National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day - February 7, 2015

National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day: Reducing HIV Among African American Communities 

By: Sylvia Mathews Burwell, Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Cross-posted from the HHS Blog

 

"Like so many Americans, I have seen the tragedy first hand, of friends lost to HIV/ AIDS. I’ve also seen the hope of those living with HIV as we continue to work toward an AIDS free generation. 

Each February 7th, we mark National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (NBHAAD). It’s an opportunity for all of us to honor the memory of those we’ve lost, and to call attention to the fact that HIV continues to disproportionately affect African American men, women, and youth.

The numbers are startling: African Americans represent only 14 percent of the U.S. population, but account for almost half of all new HIV infections in the United States per year, as well as more than one-third of all people living with HIV in our nation.

This year’s NBHAAD theme, “I Am My Brother’s/Sister’s Keeper: Fight HIV/AIDS” challenges all of us to work to eliminate these unacceptable health disparities by ramping up our HIV prevention efforts, encouraging individuals to get tested, and helping those who are living with HIV to access the life-saving medical treatment they need.

One of the ways the Department of Health and Human Services is responding to this charge is by launching a new four-year demonstration project funded through the Secretary’s Minority AIDS Initiative to address HIV disparities among men who have sex with men (MSM), including men of color.

We are focusing on HIV disparities among MSM, including MSM of color, because black gay and bisexual men—particularly young men—remain the population most heavily affected by HIV in the U.S. Young black MSM account for more new infections (4,800 in 2010) than any other subgroup of MSM by race/ethnicity and age. These shocking figures demand that we take action.

The cross-agency demonstration project will support community-based models in strengthening HIV prevention efforts, addressing gaps in care for those living with HIV, and helping meet the health care needs of MSM, including MSM of color. More specifically, the funding will support state and local health departments in providing MSM of color, and other MSM, with the health and social services they need to live healthy lives free of HIV infection. For those already infected, the funding will support community-based services that help MSM of color, and other MSM, get diagnosed and linked to the right care—including substance abuse and mental health treatment as well as necessary social services, like stable housing. Helping people access and remain in HIV care is good medicine and important to our public health—since it lowers individuals’ risk of passing HIV to others.

We all have a role to play in working toward an AIDS free generation. Education and understanding prevention and treatment of HIV is important. And HIV testing is also critical as we continue to tackle this disease. One thing we can all do is speak out – speak out against HIV stigma whenever and wherever you encounter it. Stigma and shame continue to prevent too many people from seeking testing and getting the health care they need to live healthy, active lives.

For more information, see SAMHSA’s HIV, AIDS, and Viral Hepatitis webpage.

February and Summer

In many ways, February is a dark, bleak month for people in the northern United States - or northern hemisphere.  It was a very dark time for me in my alcoholism and at certain points in my recovery as well.  But, as Albert Camus is famous for saying "“In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger — something better, pushing right back.”  This quote has given me incredible strength and inspiration.  It has seen me through very, very dark times. 

Courage, Hope abd Overcoming Obstacles

Courage, Hope, and Overcoming Obstacles

"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear." – Ambrose Redmoon

"You've got to follow your passion. You've got to figure out what it is you love--who you really are. And have the courage to do that. I believe that the only courage anybody ever needs is the courage to follow your own dream." – Oprah Winfrey

"Your talent is God's gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God." – Leo Buscaglia

"Pray that your loneliness may spur you into finding something to live for, great enough to die for." – Dag Hammarskjold

"May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds." – Edward Abbey

"Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It's not a day when you lounge around doing nothing; it's when you've had everything to do, and you've done it." – Margaret Thatcher

"A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night, and in between he does what he wants to do.” – Bob Dylan

"One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men, but no machine can do the work of one extraordinary man." – Elbert Hubbard

"The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain." – Dolly Parton

"To succeed you must first improve, to improve you must first practice, to practice you must first learn, and to learn you must first fail." – Wesley Woo

"Some people think only intellect counts: knowing how to solve problems, knowing how to get by, knowing how to identify an advantage and seize it. But the functions of intellect are insufficient without courage, love, friendship, compassion, and empathy." – Dean Koontz

"The man who follows a crowd will never be followed by a crowd.” – Donnell

"Yesterday is but a dream, and tomorrow is only a vision. But a today well-lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope." – Kalidasa

"Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.” – H. Jackson Brown

"May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human, and enough hope to bring you joy." – Unknown  

"Failure is only the opportunity to begin again, this time more wisely." – Unknown  

"No amount of security is worth the suffering of a life chained to a routine that has killed your dreams." – Unknown  

"Forgive yourself for your faults and your mistakes and move on." – Les Brown

"Think highly of yourself, for the world takes you at your own estimate." – Unknown  

"I hope that my achievements in life shall be these – that I will have fought for what was right and fair, that I will have risked for that which mattered, and that I will have given help to those who were in need that I will have left the earth a better place for what I've done and who I've been." – C. Hoppe

"...when you have a sense of your own identity and a vision of where you want to go in your life, then you have the basis for reaching out to the world and going after your dreams for a better life." – Stedman Graham

"As long as we continue to think we will be happy in the future, we will never be happy in the moment, and that is the same as saying that we will never be happy. If we think that our lives will be better when we get that better job or retire, stay or go, gain or lose weight, or when our children grow and leave or come back, we are putting off the happiness that there is in today." -  Aminu Kano

"Dance like nobody's watching. Love like it's never going to hurt." – Anne Wells

"One must not tie a ship to a single anchor, nor life to a single hope." – Epictetus  

"If you have a wounded heart, touch it as little as you would an injured eye. There are only two remedies for the suffering of the soul: hope and patience." – Pythagoras

"In the midst of winter, I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer." – Albert Camus

"The stories of past courage can offer hope and provide inspiration. But they cannot supply courage itself. For this, each man must look into his own soul.” – John F. Kennedy

"I would rather lose in a cause that will someday win, than win in a cause that will someday lose." – Woodrow Wilson

"We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope." – Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength.'' – Corrie Ten Boom

“The Christian life is not a constant high. I have my moments of deep discouragement. I have to go to God in prayer with tears in my eyes, and say, 'O God, forgive me,' or 'Help me.'” – Billy Graham

"The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers." – Unknown

"Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk." – Unknown

"Nobody will believe in you unless you believe in yourself." – Liberace  

"The greatest masterpieces were once only pigments on a palette." – Henry Hoskins

"Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore." – Andre Gide

"Life's challenges are not supposed to paralyze you; they're supposed to help you discover who you are." – Bernice Johnson Reagon

"Only if you've been in the deepest valley can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain." – Richard Nixon

"Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together." – Vincent Van Gogh

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." – Franklin D. Roosevelt

"To accomplish great things, we must not only act but also dream, not only plan, but also believe." – Anatole France

"It ain't no practice life. We only get one shot. And our love ain't through, hey. It's all we've got. And nobody goes around twice. 'Cause this ain't no practice life." – Refrain for "Practice Life", 2002 country single by Andy Griggs

"May you live all the days of your life." – Jonathan Swift

"You wouldn't worry so much about what people really thought of you if you knew just how seldom they do." – Unknown  

"It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live." – Marcus Aurelius

"It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult." – Seneca  

"It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power." – Alan n Cohen

"There's no better place to search for hope than the future; a concept that gives everyone in existence a reason to live." – Amy Newak

"The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today. Let us move forward with strong and active faith." – F.D.R.  

"Your personal philosophy is the greatest determining factor in how your life works out." – Jim Rohn

"If you feel that you have both feet planted on level ground, then the university has failed you." –Robert Goheen, Time Magazine

"Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after another." – Walter Elliott

"Use what talent you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best." – Henry Van Dyke

"To place faith in something other than one's self requires an element of courage; yet those who have put it in God can testify that even greater courage – along with peace of mind--is to be found in doing so.” – Unknown

"He who has health has hope, and he who has hope has everything." – Arabian Proverb

"There is nothing noble about being superior to some other man. The true nobility is in being superior to your previous self." – Hindu Proverb

"I complained that I had no shoes till I saw a man that had no feet." – Unknown  

"We need people in our lives with whom we can be as open as possible. To have real conversation with people may seem like such a simple, obvious suggestion, but it involves courage and risk." – Thomas Moore

"If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome." – Anne Bradstreet

"Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it." – Helen Keller

"It isn't for the moment we are struck that we need courage, but for the long uphill battle to faith, sanity, and security." – Anne Morrow Lindbergh

"Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today." – Thich Nhat Hanh

"Do not think of a painful experience as a dark time in your life. You emerge out of everything learning something or becoming a better person. You realize who your real friends are and how much your loved ones mean to you." – Colleen Ho

"Live your life each day as you would climb a mountain. An occasional glance toward the summit keeps the goal in mind, but many beautiful scenes are to be observed from each new vantage point." – Harold V. Melchert

"The marvelous richness of human experience would lose something of rewarding joy if there were no limitations to overcome.” – Helen Keller

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” -  William Morrow

"Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value." – Albert Einstein

"It is never too late to be what you might have been." – George Eliot

"Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and, above all, confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained.” –Marie Curie

"To know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived, that is to have succeeded." – Ralph Waldo Emerson

"If you're never scared or embarrassed or hurt, it means you never take any chances." – Julia Sorel

"When made frustrated and fretful by small cares, look up at the sky, the stars, and see how insignificant our troubles really are." – Unknown  

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." – Mark Twain

Tattoos on the Heart

In Fr. Greg Boyle's book, Tattoos on the Heart, the founder of Homeboy Industries, states that Leo Rock, Director of Novices, said "God created us - because He thought we'd enjoy it." Fr. G. then writes "We try to find a way, then, to hold our finger tips gently to the pulse of God.  We watch as our hearts begin to beat as ne with the One who delights in our being.  Then what do we do?  We exhale the same spirit of delight into the word and hope for poetry."  This is what I try to do on a daily basis with people suffering from addiction and mental illness - breathe the delight of life itself into those clouded by hate and fear and anger.  Sometimes the poem becomes a celebration of life and miracles - other times, it becomes a eulogy. 

Giving Theory Inspired by Dr. Mark W. Smith

GIVING THEORY

I spent four years and tens of thousands of dollars to go to Eckerd College in the early 1980s. Actually my parents spent most of the money for this education, but I always, always had some kind of job in college and in law school as well.  Eckerd College was a very special place to me.  It was where I first felt like my own person – not my father’s son, but the person I wanted to be.  It was where I began to experience the world around me and learned about the important of knowledge, hard work, and virtues.

The Dean of Students was an extraordinary man named Mark Smith.  He was the dean to many people who went on to do great, noble and important things in their lives.  He was famous for the quote “Eckrd College students are givers.”  He spoke a great deal about students becoming givers and takers.  Naturally, giving was good and taking was not.  The definitions for these terms were fluid and open to interpretation.

I graduated from Eckerd in 1984, spent a year as the Sister-City Ambassador between St. Petersburg, Florida and Takamatsu, Japan, teaching English, learning Japanese and martial arts as well as practicing being a giver.  Then, I returned to the University of Florida College of Law and became filled with ambition to do great things, make a lot of money, and achieve as much as I could.  At some point, I lost my moral compass and began a slow transition from being a giver to becoming a taker.  I still gave money and time and portrayed the role of a generous person, but it was always self-serving.  There always had to be a reason that served ME.

I also began to drink alcohol in ever increasing quantities.  Little by little, I lost my soul.  I lost everything else too in the course of becoming a taker.  I destroyed my life and severely hurt almost everyone who had me in their lives – alcoholism, addiction and “taking” create perfect storms of destruction.   I needed help to get sober and to restore my body, mind and soul.   Addiction is a disease in which a person engages in some kind of activity that causes him or her negative consequences and he or she continues to engage in this activity despite ever-increasing, and sometimes catastrophic, negative consequences.  It is said to be a two-fold disease – an allergy of the body and an obsession of the mind.  But there is a third aspect to this disease – the compromise of an individuals’ value system.  In order to protect one’s addiction, the addict will engage in behaviors that are in strong contrast to one’s values – dishonest, immoral and often criminal behaviors.

