Thought of the Day: Worrying

December 29, 2008
A Self-Created State: Worry
www.dailyom.com

We have all had the experience of worrying about something at some point in our lives. Some of us have a habitual tendency to worry, and all of us have known someone who is a chronic worrier. Worry is an extension of fear and can be a very draining experience. In order for worry to exist, we have to imagine that something bad might happen. What we are worrying about has not happened yet, however, so this bad thing is by definition a fantasy. Understood this way, worry is a self-created state of needless fear. Still, most of us worry.

One reason we worry is because we feel like we’re not in control. For example, you might worry about your loved ones driving home in bad weather. There is nothing you can do to guarantee their safe passage, but you worry until you find out they have reached their destination unharmed. In this instance, worry is an attempt to feel useful and in control. However, worrying does nothing to ensure a positive outcome and it has an unpleasant effect on your body, mind, and spirit. The good news is that there are ways to transform this kind of worry so that it has a healing effect. Just as worry uses the imagination, so does the antidote to worry. Next time you find that you are worrying, imagine the best result instead of anticipating the worst outcome. Visualize your loved ones’ path bathed in white light and clearly see in your mind’s eye their safe arrival. Imagine angels or guides watching over them as they make their way home. Generate peace and well-being instead of nervousn! ess and unease within yourself.

Another reason we worry is that something that we know is pending but are avoiding is nagging us—an unpaid parking ticket, an upcoming test, an issue with a friend. In these cases, acknowledging that we are worried and taking action is the best solution. If you can confront the situation and own your power to change it, you’ll have no reason to worry.

What do you think?

New Policy Permits Health Care Workers to Opt Out of Providing Care

UNITED STATES: "Rule Shields Health Workers Who Withhold Care Based on Beliefs"
Washington Post (12.19.08):: Rob Stein

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced broad new protections for health workers who refuse to participate in care they find ethically, morally or religiously objectionable. The ruling takes effect in 30 days, just before the change in administrations. It cuts federal funding to any entity that does not accommodate those exercising their "right of conscience." Certification verifying compliance is required of more than 584,000 health care organizations by Oct. 1, 2009. Implementing the rule will cost more than $44 million.

The 127-page rule covers numerous services, including the provision of birth control pills, Plan B emergency contraceptives, other contraceptives a worker might consider to be abortion, abortion, and issuing referrals to obtain such care. The regulation could also protect workers who object to providing care to unmarried people or gay men and lesbians. The language of the rule stresses it does not prevent an organization from providing any type of care.

Critics of the regulation are promising to lobby the Obama administration and allies in Congress to reverse it, while supporters vow to defend it. The American Medical Association, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, American Hospital Association, family planning groups, abortion rights advocates, and others oppose the rule. Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) have introduced a bill to repeal it.

Officials at hospitals and clinics predict the rule will cause service disruptions and force family planning and fertility clinics, for example, to hire employees even if they would refuse to provide services.

"Doctors and other health care providers should not be forced to choose between good professional standing and violating their conscience," said HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt. The regulation was championed by Concerned Women for America, the Catholic Health Association, abortion opponents, and other conservative groups.

For more information, visit http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/E8-30134.htm.

Whitman-Walker Clinic to Layoff Employees

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA; VIRGINIA: "Whitman-Walker Clinic Announces Layoffs, Cuts"
Washington Blade (12.19.08):: Amy Cavanaugh

On Dec. 16, Whitman-Walker Clinic officials announced a series of measures intended to offset declining revenues and an increase in HIV/AIDS patients whose care is not reimbursed.

Whitman-Walker's Northern Virginia clinic will be shuttered before April 2009; residential programs including the Bridge Back Program will end Feb. 28; and up to 45 employees will be terminated over the next year. About half the firings will stem from shutting the Virginia clinic, and the other half will be administrative and program cutbacks. The administrative layoffs will occur by year's end, and program-related layoffs will happen by March 31.

"We're down 28 percent in private donations this year compared to 2007," said Donald Blanchon, Whitman-Walker's CEO. "For an organization that gets 30 cents of every dollar from private sources, to be down that significantly puts us in a difficult position."

"If you look at third-party reimbursements, typically the reimbursement rate doesn't cover the cost of our care," Blanchon said. "It's difficult to do this work if the gap between the cost per visit and what you're getting from the insurance company isn't sufficient to close that gap." Medicaid is part of the diminishing revenue stream, he said, as is funding from government entities.

The 1,010 patients at the Northern Virginia clinic will be able to transfer to Whitman-Walker's Elizabeth Taylor Medical Center in Washington or the Max Robinson Center in Anacostia.

