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The Cooperative, Religious Liberals, Same-Sex Relationships, Ronald Ray-Gun....
All my major tasks at Borderlands and Student Partnerships Worldwide are now more or less complete, so now I can dedicate myself to publishing and writing again. Which means (drum roll).. the formal foundation of the Mimesis Publishing Cooperative. It is proposed that this is a non-trading cooperative with shares, mainly because that (the government guarenteed rules) the best way to avoid the various hefty fees. We have already had interest from Akademos (delightful name) for cooperative ventures.
Anyway, the Formation Meeting is noon, Saturday July 3 at the Borderlands Cooperative, Augustine Centre, 2 Minona Street Hawthorn.
Had dinner with Jenne and Katie last night, two fellow political and para-religious activists. Jenne (a reform Jew) took over from me as president of the Aboriginal Affairs Policy Committee when I went to East Timor and has been active on indigenous issues for years. Katie (a liberal Quaker), who has recently become a mother, spent her political energies on refugee support, and founded the low-key "Liberals for Refugees" about two or so years ago. It was like the beginning of a joke: "So, this Jew, a Quaker and a Unitarian are having dinner....". All jokes aside however, it was great to see them. We haven't moved in similar circles since my return to Australia and I used to see both of them almost every week.
Speaking of such matters, the Melbourne Unitarian Church held a peace concert last weekend. On my request, the collection of a few hundred dollars was directed to the Tabessi War Widows and Veterans Association in East Timor. It will make quite some difference there. Following the concert, caseopaya and I wandered in and joined the World Environment Day Tasmanian Forests' rally. Whilst the turnout was impressive, I felt that the "carnivale" atmosphere typically present at such gatherings was absent.
The campaign for legal equality for same-sex relationships is bound to get nasty. Catbiscuit has alerted me that the Federal Minister believes that keeping it in the closet is the best option. Meanwhile the Onion (courtesy of Darkstar) is full of its standard goodness: Gay Couple Feel Pressured to Marry.
Meanwhile, back on a serious note: A petition calling Mark Latham to support same-sex relationships. Sign it, cut and paste it. Email it far and wide. Stick it in your journal. http://www.gopetition.com/online/4457.html
The attempt rewrite the history of Ronald Reagan is fairly typical. After all, it is in the vested interests of mass media editors to do so; he was their man. So let us not forget that he converted the United States from the world's biggest creditor nation to the world's biggest debtor nation, that he was a war monger who had a complete and utter disregard for international law, and pathologically sick sense of humour which included "jokes" about the nuclear annihilation of an entire nation.
All that said, it must also be mentioned that Reagan was actually a left-winger until "converted" by some thuggish behaviour towards him by members of the American Communist Party in the 1940s. I am reminded of Peguy's statement: "the social revolution will be moral or it will not be". On that note, Hamish McDonald (who, I must confess I have had the opportunity to meet in East Timor), provides the right reports on the anniversary of Tiananmen Square:
Blood on the Tanks and "We will never fire on the people"
Anyway, the Formation Meeting is noon, Saturday July 3 at the Borderlands Cooperative, Augustine Centre, 2 Minona Street Hawthorn.
Had dinner with Jenne and Katie last night, two fellow political and para-religious activists. Jenne (a reform Jew) took over from me as president of the Aboriginal Affairs Policy Committee when I went to East Timor and has been active on indigenous issues for years. Katie (a liberal Quaker), who has recently become a mother, spent her political energies on refugee support, and founded the low-key "Liberals for Refugees" about two or so years ago. It was like the beginning of a joke: "So, this Jew, a Quaker and a Unitarian are having dinner....". All jokes aside however, it was great to see them. We haven't moved in similar circles since my return to Australia and I used to see both of them almost every week.
Speaking of such matters, the Melbourne Unitarian Church held a peace concert last weekend. On my request, the collection of a few hundred dollars was directed to the Tabessi War Widows and Veterans Association in East Timor. It will make quite some difference there. Following the concert, caseopaya and I wandered in and joined the World Environment Day Tasmanian Forests' rally. Whilst the turnout was impressive, I felt that the "carnivale" atmosphere typically present at such gatherings was absent.
The campaign for legal equality for same-sex relationships is bound to get nasty. Catbiscuit has alerted me that the Federal Minister believes that keeping it in the closet is the best option. Meanwhile the Onion (courtesy of Darkstar) is full of its standard goodness: Gay Couple Feel Pressured to Marry.
Meanwhile, back on a serious note: A petition calling Mark Latham to support same-sex relationships. Sign it, cut and paste it. Email it far and wide. Stick it in your journal. http://www.gopetition.com/online/4457.html
The attempt rewrite the history of Ronald Reagan is fairly typical. After all, it is in the vested interests of mass media editors to do so; he was their man. So let us not forget that he converted the United States from the world's biggest creditor nation to the world's biggest debtor nation, that he was a war monger who had a complete and utter disregard for international law, and pathologically sick sense of humour which included "jokes" about the nuclear annihilation of an entire nation.
All that said, it must also be mentioned that Reagan was actually a left-winger until "converted" by some thuggish behaviour towards him by members of the American Communist Party in the 1940s. I am reminded of Peguy's statement: "the social revolution will be moral or it will not be". On that note, Hamish McDonald (who, I must confess I have had the opportunity to meet in East Timor), provides the right reports on the anniversary of Tiananmen Square:
Blood on the Tanks and "We will never fire on the people"
Re: Correction
Someone better get around to editing Wikipedia then...
- - -
Reagan's presidency saw the advent of HIV-AIDS as a widespread epidemic in the US. Although AIDS was first reported in 1981, Reagan did not mention it publicly until 1987. His administration approached the epidemic as a series of local and state issues rather than with a national strategy, and politicians for the Department of Health and Human Services pled behind the scenes for adequate funding.
In deference to the views of the powerful religious right, who saw AIDS as a disease limited to the gay male community and spread by immoral behaviour, Reagan prevented his surgeon general, C. Everett Koop, from speaking out about the epidemic. When in 1986 Reagan finally authorized Koop to issue a report on the epidemic, he expected it to be in line with conservative policies; instead, Koop's Surgeon General's Report on Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome greatly emphasized the importance of a comprehensive AIDS education strategy, including widespread distribution of condoms, and rejected mandatory testing. This approach brought Koop into conflict with other administration officials such as William Bennett.
Reagan appointed the Watkins Commission on AIDS in 1987, but its recommendations for increased funding went largely ignored by the Reagan and the subsequent Bush administration.
Many socially conservative commentators see Reagan's approach to AIDS as a common sense approach to a problem of social immorality whose scope was not yet fully appreciated. Many in the gay and lesbian communities and many people with AIDS, on the other hand, see in his policies anything from politically motivated willful blindness in the face of a devastating illness to an atrocious disregard for the value of the lives of people in sexual and racial minorities. The group ACT UP worked, through civil disobedience and direct action, to raise awareness on the issue of AIDS.
- - -
Re: Correction
Done. Have altered to "Although AIDS was first reported in 1981, Reagan did not mention it publicly for several more years; while it is commonly stated that he did not do so until 1987, this claim appears to be erroneous, with documented instances in late 1985 and early 1986." (& links at bottom.)