I was reminded today how much I want to read the second half of the play "Angels in America"
I started my volunteer job at Eastern Maine AIDS Network today.
http://www.maineaidsnetwork.com/
EMAN provides HIV testing ($25, but free for those who can't afford it), case workers for HIV+ clients, outreach & education, free condoms/lube/dental dams, needle exchange for users, a food pantry, a small library, internet access, and weekly peer groups.
My plan is to work 2-4hrs three times a week. All depends on when I can get rides, or if my leg feels strong enough for the walk from the bus stop to the office.
Today I was shown around & given the basics. I stuffed & mailed a bunch of envelopes, answered the phone, manned the front desk for a bit, and worked on cataloguing their disorganized library. They might have me work on organizing the archives as well. I could get trained in working the needle exchange--I'll ask if they want to train me or not, seeing as I'll only be around for a couple months (or less). I feel like going to SAFER, the high school HIV education peer group I went to at EMAN years ago, sometime soon.
Social service organizations like EMAN and Spruce Run, the domestic violence shelter my stepmother works at, are in trouble right now. State and federal budget cuts might be severely harmful to their funding. We don't know yet how big of a hit Spruce Run is going to endure, but it's possible that they might lose 80% of their funding and have to CLOSE. As in, NO MORE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SERVICES IN THE GREATER BANGOR AREA. I don't understand how the state could possibly let that happen. There's going to be a domestic violence rally on Wednesday. All I know about it is that women who have made use of Spruce Run's services are going to speak about their experiences as abused women, and how very important it is to continue to make those services available.
I don't know how much funding EMAN stands to lose, but the woman Suze I worked with today told me that in the the worst case scenario they would have to re-think how they function as an organization.
You know what the state of Maine IS spending its tight little budget on? Drug busts. There were over 90 separate drug arrests across the state yesterday, made in an attempt to show just how valuable the Maine DEA is (they're also on the slate for federal funding cuts). These were, obviously, all small-time busts. From the Bangor Daily News: The 24-hour blitz resulted in the seizure of 5.5 grams of crack cocaine, 8 grams of powder cocaine, 5 grams of heroin, 1 methamphetamine tablet, 61 illegally possessed narcotic prescription pills, 4 LSD tablets and 1.8 pounds of marijuana.
THIS IS WHAT THEY'RE SPENDING OUR MONEY ON. Who cares about battered women, people living with AIDS, foster children, people with mental illness, or, heaven forbid, drug addicts, when there is MARIJUANA TO BE SEIZED!
Makes me fucking sick.
Speaking of things that disgust me--heard about this new "ray gun" weapon?
http://www.alternet.org/story/24044/
The Active Denial System is a Pentagon-funded, $51 million crowd control device that rides atop a Humvee, looks like a TV dish, and shoots energy waves 1/64 of an inch deep into human skin. It dispenses brief but intolerable bursts of pain, sending bad guys fleeing but supposedly leaving no lasting damage. (During a Pentagon press briefing in 2001, this reporter felt a zap from an ADS prototype on his fingertip and can attest to the brief but fleeting sensation that a hot light bulb was pressing against the skin). ADS works outside the range of small arms fire.
After a decade-long development cycle, the ADS is field ready but not free of controversy. Military leaders, as noted in a recent USA Today article, say it will save lives by helping U.S. troops avoid bombs and bullets in urban zones where insurgents mix with civilians. Temporary pain beats bullets and bombs, but Edward Hammond's files have rekindled scientific questions about how the classified system works, what it does to the body and how it will be used in the streets of Basra or Baghdad or, one day, Boston.
Sounds fishy, but it's for real. "60 Minutes" reported on it recently. Apparently the guests on the show were all doe-eyed over the non-lethal, long-range miracle machine. My mother says that they tested it on a man on the show, and asked him to remove his glasses first. If it leaves no lasting damage, then why would he have to remove his glasses? It's a lazer and it scares me. I imagine them rolling it out in time for the DNC/RNC protests. Bandanas & gas masks can't protect you from a death ray.
