From You
A Note For Women
originally published March 19, 2008
If you have received, or are planning to receive, the Gardasil vaccine, there are some important facts you can’t afford not to know: Gardasil only protects you from 70 percent of the types of HPV linked to cervical cancer. The types of HPV linked to cancer do not show symptoms in either women or men. These types of HPV can remain dormant in your system and may not immediately show up on your pap smear. This may sound like meaningless data to you now. Trust me, it feels a lot more pertinent when you’re monogamous for over two years and already received the vaccine, only to find out that you must now undergo a surgery and hospital stay to remove potentially cancerous tissue from your cervix. Last month, a doctor I didn’t know called to tell me my pap smear was abnormal, and said I’d probably be fine. Last week, another doctor biopsied some cells, saying I’d probably be fine. Today, I find out that those cells show “severe dysplasia,” but again, am assured that this is totally normal and I’m going to be fine. While the optimist in me truly wants to believe this, my inner cynic wonders how many invasive measures must be taken and how many doctors will tell me I’m going to be fine before I kick the bucket from cervical cancer at 23. And if this is as normal as the doctors say it is, why do we continue to be so lackadaisical about protecting ourselves when this sort of thing could completely have been prevented? If anything good comes from this hellish and demoralizing experience, let it be heightened awareness. For God’s sake, use a condom every time. And a dental dam, for that matter. Ladies, be vigilant about getting regular pap smears. Left unchecked, abnormal cells can turn into cancer. Make sure your partner gets tested before agreeing to do it without a condom, or AT ALL, regardless of how serious, responsible, and monogamous you are.
About Reese Street
originally published March 19, 2008
The Reese Street neighborhood was established by a diverse group of black Athenians in the late-19th century, not long after the Civil War came to an end. Eventually doctors, business owners, teachers, cooks, laundry workers and other laborers overcame great odds to establish a thriving community on land previously overlooked by white people as practically worthless. Now, in the shadow of the Athens High and Industrial School building, which in 1922 became the first black public secondary school accredited in the state of Georgia, we see two smudges of red earth. Until Feb. 29 a pair of the neighborhood’s oldest dwellings stood here.
Over the past year, as I worked with others on a historic resources inventory and local historic designation report for the Reese Street Historic District, I have come to greatly appreciate the this small neighborhood’s significance and its unique and inspiring story. Gamma Partners surely knows all about this as well; their representative attended all neighborhood meetings while work was moving forward toward local historic designation. But then they called in the bulldozers and we see what has happened. Is vacant land more valuable than two sound historic dwellings? Why were options not fully pursued? These are questions that will never be answered satisfactorily.
The Reese Street Historic District was listed in the National Register of Historic Places 20 years ago, thus bringing the neighborhood due recognition from the National Park Service for its historic and architectural significance. Let us embrace efforts of current residents to recognize, honor and protect this neighborhood through local historic designation. And, let’s be sure that no more acts of greed and heartlessness further denigrate this irreplaceable part of our community.
Cost Of War
originally published March 19, 2008
I do not understand why the cost of the war is never mentioned in the dialogues currently taking place on the subject our declining economic state. It is always the predatory lenders or the predatory real-estate salesmen or the corrupt and complicit appraisers or attorneys; or it’s the “irresponsible” home-buyers; or it’s the greedy CEOs and Boards of Directors’ members who legally steal the money and so don’t have to run; it’s NAFTA and globalization and outsourcing; it’s taxpayers bailing out big guys who do their best to stamp out the little guy; its America putting a price tag on every square inch of itself (calling it privatization). It is all of these things, but there’s something else also: a half-trillion dollars of taxpayers’ money has been spent on this war with never any hope of a return on investment except, of course, to those entrenched in its industrial supply and support. These guys are singing loud and happy - but their song and voice is sounding more and more distant to the common ear as the distribution of wealth becomes more and more stark and defined. Had the money been spent here at home on programs designed to nurture our own infrastructure, our own common good (we really do still have one); if we had invested in ourselves, rather than the shaky ecopolitical state of another state, perhaps, most likely, most certainly, our own state would not now be so shaky, might even feel solid and would definitely be more secure against the threat that this war claims to address. What is gained if we destroy ourselves in the attempt to destroy our enemies, even if 9/11 was much more about unbridled capitalism than about Americana? No one would argue that business doesn’t have its brutal and ruthless side, big business more so. Corporations are treated under our laws as persons, even though we all know that a corporation doesn’t have a conscience… and paradoxically, unlike a human being, its life span is indefinite. We are suffering bad economic times because we have been robbed by our own government and our own laws; laws made to protect the corporation and ignore the individual. We have borrowed from our children and their children for this war; we have sold ourselves and our possessions to other countries for this war; we have, in too many ways, given up who we are for this war. And now it is coming time to pay… and it hurts! Those responsible for this unnecessary war should be held accountable. Their actions have wreaked havoc on our real homeland security - and on homeland securities around the globe.
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