March to end AIDS planning

[colist at comm-org.utoledo.edu]

Dear NYC AIDS Housing Network members & friends:

I hope that you will join NYCAHN board and membership in supporting this
historic march in anyway you can. If your organization is willing to
consider contributing resources (people, financial support, help with
publicity, etc.) then please join us on Jan. 4th & 5th in Washington,
DC. There will also be a NYC organizing meeting on Dec. 16th at 3:00
p.m. at Housing Works, 320 West 13th Street, 4th Floor near the A,C,E,L
train to 14th Street/8th Ave.

--Jennifer Flynn
NYC AIDS Housing Network
(718) 802-9540
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Walk a hundred miles in my shoes."



A National and International MARCH TO END AIDS * Washington, DC * May
1-2-3-4, 2005



AIDSVote.org and leading national and local AIDS groups invite you to a
two-day planning and organizing summit for a national and international
March to End AIDS that will kick off in mid-April 2005 and converge on
Washington DC for four days of action, support and prayer on May 1, 2, 3
and 4.



We call for a national resurgence of AIDS advocacy in the United States
that highlights the work all of our communities are doing on the front
lines of the epidemic to fight AIDS and care for those living with the
disease, a resurgence that will work through and beyond this
mobilization to build the power to ensure justice for our communities..



We call for a national march TO Washington, with groups of people living
with HIV/AIDS and their families, neighbors, advocates, activists and
care providers walking and traveling by caravan from their homes to our
nation's capital, meeting with others and with local newspapers, radio
and television stations along the way to demonstrate their resolve and
the work being done in our communities to save lives and the need for
more resources to do the job right.



We call for four days of action, support and prayer in Washington,
including meetings with every member of Congress, the President and the
Vice-President, mass marches, support meetings with PLWHAs from every
corner of the globe, daily prayer meetings with members of Congress and
community and faith leaders, and common demands for leadership from the
U.S. government.



We call for unity and support among all communities struggling with this
disease: communities of color, including African-Americans, Latinos,
Asian-Pacific Islanders and Native Americans, immigrants from all
nations, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, women, leaders
of the faith communities and all religious denominations, students and
youth, older Americans and the friends and family members of those
living with AIDS and HIV, as well as all of the 50 million people now
living with AIDS and HIV all over the world.



We call for action from our elected officials to end AIDS now by carrying
out the domestic and global demands embodied in the AIDSVote platform,
including a reauthorized and strengthened Ryan White CARE Act,
protection of Medicaid, Medicare, welfare and Social Security disability
benefits, new effective action to fight the global AIDS pandemic and
assist orphans and vulnerable children, concrete steps to provide
effective HIV care and prevention to all populations including an end to
legal and other barriers to care for immigrants, targeted research for
improved treatments, prevention methods and ultimately a vaccine, as
well as a rededication to AIDS policies based on public health,
real-world science, proven-effective interventions, and actual community
needs.



We call on you and your organization to join us.



PLANNING AND ORGANIZING SUMMIT: JANUARY 4 & 5 * WASHINGTON, DC



Over 300 AIDS, community, advocacy and faith groups will be invited - to
join us contact aidsmarch at aidsvote.org or call the National Association
of People with AIDS at 202-898-0414.

"The nation is sick: trouble is in the land, confusion all around..But I
know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough can you see stars." The
Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. April 3, 1968, Memphis Tennessee



The March to End AIDS follows in the footsteps of Martin Luther King's
Poor Peoples' Campaign.



In the last year of his life, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. recognized
growing walls of public indifference and the multiple impacts of the
Vietnam War as new, major barriers to the continued advancement of the
civil rights movement. In response, Dr. King began a nationwide
organizing campaign for jobs, peace and economic justice. He called on
poor people and front-line service, faith, political and labor
organizations to support caravans and mule trains to Washington to
demand government action to end poverty, joblessness, and employment
discrimination. He called on everyday people and local leaders to
organize themselves and bring themselves to the seat of American power.



Dr. King was killed before he could see his march happen. Nonetheless,
thousands of Americans from all over the country did organize, and two
months after his death over 8,000 people, traveling for weeks in 9 large
caravans from around the country, came to Washington and camped out in a
tent village called Resurrection City for a month of action. Despite
massive disorganization (the organizers had planned for only about a
thousand to make it) the crowds spent the whole month demonstrating,
lobbying, praying and learning from one another - those who were there
say it changed their lives and made them activists for life.



