Become a ONE Episcopalian
By now you've probably seen the black and white TV ads like the one to the left. It's an ad for the ONE Campaign, a global effort to end extreme poverty and AIDS. What you may not know is that the Episcopal Church is very involved, and you can be, too. (Incidentally, Frank Griswold, our former Presiding Bishop, is in this commercial just before Pat Robertson.)
As the commercial says, they don't want your money; they just want you're voice. The truth is, we already have enough wealth in the world to eradicate extreme poverty; we just don't distribute it well. Did you know that the U.S. allocates less than ONE percent to fight global AIDS and poverty? If our government only increased that amount by ONE percent, we could halve global poverty by 2015. All it takes is our voices, our votes, and our vocations working together ... ONE-by-ONE.
To find out more about the Episcopal Church's involvement with the ONE campaign, click here.
2 comments:
January 14, 2007
Hello There,
Once again, I attended Mass this Sunday. As I know understand the situation and that of your crusade, I feel the compulsion to let you know what it is you are getting into, and why you need to stop taking the splinter out of your neighbors’ eye, and take the log our of your own.
Does anyone there know of all the side effects that go along with taking these anti HIV medications…..at all?
This means that we need to stay and help the approximate 40% of the population we help in the next ten years that will develop side effects to these experimental medications.
This includes hyper cholesterol levels ranging between 350 and upwards to 900 or more. This means statin drugs, if the body can tolerate them. This means the need to eventually implant shunts. This means medications to treat the heart. This means diets that may not be available to those so far away. This means possible complication due to heart attacks.
This means type two diabetes. This means glucose machines and special diets.
This means treatments for wasting syndrome. This is something we don’t have treatment for.
This means problems in the pancreas. This means liver problems, problems with gallbladder. Again, no treatment.
This means painful neuropathy, at first in the feet, then in the hands and arms.
This means other disorders I can’t mention, because of the side effects to the anti HIV medications.
This disease was a block buster in the Gay communities of Europe and America. When it first started to take lives here, it was our fault, and no one was willing to help. People in Africa had been dying from this for years before, and no one paid attention, because people in Africa died all the time of strange things.
It took deaths starting in the “heterosexual” community to wake people up. My brothers in the Gay community, as I, gave themselves as human guinea pigs to combat this for you.
The experiment is not over! These drugs have many unknown side effects. They are very unpredictable and dangerous. They are maintenance drugs, Not a cure or prevention like small pox, polio, or basic infections.
And if the Episcopal Church USA is not willing to help in its own country, and fix the system that we have now, in which this disease is being manipulated for money and jobs, and we don’t stay to help those people so far away with these side effects and social issues that come with the disease, then the Church is only window dressing. Again, we need help right here.
Diagnosed in 1994, as I almost died, I have been on every drug there is save the injectables. I have had two heart attacks starting in my early 40’s. I have had cholesterol levels of 524 in my late 30’s. I got diabetes, which is non existent in my family. I am wasting and must pay $500.00 a visit to have my face restored because I looked as if I was on drugs, and people stayed afar from me. I still need about 5 more sessions, and have charged the first 4. I have the beginnings of neuropathy. I have severe damage to my pancreas, which the government wants me to pay for these medications. And I should go to the AIDS pimp (“social” service agencies) to let some one else know my medical business, and you pay for this service $40,000 a year and full benefits to these people. Multiply this to the 15 people that do the same thing, and the higher salaries of the supervisors, and finally the Head pimp, that is sitting on at least $160,000 a year. Calculator for Congress! Aren’t you already paying an insurance company to pay for the medications? Should you be paying again and, making the sick run through hoops to get the money back that they can’t afford to be with out, to begin with?
Should the government be paying these prices to reimburse me, when they could just give me the medication? After all, I can’t sell this crap on the corner, as you can’t get high off it. Why is that I can’t just jump in my car and go to these appointments or to get these reimbursements?
If nothing else, you should be saying a Mass for the people that take care of some of us. For those that take the time to take me to the store.
I can tell you horror stories of inappropriate medical care, as I should be dead from the services I received. Again, I am blessed. But I find this especially hard to talk about.
I live on, and pay my household bills on a disability check of $640.00 a month. I also receive about $140.00 a month in food stamps. And while you sit there and roll your eyes, I want to know what your budget is; which I know you complain about. I find myself, at the end of the month, charging every thing I NEED. There is no entertainment, vacation, or car to take me to appointments money. After five years, when I refinancing my mortgage to a better rate, I was able to do much needed repairs to my home, buy a computer, and replace the sneakers that I wore for 5 years. I now have those “new” sneakers for a year. And funny thing, I see my blessing.
This week you would like to feed everyone. That’s very noble. Again, I get $148.00 in food stamps. I find myself charging things I NEED by the end of the month. And these DIETS I am on, as other in the same situation, aren’t cheap.
I have been blessed, but I suffer, too. This is NOT just an issue for me, but also an issue for many in my situation, in the USA. Much of the suffering is not necessary. I have also been blessed with a sense of humor, so if you see humor in this, please don’t feel ashamed to laugh with me, God laughs at you.
Thank you,
Another Episcopalian
Joey0101 brings some very valid points to this discussion: Issues that pertain to the difficulty of administering HIV/AIDS medication effectively (not only in the "third world" but also here in the United States); the extreme experimental nature of many of these maintenance medications; and, perhaps most importantly, the fact that the ONE campaign's success must involve addressing the needs of everyone on the globe, including those here among us, whom we often overlook.
Thank you, Joey0101, for bringing clarity to a much-ignored aspect of this global effort.
Post a Comment