VIRUS. “JUST LIKE AIDS,” SHE SAID. “JUST LIKE AIDS.” SO WHAT DID SHE DO? SHE TAUGHT HERSELF TO SWIM IN THE OCEAN, AND RAISED FOUR CHILDREN WITH HER ONE “GOOD” ARM---“LIVING WITH, LIVING WITH, NOT DYING FROM DISEASE,” LIKE MANY, MANY OTHERS WHO HAVE TOUCHED US ACUTELY— LIKE PAST CABLE POSITIVE HONOREE JIM ROBBINS AND FRED DRESSLER, WHOM WE’LL NEVER LOSE AS LONG AS WE HONOR THE WAY THEY LIVED, AND CARED AND LOVED.

I AM REMINDED OF A LITTLE KNOWN SPEECH DELIVERED BY ANOTHER OF MY HEROES, 40 YEARS AGO LAST MONTH, TO THE VERY DAY:

“ IF ANY OF YOU ARE AROUND WHEN I HAVE TO MEET MY DAY, I DON’T WANT A LONG FUNERAL,” HE SAID. “I’D LIKE FOR SOMEONE TO MENTION THAT DAY, THAT I TRIED TO GIVE MY LIFE SERVING OTHERS; THAT I TRIED TO LOVE SOMEBODY.”

“YES, IF YOU WANT TO SAY THAT I WAS A DRUM MAJOR, SAY THAT I WAS A DRUM MAJOR FOR JUSTICE—A DRUM MAJOR FOR PEACE. ALL OF THE OTHER SHALLOW THINGS WILL NOT MATTER. I WON’T HAVE ANY MONEY TO LEAVE BEHIND. I WON’T HAVE THE FINE & LUXURIOUS THINGS OF LIFE TO LEAVE BEHIND.”

“BUT,” SAID DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., “I JUST WANT TO LEAVE A COMMITTED LIFE BEHIND.”

A COMMITTED LIFE------THAT IS THE KIND OF POWER & PASSION THAT DRIVES CABLE POSITIVE, AND MANY OF THE PEOPLE IN THIS ROOM TONIGHT.

OUR THREE HONOREES EXEMPLIFY THIS ETHIC, THESE GOOD LIVES OF ACTION, AND TEACH US HOW WE ARE ALL “LIVING WITH, LIVING WITH—NOT DYING FROM THIS DISEASE,” AND HOW, TOGETHER, LIKE FDR & BILL GATES & DR. KRIM & DR. KING, AND YES, EVEN A LITTLE, WHEELCHAIR BOUND ITALIAN WOMAN LIKE MARGARET JULIA VILLANO—HOW WE CAN ALL MAKE THIS LIFE MUCH BETTER.

THAT POWER, THAT STRENGTH, THAT PASSION TO “EASE THE WORLD’S INEQUITIES” IS IN EACH OF US. WE JUST HAVE TO USE IT.

CABLE INDUSTRY’S “CREATIVE CAPITALISM

Our definition of “power”—as envisioned when we re-branded our Annual Benefit Dinner as the Cable Positive “Power” Awards this year—is more akin to the melding together of the “two great forces of human nature” which Microsoft’s Bill Gates spoke about at Davos earlier this year: self-interest and caring for others. Gates called his new paradigm for power “creative capitalism,” “an approach where governments, businesses and non-profits work together to stretch the reach of market forces so that more people can make a profit, or gain recognition, doing work that eases the world’s inequities.”

Uppermost among those “inequities” is the devastation being caused around the world by diseases like HIV/AIDS—the consequences of which fall disproportionately upon the poor and those without access to proper healthcare, anti-retroviral drugs, or even the most basic information about the virus. That’s why Cable Positive’s “Power Awards” are so imperative. They do what Bill Gates has urged all business leaders to do: to create a new, market-based incentive of recognition, since “recognition enhances a company’s reputation, appeals to customers, and above all, attracts good people to the organization. . .and triggers a market-based reward for good behavior.”

The cable industry began practicing Gates’ brand of “creative capitalism” 16-years ago when Cable Positive was founded, and since then, it is the only industry in the world that has donated more than one billion dollars of pro-bono airtime, and $20 million of cash to fund programs of HIV/AIDS awareness, education and prevention across the United States and around the world.

The three individuals being honored with our first Cable Positive “Power” Awards next week—Michael S. Willner, Vice Chairman & CEO/Insight Communications; Bill Roedy, Vice Chairman MTV Networks; and Dr. Helene Gayle, President & CEO, CARE—did not need any special recognition for what they have done over the last decade and longer in the fight against HIV/AIDS. They have focused the power of their personalities, resources, access, influence and talents in battling this disease, every way they know how. Their diverse backgrounds—as a highly respected cable operator, television programmer, and public health professional—have brought them to the same place of integrating social responsibility into everything they do.

Their work in the domestic cable industry, internationally, and in the daily trenches of HIV/AIDS awareness, education and prevention is what drives Cable Positive’s mission, and is reflected in some of our major accomplishments over the past year. Thanks to a $200,000 grant from the Motorola Foundation—the largest single grant in Cable Positive’s history—we are able to develop a Youth AIDS Media Institute, (YAMI), aimed at empowering youth to learn about the disease and make a tangible, positive impact in their communities—and among their peers—in the fight against HIV/AIDS. With one out of every two new HIV infections being among under-25 year olds, the timing of this initiative could not be more urgent.