Anyway. I'm glad to volunteering at EMAN.
http://www.maineaidsnetwork.com/
EMAN provides HIV testing ($25, but free for those who can't afford it), case workers for HIV+ clients, outreach & education, free condoms/lube/dental dams, needle exchange for users, a food pantry, a small library, internet access, and weekly peer groups.
My plan is to work 2-4hrs three times a week. All depends on when I can get rides, or if my leg feels strong enough for the walk from the bus stop to the office.
Today I was shown around & given the basics. I stuffed & mailed a bunch of envelopes, answered the phone, manned the front desk for a bit, and worked on cataloguing their disorganized library. They might have me work on organizing the archives as well. I could get trained in working the needle exchange--I'll ask if they want to train me or not, seeing as I'll only be around for a couple months (or less). I feel like going to SAFER, the high school HIV education peer group I went to at EMAN years ago, sometime soon.
Social service organizations like EMAN and Spruce Run, the domestic violence shelter my stepmother works at, are in trouble right now. State and federal budget cuts might be severely harmful to their funding. We don't know yet how big of a hit Spruce Run is going to endure, but it's possible that they might lose 80% of their funding and have to CLOSE. As in, NO MORE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SERVICES IN THE GREATER BANGOR AREA. I don't understand how the state could possibly let that happen. There's going to be a domestic violence rally on Wednesday. All I know about it is that women who have made use of Spruce Run's services are going to speak about their experiences as abused women, and how very important it is to continue to make those services available.
I don't know how much funding EMAN stands to lose, but the woman Suze I worked with today told me that in the the worst case scenario they would have to re-think how they function as an organization.
You know what the state of Maine IS spending its tight little budget on? Drug busts. There were over 90 separate drug arrests across the state yesterday, made in an attempt to show just how valuable the Maine DEA is (they're also on the slate for federal funding cuts). These were, obviously, all small-time busts. From the Bangor Daily News: The 24-hour blitz resulted in the seizure of 5.5 grams of crack cocaine, 8 grams of powder cocaine, 5 grams of heroin, 1 methamphetamine tablet, 61 illegally possessed narcotic prescription pills, 4 LSD tablets and 1.8 pounds of marijuana.
THIS IS WHAT THEY'RE SPENDING OUR MONEY ON. Who cares about battered women, people living with AIDS, foster children, people with mental illness, or, heaven forbid, drug addicts, when there is MARIJUANA TO BE SEIZED!
Makes me fucking sick.
Speaking of things that disgust me--heard about this new "ray gun" weapon?
http://www.alternet.org/story/24044/
The Active Denial System is a Pentagon-funded, $51 million crowd control device that rides atop a Humvee, looks like a TV dish, and shoots energy waves 1/64 of an inch deep into human skin. It dispenses brief but intolerable bursts of pain, sending bad guys fleeing but supposedly leaving no lasting damage. (During a Pentagon press briefing in 2001, this reporter felt a zap from an ADS prototype on his fingertip and can attest to the brief but fleeting sensation that a hot light bulb was pressing against the skin). ADS works outside the range of small arms fire.
After a decade-long development cycle, the ADS is field ready but not free of controversy. Military leaders, as noted in a recent USA Today article, say it will save lives by helping U.S. troops avoid bombs and bullets in urban zones where insurgents mix with civilians. Temporary pain beats bullets and bombs, but Edward Hammond's files have rekindled scientific questions about how the classified system works, what it does to the body and how it will be used in the streets of Basra or Baghdad or, one day, Boston.
Sounds fishy, but it's for real. "60 Minutes" reported on it recently. Apparently the guests on the show were all doe-eyed over the non-lethal, long-range miracle machine. My mother says that they tested it on a man on the show, and asked him to remove his glasses first. If it leaves no lasting damage, then why would he have to remove his glasses? It's a lazer and it scares me. I imagine them rolling it out in time for the DNC/RNC protests. Bandanas & gas masks can't protect you from a death ray.
Anyway. I'm glad to volunteering at EMAN.