Whitman-Walker will concentrate on offering primary medical care, HIV and STD screening, and dental and mental health services, Blanchon said. "We're going from 175 employees to almost 130 employees, and as we shrink our workforce to only primary care, we don't need as much management since there's a smaller number to oversee," he said. Any new positions would be geared to generating revenue and improving efficiencies, he added.

California: Attorney General Speaks Out Against on Prop. 8

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081220/ap_on_re_us/gay_marriage_lawsuits

Funding Restored for New York Center for Gay Youths

NEW YORK: "Funding Restored for New York Center for Gay Youths"
Associated Press (12.06.08):: Marcus Franklin

A body of AIDS service providers and government officials recently voted to restore funding to a Manhattan drop-in center for homeless gay youth at risk for HIV.

In September, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene informed the Ali Forney Center that it would not renew $600,000 in annual funding for the facility. City officials, trying to shore up a multibillion-dollar budget deficit, said the funds would be better spent on HIV/AIDS housing.

"Difficult choices have to be made in these tough times," the department's Dr. Monica Sweeney said of the decision to reallocate the money. "No one or any program or any sector is going to be spared during the meltdown."

But the cut prompted an outcry from politicians including US Rep. Jerrold Nadler and state Sen. Tom Duane. So far this year, Ali Forney has tested more than 200 young people ages 16-24; connected more than 50 HIV-positive youth to medical and housing services; and served over 10,000 meals, said Carl Siciliano, the center's executive director.

"These kids are grossly underserved in this city," said Siciliano. "Their existence is a struggle for survival. We are the best ally and support they have. To have taken that away from them would have been cruel and reckless."

The center's funding will come from federal Ryan White grants.

The health department also recently cut $200,000 in funding for a program offering time-sensitive HIV treatment to people who have been potentially exposed to the virus, operated out of St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan.

Story on Genocide

I got this link from my friend Malik who saw it and wanted to share it.......

Its a photo and story on Flickr, here's the link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/anomalous/3079078038/

Associated Press: Gay & Bisexual Men Still Top New Infection Rate Charts

MASSACHUSETTS:: "Report: Gay/Bisexual Men Still Bear Brunt of AIDS"
Associated Press (11.30.08):: Steve LeBlanc

Anti-AIDS efforts in Massachusetts have made gains in fighting the disease among heterosexuals and injection drug users, but they have been less successful among men who have sex with men (MSM), a new report shows.

The study by the state Department of Public Health (DPH) finds that MSM accounted for more than half of HIV infections between 2004 and 2006, even though annual surveys show that only 4 to 9 percent of state men report having sex with men. Among the report's findings:
*Male-to-male sex was the single biggest exposure route among the 17,295 state residents living with HIV/AIDS as of May 2008.
*HIV/AIDS was 25 times more common among MSM than among men with female partners only.
*While 68 percent of white male cases reported exposure to HIV through same-sex behavior, only 25 percent of black men and Hispanic men reported same-sex exposure.
*Condom use is up. In a 2005-06 health survey, 56 percent of MSM reported regular condom use, compared to 36 percent in 2000.

"The message of prevention is missing too many men in Massachusetts," said Kevin Cranston, director of DPH's HIV/AIDS Bureau.

While welcoming the uptick in condom use, DPH Commissioner John Auerbach said, "It is clear given the data in this report that more needs to be done with respect to reaching [MSM] with important HIV prevention messages."

The report's recommendations include:
*Free condoms should be widely distributed to MSM, including to those of high school age.
*MSM-directed HIV prevention resources should be expanded.
*Greater efforts should be made to target MSM with HIV testing, including anonymous testing.
*Prevention campaigns should reach public, private, and commercial sex venues and the Internet.
*The availability of AIDS treatments should be maintained.
For more information, visit www.mass.gov/dph/aids.

Atlanta Journal Constitution: Budget Cuts Greatly Impact State of Public Health

GEORGIA : "Concerns Mount that Budget Cuts Could Worsen Public Health Crisis"
Atlanta Journal-Constitution (11.23.08):: Andy Miller

Public health experts say recent budget cuts further jeopardize Georgia's already tenuous safety net, according to a 2007 state legislative committee report. A $1.6 billion shortfall will trigger state budget cuts of at least 6 percent, which will lead to shrinking preventive services and longer lines at clinics, advocates say.

The 2007 report noted the growing demand for services even as the pool of public health nurses shrinks. With longer wait times, "there will be an increase in infectious diseases such as TB, meningitis, hepatitis, and HIV," predicted Dr. Doug Skelton, president of the Georgia Public Health Association (GPHA).