In 2014, thirty years after graduating from Eckerd College, I started a drug and alcohol program called Sea Of Solutions near Eckerd College focusing on legal professionals suffering from substance abuse, anxiety and depression.  I also discovered the dichotomy within me – the giver and the taker.  Last Sunday, January 11, 2015, while doing some writing and research at the Eckerd College library, I remembered a quote from Robert Bolt’s A Man for All Seasons, the story of martyred Thomas More, that Mark Smith would always insert into the program for the opening ceremony of each semester:

    “If we lived in a State where virtue was profitable, common sense would make us good, and greed would make us saintly.  And we'd live like animals or angels in the happy land that /needs/ no heroes.  But since in fact we see that avarice, anger, envy, pride, sloth, lust and stupidity commonly profit far beyond humility, chastity, fortitude, justice and thought, and have to choose, to be human at all... why then perhaps we must stand fast a little - even at the risk of being heroes.” Robert Bolt, A Man for All Seasons.

 
I decided to call Mark Smith, who is now 87 years old and lives in Columbus, Ohio.  We had not spoke in 5-6 years and I was not even sure if he were still alive.  "Hello", he bellowed into the phone.  He sounded just like he always did, despite having a stroke in October of 2014 and losing his voice for a while.  "Timmer, how the hell are you doing?"  I told him about my treatment program and that I was really practicing the giving arts, but I was at the Eckerd library and wondered if he had written about "giving" in his time here at Eckerd.  He told me that he had never really written a text on his giving and taking theory and suggested that I do it.  I cannot write what he thought, but I can write what I remember and what I think the theory means to me. 

Simply, we should be givers, not takers.  If we do, the world will be a better place and we will be happier people.  More importantly, we will individually be much happier.  Bill W., one of the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous, intuitively knew this and made “being of service” one of the most important bedrock principles of recovery in AA.  In fact, Bill wrote “[P]ractical experience shows that nothing will so much insure immunity from drinking as intensive work with other alcoholics. It works when other activities fail. P. 89 Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous (“Big Book”).  These giving principles are replete in AA and other 12 Step programs – From Chapter 7 Working with others, he wrote “They knew they must help other alcoholics if they would remain sober.” P. 159 - Big Book.  Further, it is written:

“Particularly it was it imperative to work with others as he had worked with me. Faith without works was dead, he said.” P. 14 Big Book.

“Our very lives, as ex-problem drinkers, depend upon our constant thought of others and how we may help meet their needs.” P. 20 Big Book.

“If an alcoholic failed to perfect and enlarge his spiritual life through work and self-sacrifice for others, he could NOT survive the CERTAIN trials and low spots ahead.” P. 15 Big Book.

“Helping others is the foundation stone of your recovery." P. 97 Big Book.

“A kindly act once in a while isn’t enough.  You have to act the Good Samaritan every day, if need be." P. 97 Big Book.

“To be vital, faith must be accompanied by self-sacrifice and unselfish, constructive action.” P. 93 Big Book.

“Happy in their release, and constantly thinking how they might present their discovery to some newcomer." P. 158 Big Book.

I am not saying that “giving” is the KEY to recovery, but I do believe that becoming a “giver” is critical to defeat the taking behaviors that addiction requires to survive.  There are sober people that engage in dishonest, manipulative, self-destructive behaviors.  The result is that they are miserable.  The same is true of people who do not engage in addictive behaviors but are takers in the sense that they are selfish and self-centered.  They simply tend to not be very happy. 

I had a series of experiences a few years ago that re-ignited my giving soul.  I met someone in his 20s who had survived many near death brushes with cancer and announced to me that the secret of life is to live to serve others.  I explained that, as a person in recovery, I do that and he told me that it was critical for his survival.  Shortly, thereafter, I heard a radio program in which the oldest person in the State of Florida at the time, a 107 year old lady, say that the secret to her longevity was thinking of others and helping others.  Later that day, I was listening to the BBC, when I heard an interview with a wealthy tech entrepreneur from India who returned to India after becoming a billionaire and was still not happy.  He went to see a very old yogi who told him, “Oh, my boy, the secret to happiness is very simple; just be of service to mankind and you will be happy. “  So, my Dean of Student’s message was not very subtle.  We could spend four years in college and earn a degree in many different fields but, in the end, it was giving to others that mattered most for our own personal mental and emotional health – and ultimately for our happiness and that of the people around us.

Honesty - The beginning of recovery

The first characteristic to leave us in our addiction is honesty.  Not our fault, but our responsibility.  We simply cannot keep our addiction alive in the face of honesty.  Our addiction needs denial, deceit, and deception to survive.

1-5-15 A new year and new adventures