I have been asked to speak at the World AIDS Day Candlelight, Prayer, and Reflection Service tomorrow night. Information is below. Everyone is welcome.
It is an honor to speak. It is a responsibility as well.
If you were speaking what would you say?
Or what do you hope will be said?
World AIDS Day
December 1, 2009
Candlelight, Prayer, &
Reflection Service
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
7 pm to 8:30 pm
Munsey Memorial United Methodist Church
201 East Market Street
Johnson City, TN 37605
Phone: 423-461-8070
Sponsored by:
HIV Network, Inc.
HOPE for Tennessee
ETSU Center of Excellence
NE TN Minority Resource Network
Washington County Health Council
NE TN Regional Health Office, Ryan White Program
December 1, 2009
Candlelight, Prayer, &
Reflection Service
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
7 pm to 8:30 pm
Munsey Memorial United Methodist Church
201 East Market Street
Johnson City, TN 37605
Phone: 423-461-8070
Sponsored by:
HIV Network, Inc.
HOPE for Tennessee
ETSU Center of Excellence
NE TN Minority Resource Network
Washington County Health Council
NE TN Regional Health Office, Ryan White Program
Here is more information about the events surrounding World AIDS Day at ETSU.
Evan Baker of LGBTieS (ETSU's Gay-Straight Alliance) just sent me this:
ReplyDeleteWell, it is finally here! World AIDS Day 2009. Please offer your support in any way possible. Events start with free Candy AND Condoms in the Culp Center tomorrow from 11am-1pm. There will also be a bake-sale fundraiser, with proceeds going to the HIV Network.
Also, tomorrow night is the Candlelight, Prayer, and Reflection Service, from 7 pm to 8:30 pm, at Munsey Memorial United Methodist Church, 201 East Market Street, Johnson City, TN 37605 (down the hill past the Johnson City Public Library, over both sets of railroad tracks). Please come out in remembrance of those no longer with us because of this disease, and also in support of those still fighting the fight. There will be a reception to follow.
Wednesday there will be free HIV testing in the Culp Center, from 11am-3pm. This is open to anyone interested in getting tested, so feel free to pass the word along. At 6pm, there will be a film showing of “A Closer Walk,” which is also free, and open to anyone. If you are interested in attending the film showing, or any other of the events, feel free to bring non-perishable food items, which will go to Ryan White recipients.
If you've never read "Last Watch of the Night" by Paul Monette, you should. (Though I suppose doing so before tomorrow is unlikely.) In one of the essays, titled "3275" (the number refers to his grave plot in the "Revelation Hill" section of Forest Lawn Cemetery), Monette writes,
ReplyDelete"We queers on Revelation Hill, tucking our skirts about us so as not to touch our Mormon neighbors, died of the greed of power, because we were expendable. If you mean to visit any of us, it had better be to make you strong to fight that power. Take you languor and easy tears somewhere else. Above all, don’t pretty us up. Tell yourself: None of this ever had to happen. And then go make it stop, with whatever breath you have left.
Grief is a sword, or it is nothing."
Thanks, Alan. I will take a shot and see if my local bookseller has it. Otherwise I will order it.
ReplyDeleteHere is a report of the service in The Johnson City Press.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for your advocacy of this important cause.
ReplyDeletelove,
John