Since 2002, the number of public health nurses has declined 16 percent, from 1,816 in fiscal year 2002 to 1,526 at present. Nursing vacancies stand at 20 percent, and a furlough of one day's leave without pay each month is seen by nurses as a 5 percent pay cut. The starting salary for public health nurses is $36,700, compared with $61,000 in the private sector.

The state also reduced by $7.5 million funding for family planning services, which includes abstinence education and birth control.

"We'll end up with thousands of unwanted and unplanned pregnancies," said Russ Toal, president-elect of GPHA. The planned move of public health from the Department of Human Resources to a new Department of Public Health "can't happen soon enough," Toal said. "It doesn't appear that public health has been a priority within DHR. We're not able to do a lot of preventive services that public health has always done."

"There are cuts and shortages everywhere; we're no different than other states," said Dr. Sandra Ford, acting state director of public health. "We've managed to find savings and continue to provide services." In the switch to a new Department of Public Health, "we'll be able to leverage our resources better and share the wealth better."

Washington Blade: Gay Orgs Around Country Affected by Recession

http://www.washingtonblade.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=22770

The Daily Voice: Clarence Thomas Gunning for President-elect Barack Obama

Clarence Thomas pushes Obama citizenship case onto Supreme Court docket

Staff Reporter | Posted December 4, 2008 12:50 PM
http://thedailyvoice.com/voice/2008/12/clarence-thomas-pushes-obama-c-001412.php




The controversial effort to challenge Barack Obama's U.S. citizenship got unexpected support when Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas pushed the issue onto the Court's docket for Friday after it had been rejected last month.

The Court will decide on Friday whether to consider a New Jersey case against Obama that charges the president-elect has not demonstrated his U.S. citizenship, as required by the Constitution.

The case, Donofrio v. Wells, was filed by Leo C. Donofrio against New Jersey Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells and heard by the Supreme Court of New Jersey.

On Monday, November 3, an application (08A407) for a "stay pending the filing and disposition of a petition for a writ of certiorari" was submitted to Justice David Souter, who denied the request on November 6.

A week after Souter's rejection of the case, the application was refiled and submitted to Justice Clarence Thomas. Instead of rejecting the application, Thomas distributed it to his colleagues, and the issue was scheduled for conference on Friday, December 5. A brief from Donofrio was filed the day before Thanksgiving and the conference is not set to take place, according to official Court records.

While the justices are convening inside the courthouse, demonstrators will be gathering outside for a vigil in support of the case.

The New Jersey case is one of several challenges to Obama's election, including a federal suit by Philip Berg from the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Pennsylvania , and one by former presidential candidate Alan Keyes in California . The Supreme Court refused to hear the Berg case after the lower court held that the plaintiff lacked standing to bring the suit. Several other suits filed have been dismissed in Hawaii and Ohio .

The Obama campaign argues that Barack Obama is a naturally born U.S. citizen, born in Hawaii on August 4, 1961 and his birth certificate has been validated by officials in that state.

The latest move by Justice Thomas was first reported by the Washington Afro-American newspaper, which described it as a "highly unusual move."

The Electoral College is scheduled to meet on Dec. 15 to certify Obama as the next president of the United States .

"Donofrio is questioning Obama's citizenship because the former Illinois senator, whose mom was from Kansas , was born in Hawaii and his father was a Kenyan national. Therefore, Donofrio argues, Obama's dual citizenship does not make Obama 'a natural born citizen' as required by Article II, Section I of the U.S. Constitution," according to the Afro story.

After Souter rejected his case, Donofrio followed the rules of procedure for the Supreme Court and re-submitted the application as an emergency stay in accordance to Rule 22, which allows an emergency stay request to be given to another justice, at the choice of the petitioner, according to the Afro story.

"Thomas's actions were rare because, by custom, when a justice rejects a petition from his own circuit, the matter is dead," the Afro reported.

If the Court accepted the case and ultimately overturned the election results, it would be the second time in 8 years that the Court had intervened in a presidential election. Thomas, the only African-American member of the Supreme Court, famously participated in the controversial Bush v. Gore case in 2000.

In that case, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the state of Florida to suspend its recount of votes that could have determined the winner of the election. In the end, George W. Bush defeated Vice President Al Gore by 537 votes in the state of Florida .

Phill Wilson on World AIDS Day & Election of President-Elect Barack Obama

An Open Letter from Phill Wilson, CEO, Black AIDS Institute On the Election of President-Elect Barack Obama & The Potential to Strengthen the National AIDS Response

December 1, 2008

Today is World AIDS day and I'm thinking about President-elect Barack Obama. As a 52-year-old Black gay man with HIV, I have many reasons to welcome the inauguration of Barack Obama. A big one is that an Obama administration has enormous potential to reinvigorate a struggle that has been allowed to flag over the last eight years: our national fight against HIV/AIDS.

