Worldwide Reflection on December 01, 2015

      This day will have special significance as I reflect on its impact on my life and millions of others. I grew up in the midst of the HIV/AIDS crisis.

It had manifested itself in my first partner as far back as 1981 when there wasn't even a name for the disease. Though we were no longer together, the day the space shuttle Challenger exploded on January 28th, 1986 he was diagnosed with full blown AIDS. A little over a year later he died.

In the early '90's I chose my battle and devoted myself to HIV/AIDS-infected women and children. By the mid-'90's I was on the Board of Directors of Northern Lights Alternative, a non-profit committed to HIV/AIDS-infected children and their families. Aside from this work, I provided respite to two families who had infected children. The first child beat it, but the second one to whom I was a Big Brother from the age of five, died in 2000 two months shy of his 13th birthday ~ I was devastated.

Where are we today? Some people think it's OK to have unprotected sex in casual relationships because there is a cocktail of drugs to ward off AIDS, but they don't know the medical and physical challenges that HIV-infected individuals undergo. The numbers in the Latino and Black communities are still growing in the U.S. and from Russia to Africa there are alarming high numbers and those afflicted in underdeveloped countries find drugs exorbitant in price or medical care unattainable.

This is why once a year we must stop collectively, as individuals and governments, and reflect on how to develop a tangible strategy in beating this monster of a virus and provide sustainable medical support for millions across the planet.

RISING GLOBAL INEQUALITY & INCOME DISPARITY

A U.S. Case Study

A sign of the times:

• $180 million check to AOL's chief should the Verizon merger go through.
• $1 billion in just one week of art sales for Christie's.
• Rents for a two-bedroom apartment in the historically Bohemian, West Village neighborhood of Manhattan -- where 50 years ago a starving young artist by the name of Bob Dylan once strummed a guitar -- start at $5,000/month and go for $6,500 -- easy.

Yet U.S. federal guidelines for minimum wage is $7.25 per hour -- rendering a family of two or more, with one wage-earner, below the poverty line at a little over $15,000/year. Need I say anything further in advocating an increase to the minimum rate for low-wage earners and its positive impact on society as a whole? To go otherwise is counterproductive to healthy and collective social growth when one strata of the population is the sole beneficiary of economic gains.

Are we blind to the parallels of social inequality via our unsustainable economy as previously demonstrated in the 20th century that contributed to a severe worldwide depression? Nearly 100 years ago the Roaring 20's were a similar era wrought with income disparity feeding unbridled wealth. Right before the Wall Street Crash it was a decade of gluttony and voracious appetite for profit and heightened speculative activities, which gave an illusion it would last forever – we know all too well how history played itself out. Thus the times we live in now hark back to lyrics from a popular 1921 song that still ring true, "the rich get rich and the poor get poorer ~ ain't we got fun?!"

A Ray of Light in Domestic Violence

Here, here that the Baltimore Ravens had the balls to drop Ray Rice – that the morale ground in championing women's rights trumped the mighty dollar of a football franchise is victory onto itself. The true bottom line is that we do not strike our significant other, especially brutally!

But equally insidious is how Janay Palmer, his then-fiancée and current wife, while seated next to him in a press conference blamed herself for being part of the problem. Being knocked unconscious in an elevator by your life partner prior to marrying him, which only came to light because it was recorded by a video camera, makes you part of the problem? Yes, you are part of the problem for not having walked out on him permanently once regaining consciousness!

Just like Anita Hill's case against Clarence Thomas 20 years ago beamed the spotlight on sexual harassment and put it clear and central in the public discourse – impacting change from how we address members of the opposite sex to human resource policy – hopefully this case generates the same social response resulting in zero tolerance against any type of domestic violence. There must be punitive consequences for domestic violence ranging from losing your job to criminal charges.

It is incumbent on all of us -- mothers, fathers and the village -- to raise boys that respect girls and foster girls' self-esteem to demand nothing less than respectful behavior by boys. Only then will it truly have ripple effects that impact other forms of interactions between two people involved in intimate and mutually consensual relationships that translate in comprehensive social change.

Lastly, the dynamics of acceptable male-female relationships and how we view women is reflected in the main body of the attached article published in Bloomberg Businessweek when the victim of domestic violence in this case, Janay Palmer, is never referred to by her rightful name, rather as "wife." When we begin to cease treating women as property, rather as capable and contributing individuals – from child to adult – then and only then will we truly experience the percolator effect in advancing society for the benefit of the entire community.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-09-08/ray-rice-video-footage-why-did-the-nfl-even-need-to-see-the-tape

REDSKINS: The Name & Pain

A Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ruled that the Redskins name and logo is “an insult to Native Americans,” rendering a major step in ultimately changing a culturally-insensitive and offensive name of a major national U.S. sports team that is an affront to a historically disenfranchised group.

