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Thank you for the information regarding the HUGE Aids problem in Mississippi. You would think that this many years into the epidemic, people would have learned things like compassion for people who are trying to live with a terminal illness. Do This people realize that by taking measures like the stupid ones in Mississippi, they enabling the disease to spread more widely because people will become afraid to get tested or treated? I have recently moved from New York City to North Carolina. I have run into some of the problems that are occurring in Missippi. When someone here dies of AIDS, everyone is told that the individual died of a "blood disorder". That may not sound like a big deal; however, if teenagers are not aware that AIDS is present in their community, they may feel that they don't need to use condoms. So because of the vitriolic behavior exhibited towards people with AIDS, prevention efforts are being thwarted. Therefore, these people are actually increasing the spread of AIDS.
Steve
Individuals required/mandated to sign a list, threat of jail and/or quarantine if state list requirements are not followed, harassment, alienation, a horror story involving the use of strong-arm tactics, intimidation, terrifying, depressing, horrendous, arrogant, absence of transparency involving state government, rampant stigma, potentially lethal consequences, unbelievable civil and constitutional rights violations, an out-of-control, big-brother type government. The above are all adjectives and descriptions from HIV survivor Robin Webb's eloquent and alarming letter to Sean Strub involving Mississippi state mandates to HIV+ individuals and potential consequences if they are not followed. This is truly terrifying because it is real and happening right NOW. Don't think for a split second "this could never happen where I live," because if like-minded officials in YOUR state (and we all know every state has them), choose to adopt laws as these, it's not any stretch of the imagination to picture yourself coming home to an arrest warrant and quarantine order posted on your front door. This IS taking place in Mississippi right now. As Mr. Strub states, only by paying very close attention to the even attempted abuse of our civil and constitutional rights can we take action to have laws as these abolished and prevent them from happening anywhere ever again.
May 7, 2010