The proposed March to End AIDS is intended to replicate that campaign in
spirit. Starting in mid-April, caravans will travel from around the
country, holding events along the way, arriving in Washington by the end
of the month, for four days of prayer, demonstrations, lobbying visits
and learning from each other, building a base to mobilize to end this
pandemic



The March to End AIDS can achieve important goals for the AIDS movement.



We all know that the AIDS movement in the United States needs new energy,
new participation, and new connections among people living with AIDS and
HIV and those who care about fighting this global pandemic. We all know
that the ability to end the epidemic is close to us, but that we cannot
win it without a strong and mobilized base of hundreds of thousands of
people and unified action on national, regional, local and global
issues. We need more solidarity between our diverse communities. We need
to help the media understand what's really going on with AIDS in towns
and cities all over the country. We need the support of people of faith
and their institutions. We need to connect global and domestic activism
and organizing, and we need to save lives from South Africa to South
Carolina to the South Side of Chicago. We need to utilize modern methods
like shared databases and free or cheap internet tools to keep ourselves
informed and ready to act. We need to build a political force that can
defeat those who oppose us and elect our own leaders to replace them.
Our work to organize a march and maintain the network of those we reach
can achieve these goals - we'll put as much effort on the 'before'
and 'after' as the 'during.'



The March to End AIDS comes at the right time.



In Washington this year, our elected officials will determine the future
of the Ryan White CARE Act, Medicaid and Medicare, Social Security, the
Global Fund, and immigration, HIV prevention, sex education and LGBT
civil rights policies - they're going to make decisions that will
determine the future of America's response to the AIDS pandemic. Not
next year - this year. Our elected officials need to hear directly from
us - the experts - as they determine the fate of millions. Next year
will be too late.



The March to End AIDS can only work with your support - come to
Washington to plan it.



In two days of discussion and work this January, we will certify the
goals and purposes of the march, build demands around the AIDSVote
platform, build a national and regional organizing structure and an
action plan for implementation, and establish founding list of
endorsers. Then we'll announce to our communities, to the nation and to
the world that the AIDS movement is alive, vibrant, strong, organized,
motivated and ready to come to Washington to share our expertise, demand
action to save lives, support each other in this lifesaving work, and
pray that our elected officials develop the wisdom to end the AIDS
pandemic now.


Dear NYC AIDS Housing Network members & friends:

I hope that you will join NYCAHN board and membership in supporting this
historic march in anyway you can.  If your organization is willing to
consider contributing resources (people, financial support, help with
publicity, etc.) then please join us on Jan. 4th & 5th in Washington,
DC.  There will also be a NYC organizing meeting on Dec. 16th at 3:00
p.m. at Housing Works, 320 West 13th Street, 4th Floor near the A,C,E,L
train to 14th Street/8th Ave.

--Jennifer Flynn
NYC AIDS Housing Network
(718) 802-9540
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Walk a hundred miles in my shoes
”

A National and International MARCH TO END AIDS *
Washington
,
DC
* May 1-2-3-4, 2005

AIDSVote.org and leading national and local AIDS groups invite you to a
two-day planning and organizing summit for a national and international
March to End AIDS that will kick off in mid-April 2005 and converge on
Washington DC for four days of action, support and prayer on May 1, 2, 3
and 4.

We call for a national resurgence of AIDS advocacy in the United States
that highlights the work all of our communities are doing on the front
lines of the epidemic to fight AIDS and care for those living with the
disease, a resurgence that will work through and beyond this
mobilization to build the power to ensure justice for our communities..

We call for a national march TO Washington, with groups of people living
with HIV/AIDS and their families, neighbors, advocates, activists and
care providers walking and traveling by caravan from their homes to our
nation’s capital, meeting with others and with local newspapers, radio
and television stations along the way to demonstrate their resolve and
the work being done in our communities to save lives and the need for
more resources to do the job right.

We call for four days of action, support and prayer in Washington,
including meetings with every member of Congress, the President and the
Vice-President, mass marches, support meetings with PLWHAs from every
corner of the globe, daily prayer meetings with members of Congress and
community and faith leaders, and common demands for leadership from the
U.S. government.

We call for unity and support among all communities struggling with this
disease:

communities of color, including African-Americans, Latinos, Asian-Pacific
Islanders and Native Americans, immigrants from all nations, lesbian,
gay, bisexual and transgender people, women, leaders of the faith
communities and all religious denominations, students and youth, older
Americans and the friends and family members of those living with AIDS
and HIV, as well as all of the 50 million people now living with AIDS
and HIV all over the world.