Though this affects the bottom line for a sports brand that will lose millions in merchandising dollars, this is an opportunity to take higher ground and register that we are truly evolving in embracing everyone's culture with respect and righting injustices from the past. Other terms, common, but politically incorrect from 100 years ago would be unheard of if used today. It's called progress for humankind and an inclusive brave new world.

It is especially incumbent for those of us who are an emerging minority, or were 100 years ago, to be culturally-competent in respecting everyone's voice when a discriminatory label is cited by a particular group feeling slighted by another who has appropriated their name. Because this conjures a painful chapter in their history, this should be seen as an opportunity to raise the bar for a more civil society with a moral conscience that moves forward collectively.

An Ode to Maya Angelou

Everyone is a saint when they die. And heaven knows, some canonized do not merit the title. But some earthy souls who were our moral compass and innate spiritual leaders touched our lives in so many ways.

Maya Angelou was frank about her life: she was raped at a young age, her rapist jailed & then killed upon his release driving her to lose her voice for five years for the guilt she felt in singling him out for utilizing the gift we treasure that resulted in his execution.

She was of a generation of African-Americans that knew the ugly face of segregation all too well. She was the first female cable car driver in San Francisco and she admitted being a prostitute and pimp. She sang, acted and could move a room with her books, poetry and reading aloud ~ because she allowed her soul to be close to the surface and she validated its invaluable worth and saw beauty in all.

She was a staunch opponent to the faulty testing system that our children are over-bombarded with in today's U.S. educational system that do not impart critical thinking and social skills for healthy, lifelong interactions.

I feared this day. You will be missed, lady. May we make you proud that your time on this planet was not in vain and that we continue the fight that all are created equal and worthy of human respect, dignity and love. Your mission will continue as our muse, inspiration and light and we treasure that you graced our lives, universe and chose not to lose your voice to champion for all.

...love you, hermana!

JUSTICIA ~ Rutgers University students have spoken and their demands registered!

Serving for the past 17 years on the Advisory Board at Rutgers University's Center for Latino Arts & Culture, I am appalled that Condoleezza Rice was invited to deliver the 2014 Commencement Speech receiving a $35K fee and was to have been bestowed an honorary doctorate. Thank goodness for our youth protesting who have better sense than the University President, Bob Barchi. What possessed him? Have we no memory of what this person and her influence wrought throughout the world over the last 30 years? Not only in her role as U.S. Secretary of State and her complicity in supporting President Bush invading Iraq unnecessarily, but President Reagan, too.

I will never forget in the early ’80’s, when as a fluent Russian speaker, she approached President Reagan on the tarmac of a Washington airport as he awaited the arrival of the Russian Foreign Secretary and when Secret Service saw her coming their way, they tackled her to the ground. No one in that group could have imagined that a black woman would be the Russian translator to the President of the United States. She picked herself up off the floor, brushed her suit and stood stoically next to President Reagan. Yet she forgot this treatment when for years she toed the political line in a Republican-dominated White House that did nothing for the advancement of minority communities throughout the United States and reversed many of the gains made in decades past, especially through Supreme Court appointments and the dismantling of Affirmative Action -- not to even speak about foreign policy where we gained more enemies internationally.

An accomplished pianist, she has no political scruples. Not only does she currently sit on the Board of DropBox, she sat on the Board of an oil company that named an oil tanker after her (so that when she reached the highest levels of politics as Secretary of State she had the name removed due to any potential political backlash).

There are no shortage of black women to honor and Rutgers could have looked no further than Anita Hill who is befitting of an honor of this magnitude, fee and doctorate; while inspiring youth, faculty and supporting audience with her pearls of wisdom and dignity in what would have been a stellar Commencement speech. Now that’s a role model, an advocate for women -- especially young women -- and a refined lady. If adults in administration are going to suffer from selective memory loss, thank goodness for our youth -- students -- the future generation who demand and embrace talent, who genuinely respect those who champion truth behind all their actions and recognize sacrifices endured in truly making the world a better place for all their brothers and sisters.

THE HEARINGS: RACISM, PARTISANSHIP OR COMMUNITY-UNIFIER?

