you don’t tie a red ribbon to someone on fire
Today is World AIDS Day.
And we are not doing well as peoples of the world in many aspects of life. We explode our potentially glorious cities. Some children migrate every night to avoid being kidnapped into soldiering; some men rape refugee girls on their way to gather water outside their camps. While the world is in macroeconomic chaos, those at the micro level are watching the levees break. The sky is falling and sea is boiling, or at least poisoning us with the poisons we poisoned them with.
A plague is upon us.
Despite the apocalypse, reason and hope should drive cash and compassion into the struggle against AIDS. We need the work that empowers the communities most affected by the virus and changes the social factors that drive the epidemic as well as provides for the care of people living with HIV.
The AIDS crisis here and around the world exposes where we have most failed to provide for people’s basic needs: health care, housing, healthy food, education and safe community. And the opportunity to learn about our bodies and to grow in the capacity to have honest, caring relationships- some that are really fucking sexy- that embody the justice we hope to build in the world. Safety nets for when times get hard, and support for when we are struggling.
In honor of the people who have lost their lives as a result of communities and public policies that punish sexuality and drug addiction and abandon people, especially queer people of color, to preventable death, please:
Google search World AIDS Day and your city
then do something, like:
- send in $10 to your local AIDS service organization;
- then donate to your favorite social justice activists, especially feminists working around anti-violence and folks working in addiction/recovery. Your local library full of fiesty, free-speechy librarians is another good place to support;
- sign up to volunteer for soup kitchen this winter. Bonus karma for not at Christmas. Brownies for working with Food Not Bombs.
- read up on racial disparities in health in this country;
- support comprehensive sex ed in the schools in your community; and
- have safe sex with Obama supporters or staffers..or, you know, build the movement and share the love. Read radical poetry in the afterglow.
I guess do that when you are done on-line.
Lemon Thyme Risotto
1 small sweet onion
1 ½ cups Arbario rice
1 cup white wine
5 cups veggie stock
2 organic lemons
fresh thyme
1 cup shredded parmesan cheese
3 tablespoons of butter
Zest your two lemons, scrapping their bright yellow peel with the finest side of a grater or a file. Pick the thyme leaves off their stalks, generating about 2-3 tablespoons of fresh herb.
Heat a stockpot over a medium flame, and add in a tablespoon or two of olive oil and of butter. Add in the rice and stir to coat and cook 3-5 minutes to toast. Turn up the heat and pour in a cup of white wine. Bring to a boil, stirring until the wine is absorbed. Add another cup of wine and squeeze in half a lemon. Stir until absorbed. Add the veggie stock ½ a cup at a time, alternating with fresh lemon juice, and stirring until the liquid is absorbed each time. Cook, adding liquid, until the rice is al dente and the risotto is creamy, about 20 minutes- ½ an hour.
Stir in the lemon zest, thyme and cheese. Pour in another slug of highest quality olive oil, a dash of salt and pepper. Serve in big shallow bowls.
