'People who make policy in this country rarely come face to face with the reality of that policy. What we do over the next three days is stare them in the face with the reality of our lives and the consequences of their decisions,' said Terje Anderson.
The executive director of the National Association of People With AIDS ( NAPWA ) was opening AIDSWatch 2005, on May 2. The annual congressional lobby days drew about 700 participants and for the first time, representatives from all 50 states.
'We are there to tell them, it is not about numbers, it's about lives, it's about real people. That is the reality they need to understand.' Anderson said the citizen lobbyists are going to hear a lot about how tight money is. 'We've got to look them in the eye and to tell them that their job is to find the money.'
'If they can find the money to give multi-billion dollar tax cuts to the richest people in the country…if they can find more than $200 billion to conduct a war, they can find that much to conduct a war against HIV.'
He reminded the room that only a few weeks ago Congress was called into session at midnight to 'save' one life, that of Terry Schiavo. 'We are here to talk about hundreds, and thousands, and millions of lives.
[Congress] needs to treat those lives with the same urgency, with the same sense of emergency that they responded earlier.'
Charles King got the room rocking with the kick off of the Campaign to End AIDS (C2EA). The group arose out of a January organizing meeting in Washington. It aims to reinvigorate and empower AIDS activism at the grassroots level. He also is president of Housing Works in New York City.
C2EA lay out 8,000 pairs of shoes on Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House on May 5 [see related story]. King said they are symbolic, 'They represent the number of people who die every single day of the consequences of AIDS.'
The group also is organizing nine caravans that will spring from the corners of the continental United States, traversing 'every state and every major media market' to converge on Washington in October, to draw attention to AIDS.
The lilt of the South and the cadence of the pulpit graced the voice of the self-described HIV-positive gay man and ordained Baptist minister as King spoke of how the community is coming together. 'At least we finally got everybody singing out of the same hymnbook. Next year, we're going to get them all singing the same hymn. And the year after that we're going to be singing in four-part harmony.'
'We are going to be organizing in every part of this great country … until we bring an end to this plague and an end to the conditions that have allowed this tragedy to exist for over 20 years.'
King highlighted an interfaith prayer breakfast on May 4 hosted by Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif. He said, 'I don't care whether it is the word breakfast that attracts you or the word prayer, I want you to be there. I'm serious. The radical right has stolen the language of faith … . I believe in my heart is that God is on the side of the people who are living with AIDS.'
The major points that the advocates are working to convey to members of Congress and their staffs during their meetings is that the global commitment should be fully funded at $4.6 billion; Ryan White should be reauthorized and funded at $2.6 billion; housing programs (HOPWA) should be funded at $385 million; domestic prevention programs should be increased to $387 million to cut new infection in half; and Medicaid should be preserved with no cuts.
While President Bush did request a $10 million increase in his budget for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP), that is only 1.27%, far less than the increase in prices in prescription drugs. Some 11 states now have waiting lists for ADAP, even after tightening eligibility requirements, and more people continue to get infected, sick, and seek help.
Anderson said, 'We have to continue to talk to members of Congress and their staff until they get it right.'
See www.endaidsnow.org/, or call 1-877-EndAIDS Ƒ-877-363-2437).