As the Senate Judiciary Committee deliberates Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation to the Supreme Court bench and we reflect on what transpired last week, some of us are left asking: was her hearing tinged with racism, was it about partisanship or did it bring the splintered Latino community in the United States together? This Latino would say, check all the boxes.

Not since Clarence Thomas called his confirmation hearing “a high-tech lynching” have I seen anything quite like last week’s interrogation style. As a matter of fact, Clarence Thomas’ confirmation hearing was a walk-in-the park in comparison (of course, not to Anita Hill). At least Sonia did not have to field any questions about pubic hairs on Coke cans. But Senators Sessions and Graham’s manner of questioning, among other Senators, seemed downright racist and gender biased. Racism is not a word, as a Latino, that I use lightly. I sooner attack our Latino community for its lack of unity than cry racism. However I can’t help feeling that if Judge Sotomayor were an Anglo man, they would not have used the same tone nor injected the same tenor in their questioning.

Unbelievable were the repeated attacks on her Affirmative Action track record in regard to educational history, which are filled with successes making most U.S. patriots, not to speak of parents, proud. As a product of this country’s Affirmative Action programs, I take this as a personal affront. William G. Bowen, former President of Princeton University (from which Sotomayor in 1976 graduated with an A.B., summa cum laude) and Derek Bok, former President of Harvard University wrote in their book The Shape of the River, culled from 20,000 interviews with Affirmative Action alumni, proved that the number one trait commonly shared by most graduates after completing higher education was to go back and give to their communities pulling others up the ladder to attain the “American dream.” Sonia Sotomayor has embodied this persona for decades.

The biggest attack on her was the “wise Latina” statement which she used on occasion in speeches when mentoring, for example, Latino law students. "I would hope,” she said, “that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would, more often than not, reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life." This sparked cries of racism from some Republicans and she was incessantly questioned about this point at nauseum. Yet two Anglo and Caucasian women who were interviewed on the Charlie Rose Show on June 03rd of this year, Claire Shipman (ABC News) and Katty Katy (BBC World News America) promoting their book Womenomics, said, “This issue gets somewhat controversial, because what we are really saying, and we didn’t start out to say: Women are different than men are. We are different. We are different in the way we manage. We’re different in the way we work – we bring different strengths and we’re different in what we want from the workplace.” Yet no one screamed bloody murder at their statements.

Gender in the hearings was not spared its beating. Sonia Sotomayor was questioned repeatedly by one Senator about her abrasive interpersonal skills as judge based on feedback received from lawyers who served on cases she presided. This reminded me of Barbra Streisand responding to accusations about her abrasive “behind-the-scenes demeanor” while directing, producing, writing and starring in “Yentl,” when she responded that the same attributes in a man would have been shrugged off as inherent to his gender.

Badgering Sonia Sotomayor over and over again about the Second Amendment, which protects the right to keep and bear arms based on her track record in convicting gun-toting urban criminals as Prosecutor in the District Attorney’s office in New York, leaves many of us in major U. S. cities scratching our heads. We’re not talking about shooting squirrels, pigeons or deer for gamier meat for some epicurean adventure. Speak to the widow and families of five police officers shot Friday a week ago, as well as Jersey City Police Chief Comey who said the weapon used was “manufactured for nothing other than to hunt man.”

There was one bright spot to last week, I was heartened and moved to see the Latino community brought together behind this “wise Latina.” From Caucasian Cuban female professionals in Miami to the Mexican community through MALDEF on the west coast, we strutted out our best and articulated the call to stand by Sotomayor and sang her praises. That was not always our history. Take the last time Democrats were in the White House with President Clinton who had the opportunity to nominate a Latino and tried 16 years ago. However, the nominee ended being Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Don’t get me wrong, I worship the ground that she walks on. But rumor has it that the administration initially tried to nominate a Latino to the highest court, but this noble effort was squelched by infighting between MALDEF and PRLDEF as to whether to nominate a Puerto Rican or Mexican to the bench. This time around that was not the case as everyone gathered together rallying the troops behind Sotomayor.

So when asked with a Black President in the White House whether or not racism is alive and well in the United States, you need do no more than roll back the tapes of Judge Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings and let the facts speak for themselves. But in the same breath, I have never felt more proud to be Latino in the U.S.A in seeing the caliber of the Supreme Court nominee and to witness Latinos of all races and countries of origin (with the exception of Linda Chavez – but then again, that’s a horse of a different color) gather with one voice to back this supreme lady who gives us hope.