trust

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“To dream anything that you want to dream. That's the beauty of the human mind. To do anything that you want to do. That is the strength of the human will. To trust yourself to test your limits. That is the courage to succeed.” Bernard Edmonds

This is the beginning of a statement from Chairman Waxman about the CDC's recently released report about the new cases of HIV in the US being 40 percent higher than previously believed. YES that's correct- 40 percent...

“The HIV epidemic within our own borders is even worse than we had believed. This is a stark reminder of the importance of evidence-based HIV prevention programs. But under this Administration, HIV prevention has been underfunded and too often hindered by politics and ideology.

There are proven measures that change people’s behavior and reduce HIV transmission. As the total number of people with HIV in the United States has risen, so has the need for these programs.

But unbelievably, in recent years the HIV prevention budget has gone down. Since fiscal year 2002, when adjusted for inflation, CDC’s prevention budget has actually shrunk by 19%. The President has recently requested decreases in funding for HIV prevention at CDC.

So, even as the agency’s experts have identified a growing list of interventions that work, they’ve had less and less money to actually get these programs to the communities that need them. And they’ve had less money for crucial research for some of the highest-risk populations, like minority men who have sex with men.

In the meantime, this Administration has remained indefensibly dedicated to narrow abstinence-only programs, spending almost $1.5 billion on an initiative that has not been shown to have any positive impact on health. We’ve seen accurate public health information on condoms removed from Administration websites, and multi-year delays in the dissemination of HIV prevention information to the community.

rest of statement here

on a lighter note, stephen at prison's a bitch has been released to a halfway house and has posted his meme which i tagged him with. it's the road trip meme and i thought he might have a lotta fun- what with getting out of prison after all these years- (thanks to absolutwillie for the meme inspiration). you can read stephen's post here

the tune below has been playing on the local radio station lately and it always brings a smile to my face. hope it does the same for you.. after all this news about hiv at home, i can use a laugh. shoosh girl. shut your lips. do the helen keller and talk with your hips.