With our country facing so many national challenges - two wars, a financial meltdown, and the growing threat of environmental devastation - it may be tempting to relegate the AIDS epidemic to the lower rung of national priorities. Yet that would be a grave mistake. Every year, more than 56,000 people in this country contract HIV.

The devastation is worst among Black Americans, who represent nearly half of all new HIV infections, including two-thirds of the new cases among women and 70% of the new cases among adolescents.

AIDS clearly has affected certain groups more than others. But as Senator Obama said in 2006: "We are all sick because of AIDS - and we are all tested by this crisis. It is a test not only of our willingness to respond, but of our ability to look past the artificial divisions and debates that have often shaped that response."

AIDS, in short, is a sickness at the very heart of the American family. Like any family, America must respond to the sickness in its midst by displaying both solidarity for those who are living with HIV and a determination to make sure no one else gets infected.

We cannot relegate the AIDS fight to the government alone, not even with President Obama at the helm. So, here are several high-priority actions that Americans and our new government, together, should immediately take to reinvigorate our fight against HIV/AIDS:

Support efforts to develop a National AIDS Strategy

The U.S. government requires all foreign countries that receive assistance from the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to have a national strategy to respond to HIV/AIDS. Shockingly, America has no national strategy for its own epidemic. No national targets are in place for reducing the number of new HIV infections or lowering the annual number of AIDS deaths. Multiple federal agencies own different pieces of the national AIDS response, yet in the absence of any national coordinating mechanism they stumble over each other, fight for turf, and leave critical priorities unaddressed.

President-elect Obama has committed to put in place a National AIDS Strategy. However, communities affected by AIDS - not bureaucrats -- must drive the development of this strategy.

Partner with the Obama administration to strengthen HIV prevention

HIV prevention accounts for a paltry 4% of total spending by the federal government on domestic HIV/AIDS programs. That's an outrage.

The Obama administration must make good on its campaign promise to strengthen national prevention efforts. Yet when opposition surfaces to needle exchange or school-based HIV prevention programs, we must speak out and persuade decision-makers that true "family values" don't allow more HIV infections to occur when proven methods exist to prevent them.

The disproportionate vulnerability of Black gay men to HIV infection stems in no small part from the prevailing stigma associated with homosexuality. If we are serious about lowering the rate of new HIV infections, we must actively oppose stigma and promote acceptance in our churches, schools, and local communities.

Make knowledge of HIV status a universal community norm

The CDC estimates that more than one in five people living with HIV don't know they are infected. Such people are often diagnosed late in the course of disease, which significantly reduces life expectancy. Late HIV testing also contributes to the spread of HIV, because people who are unaware of their infection are more than three times more likely to expose others to the virus as people who know they are HIV-positive. Here, too, our new President will need our help establish a social norm that every person should know his or her HIV status. We need to urge everyone to get tested, and to explain, again and again, the benefits of getting tested.

Deliver treatments to those who need them

In 2006, 15,000 Americans died of HIV-related causes. Yet, while our government's global AIDS efforts enjoyed double-digit increases each year between 2005 and 2008, categorical domestic federal programs for HIV treatment and prevention failed to keep pace with inflation. Especially scandalous is the lack of any funding increase for the Minority AIDS Initiative since 2004, even though nearly 100,000 Black Americans have become newly infected with HIV since that year. We need to insist that Congressional appropriators deliver the funding that is urgently needed to address this national priority.

Build community capacity on AIDS

Throughout much of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, mainstream Black organizations stayed on the sidelines. Thankfully, that has changed. Organizations like the Black AIDS Institute, the Balm in Gilead and the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS have assisted leading Black organizations and historically Black colleges and universities to develop organizational action plans on AIDS.

Unfortunately, we're still not where we need to be. In 2006, private U.S.-based foundations gave less than a tenth of their HIV-related contributions to activities in this country. Less than a tenth! While we continue to help Africa and other hard-hit regions, we need to put out the fire here at home.

The new administration offers enormous promise for a new day in our nation's long struggle against HIV/AIDS. However, President Obama and his team won't be able to reinvigorate the national AIDS response on their own. Let's roll up our sleeves and get to work.

Yes, we can!

Yours in the Struggle,

Phill Wilson

phillwilson@blackaids.org

Black AIDS Institute
1833 W. 78th St. Ste. 200
Los Angeles, CA. 90057-4257
213-353-3610

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info@blackaids.org

http://www.blackaids.org