ME, MINE, AND OUR NEW PRESIDENT
By James L. Bloor

As I write these words, it occurs to me that our next president is being fitted for his tux, and honing his inaugural address? Like most of you, I’m very excited and hopeful for Barack Obama, and the possible remedies that line his heart and that wonderful brain of his. It feels like Santa Claus is coming to town all over again, doesn’t it? Yet it’s my job – within this wee space – to ask; ‘What’s in it for me and mine?’

And for the record, ‘me’ is this humble servant to the keyboard, infected over two decades ago.‘Me’ is the disabled, cardiac-arrested, muscle-withered gray-haired old man who’s been a pall-bearer and white balloon-releaser more times than I care to recall. And ‘mine’ are all the folks who walk in my shoes, and want to make sure that no one else ever has to walk a similar path. Mine are the folks who want to spare and preserve our youth from a similar fate of being harnessed to this virus.

But really; I’m not so greedy, nor foolish enough to expect a plethora of miracles in this first year of Obama’s presidency. In our fractured nation – this ruined economy – there are millions and millions of hands out looking for a hand up. And it’s not just this nation that seeks for its wounds to be staunched. Indications are that most all nations on this planet are pinning their hopes on this single man. There is a war that must be retreated from. There are hurt feelings and broken treaties that must be salved and salvaged.

So, what can me and mine expect from an Obama presidency in this first year? Well here’s what he laid out during his campaign…
- Obama plans to develop and begin to implement a national HIV strategy to reduce HIV infections, increase access to care, and reduce HIV-related health disparities that will involve the coordination of virtually all federal agencies.

- He also plans to support common sense approaches in regards to sex education and contraception.

- He wants to lift the federal ban on needle exchange.

- As the HIV infection rate for women has quadrupled over the past 20 years, he also wants to empower women to be better equipped to prevent HIV infection and specifically calls for the development of effective microbicides to thwart this virus.
This is all good stuff of course. And while it’s not ‘news’ to those of us in the prevention field, it’s new in that Obama will strive to implement it within a governmental bureaucracy that is notoriously slow, ponderous, and resistant to change. Certainly the religious right will attack him, as he dismantles the lethal abstinence-only programs and/or attempts to install anything approaching ‘smart’ sex education into our schools. It’s a huge vacuum of ignorance that he’ll be attempting to vanquish. And really; you can’t re-build a burnt-up house unless you first remove all the charred wood, right? It’s tedious….

Myself – and given all the other pressing issues on his plate – I’ll be happy if Obama at least makes a good start on his promises. I’m mindful that he identified these goals with some immediacy well before the Wall St. earthquakes, the bailouts, the lay-offs, and the flare-up in Afghanistan.

Nope; it’s gonna be a rough year – not just in our personal wallets, but in the coffers of our nation, and in the priorities that seem to shift daily as we lurch from one crisis to another. I’m going to be patient. But I’ll also never forget that our government – during the 23 years that I’ve been infected with this virus – has never moved quickly, nor wisely enough to prevent all the fatalities and suffering that this virus has imposed. I hope Obama finally gets it right where all the others have failed, and I wish him Godspeed…
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-James L. Bloor