We’ve used the enormous power of this industry to create, produce and distribute Cable Positive’s first feature-length documentary, Positive Voices: Women and HIV, featuring “ER” star Gloria Reuben and 6 women who are affected, in some way, by HIV/AIDS. The documentary was aired on Showtime Networks on November 30, 2007 for World AIDS Day, and Cable Positive has received hundreds of requests for airing the piece from cable systems, AIDS Service Organizations, community groups, and government agencies.

Through the work of MTV International and Cable Positive, the cable industry is an international supporter of the fight against HIV/AIDS. In 2007, with generous donations from Showtime Networks, Inc. and Carlsen Resources, Inc. Cable Positive launched the One-for-One program, an online matching gifts program that allows supporters to made donations to domestic and international ARV drug programs. This new initiative takes direct aim at the worldwide deficit between the supply and demand of lifesaving medications for those infected by HIV/AIDS.

We recognize that the task ahead of us is a challenging one, both domestically among youth and communities of color, and internationally among the people with the greatest need for treatment and care. It’s the central reason why we have expanded our programs to cover youth most at risk and have established a direct-matching gift program, to get the resources directly to those who need them most. In acknowledging our job ahead, we’ve found powerful new focus for Cable Positive with our “We Have Work To Do” campaign in print, on television and on the internet.

Cable Positive’s new series of 30-second spots – which premiered on networks and cable systems around the country on Worlds AIDS Day 2007, feature the true celebrities in this fight – people who are HIV positive and living with the disease and its many side effects each day. These spots are incredibly hard-hitting and tap a different nerve among viewers, showing them very clearly that HIV/AIDS can and will infect anyone.

In our 16-years as the leading industry-backed, HIV/AIDS education and awareness organization in the country, Cable Positive has earned the confidence of corporate leaders and the trust and cooperation of national and international AIDS organizations on the front lines of this fight. We have grown from a small, grassroots organization, created by a group of cable employees determined to make a difference in their workplaces, their communities and the world, by using every means they had available to shine a bright light on HIV/AIDS, exposing its causes, its devastating impact, its dangers, and the stigma surrounding the disease.

Picking Which Wars To Fight

There is no other, gentler way to say it, but every dollar spent on the War in Iraq is one less dollar that can be invested in the fight against HIV/AIDS in the United States.

The staggering cost of the Iraqi war--$496 billion since its inception, or $275 million per day—is taking money away from AIDS Service Organizations direct services to people with AIDS all across the country. Without such services, without food, and without transportation to clinics to receive proper health care or the anti-retroviral drugs needed to stay alive, people we continue to lose our everyday war against AIDS.

Two perfect illustrations are two ASOs in California—The Inland AIDS Project in Riverside, California, and the Desert AIDS Project in Palm Springs-- which have received funding from Cable Positive’s Tony Cox Community Fund, several times over the past few years. The Kaiser Family Foundation and the Riverside Press-Enterprise both reported this week that funding for both programs has been cut drastically under the Ryan White Care Act, the primary source of funding for local AIDS Service Organizations, while their caseloads are increasing.

In the last year alone, Inland AIDS—which serves more than 1,300 people throughout RiversideSan Bernardino Counties—had its budget cut by 30%, with a 60% drop occurring in its food program for the poorest of its clients in some of the hard to reach, rural communities it serves. The Desert AIDS Project—which provides medical and support services to some 2,300 people—saw its budget cut $200,000 despite a caseload increase of 25 percent. and

So what’s the link between spending on the war in Iraq and the war against HIV/AIDS?

Well, in Riverside County alone, according to the National Priorities Project (www.nationalpriorities.org) taxpayers paid $718.2 million for the cost of the Iraq War in FY 2007. For the same amount of money NPP estimates, full health care costs could have been paid for 294, 938 people. For an investment a fraction of that size, people with AIDS living in Riverside County would not have been without food, transportation or medicine.

For taxpayers across the entire state of California, the War in Iraq cost them $17.4 billion during FY 2007—a sum of money which would have provided universal health care for 7.1 million Californians, or 20 percent of the State’s population. Granted, State and Federal governments choose to spend scarce resources on other things in addition to the Iraq War. But when the imbalance of expenditures becomes so dramatic that people living with HIV are going without food, medicine or transportation, attention must be paid.

In neighboring San Bernardino County—which contributed some $2.4 billion of tax dollars to the Iraqi War effort—the local Department of Public Health,which distributes federal funds to six ASOs in the region, declared that this year’s changes to the Ryan White Program are the “most drastic” since the legislation was enacted in 1990.

Cable Positive will continue to provide funds for strapped local AIDS Service organizations, either through our competitive grant process in our Tony Cox Community Fund, or through our matching grant program entitled “One-for-One,” which is already helping people with HIV on ADAP waiting lists around the country. Yet, we are one small, private funder and even though we do make a difference in the daily lives of people living with this disease, the War against HIV/AIDS is a 26-year long battle, and is too large to be fought without a concerted, fully-funded effort on the part of local, state and federal governments—working in partnership with organizations like Cable Positive, the Inland AIDS Project or Desert AIDS.