We call for action from our elected officials to end AIDS now by carrying
out the domestic and global demands embodied in the AIDSVote platform,
including a reauthorized and strengthened Ryan White CARE Act,
protection of Medicaid, Medicare, welfare and Social Security disability
benefits, new effective action to fight the global AIDS pandemic and
assist orphans and vulnerable children, concrete steps to provide
effective HIV care and prevention to all populations including an end to
legal and other barriers to care for immigrants, targeted research for
improved treatments, prevention methods and ultimately a vaccine, as
well as a rededication to AIDS policies based on public health,
real-world science, proven-effective interventions, and actual community
needs.

We call on you and your organization to join us.

PLANNING AND ORGANIZING
SUMMIT
:

JANUARY 4 & 5 *
WASHINGTON
,
DC

Over 300 AIDS, community, advocacy and faith groups will be invited – to
join us contact
mailto:aidsmarch at aidsvote.org
aidsmarch at aidsvote.org
or call the National Association of People with AIDS at 202-898-0414.
“The nation is sick: trouble is in the land, confusion all around
.But I
know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough can you see stars.”  The
Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

April 3, 1968,
Memphis
Tennessee

The March to End AIDS follows in the footsteps of Martin Luther King’s
Poor Peoples’ Campaign.

In the last year of his life, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. recognized
growing walls of public indifference and the multiple impacts of the
Vietnam War as new, major barriers to the continued advancement of the
civil rights movement.

In response, Dr. King began a nationwide organizing campaign for jobs,
peace and economic justice.  He called on poor people and front-line
service, faith, political and labor organizations to support caravans
and mule trains to
Washington
to demand government action to end poverty, joblessness, and employment
discrimination.  He called on everyday people and local leaders to
organize themselves and bring themselves to the seat of American power.

Dr. King was killed before he could see his march happen. Nonetheless,
thousands of Americans from all over the country did organize, and two
months after his death over 8,000 people, traveling for weeks in 9 large
caravans from around the country, came to
Washington
and camped out in a tent village called
Resurrection
City
for a month of action.  Despite massive disorganization (the organizers
had planned for only about a thousand to make it) the crowds spent the
whole month demonstrating, lobbying, praying and learning from one
another – those who were there say it changed their lives and made them
activists for life.

The proposed March to End AIDS is intended to replicate that campaign in
spirit.  Starting in mid-April, caravans will travel from around the
country, holding events along the way, arriving in
Washington
by the end of the month, for four days of prayer, demonstrations,
lobbying visits and learning from each other, building a base to
mobilize to end this pandemic

The March to End AIDS can achieve important goals for the AIDS movement.

We all know that the AIDS movement in the
United States
needs new energy, new participation, and new connections among people
living with AIDS and HIV and those who care about fighting this global
pandemic.

We all know that the ability to end the epidemic is close to us, but that
we cannot win it without a strong and mobilized base of hundreds of
thousands of people and unified action on national, regional, local and
global issues.

We need more solidarity between our diverse communities.

We need to help the media understand what’s really going on with AIDS in
towns and cities all over the country.

We need the support of people of faith and their institutions.

We need to connect global and domestic activism and organizing, and we
need to save lives from
South Africa
to
South Carolina
to the South Side of Chicago.

We need to utilize modern methods like shared databases and free or cheap
internet tools to keep ourselves informed and ready to act.

We need to build a political force that can defeat those who oppose us
and elect our own leaders to replace them.
From: flynn at nycahn.org

Our work to organize a march and maintain the network of those we reach
can achieve these goals – we’ll put as much effort on the ‘before’ and
‘after’ as the ‘during.’

The March to End AIDS comes at the right time.

In Washington this year, our elected officials will determine the future
of the Ryan White CARE Act, Medicaid and Medicare, Social Security,

the Global Fund, and immigration, HIV prevention, sex education and LGBT
civil rights policies – they’re going to make decisions that will
determine the future of America’s response to the AIDS pandemic.

Not next year – this year.

Our elected officials need to hear directly from us – the experts – as
they determine the fate of millions.

Next year will be too late.

The March to End AIDS can only work with your support – come to
Washington
to plan it.


In two days of discussion and work this January, we will certify the
goals and purposes of the march, build demands around the AIDSVote
platform, build a national and regional organizing structure and an
action plan for implementation, and establish founding list of endorsers.

Then we’ll announce to our communities, to the nation and to the world
that the AIDS movement is alive, vibrant, strong, organized, motivated
and ready to come to
Washington
to share our expertise, demand action to save lives, support each other
in this lifesaving work, and pray that our elected officials develop the
wisdom to end the AIDS pandemic now.