Schwarzeneggar Proposes to End HIV/AIDS Services

[JWBear]

Originally Posted by scaeagles

In that case, don't discriminate. Cut them all across the board. It would be better to have cuts in each program and keep them each there, I suppose, than to eliminate one all together.

Yep! Let these people die! Why should we give a damn, it's only our problem, right?

[scaeagles]

Originally Posted by JWBear

If not the government, then who? Especially in this economy.

I love being mischaracterized. Thanks for chopping of the part of the quote that says "but think it's a great alternative to starvation.".

[Strangler Lewis]

Left unchecked, health care advances and higher life expectancies will spell the end of our way of life.

[second class citizen]

Originally Posted by Strangler Lewis

Thanks a bunch, JW Bear. Now Scaeagles gets to go around saying he's clairvoyant.

What do you mean?

[scaeagles]

I said I'd get slammed for posting what I did.

[second class citizen]

Originally Posted by wendybeth

I don't know when in history any government that you (Scaeagles) would approve of wholeheartedly ever existed.

Yes it does! Somalia!

[Alex]

That's true. Maybe a ballot initiative for next year saying that once you reach 55 you must die or move to Nevada, whichever is least painful.

If you want to start playing Master of the Budget and figure out where you'd cut 10+ billion in spending start drilling down here. That is, I believe, the budget from earlier this year and not reflecting new proposals from the failure of the props in the recent election.

One thing that Arnie could do unilaterally to save some significant money would be to grant pardons to all non-violent drug offenders currently incarcerated in California prisons. It would be political suicide, especially once one of those people killed or raped someone, of a spectacular nature. But he'd have my support (even once one of those peole killed or raped someone).

[Alex]

I approve wholeheartedly of the nature of our government. I just don't approve wholeheartedly of everything that results from that.

But I live with that and bitch about the disappointments.

[scaeagles]

Originally Posted by second class citizen

Yes it does! Somalia!

???? You know nothing of me.

[second class citizen]

Originally Posted by scaeagles

In that case, don't discriminate. Cut them all across the board. It would be better to have cuts in each program and keep them each there, I suppose, than to eliminate one all together.

But that's not what Arnold has proposed. You asked a question and I suppose you can now see how passionate people are about the specific proposals (cutting live saving programs for people with AIDS who are on low income).

Let me suggest to you as someone who knows what could very possibly happen when these individuals become cut off from their life saving medications. There are numerous scenarios and I'm sure that given enough time I could think of many more.

Imagine 35,000 people who are dying from AIDS who are abruptly cut off from the drugs. Some will become prostitutes (female and male) (and for those heterosexuals who didn't get the memo, AIDS has been for some time now predominately transmitted through heterosexual means) and will sell themselves in order to make money so they can to cling to life or simply because they want to "live life to the fullest" before they die. Most likely they are going to make a point of NOT letting anyone know they are positive, because that would drive away most people. Their thinking: Why the f*ck should I care who I infect? No one cares about me, so why should I care about anybody else? Believe me when I tell you, this is INDEED how some people think. I've witnessed it firsthand. Now you have a potential of all those people deliberately or malisciously or apathetically passing on HIV to the wider unsuspecting popluation.

You will also have people who lives are SO intertwinned with those infected that they will not care about living without their dying loved ones. There will be some who will deliberately allow themselves to be infected (This is called "giving them the gift"), so they can "go down with their loved ones on a sinking ship" (think of Rose in Titantic or in real life, Mrs. Straus who refused to get on the lifeboat because her husband wouldn't go).

These are simply two scenarios I can think of and have either witnessed firsthand or read about in journals. There are thousands of others, most likely as many as there are people directly affected by this and my examples don't even begin to cover individuals who contract it by sharing tainted needles. God knows how many disastrous scenarios will ensue in that direction!

Cutting people off from life saving services is similar to cutting off firefighters from stopping or controlling a fire. The fire is most likely going to spread into other homes which were once deemed safe.

These cuts not only cease life-saving medications, they also cut AIDS education as well and most importantly to those who most likely need to be educated!

I have worked with HIV educators who get their funding from the government. I know people who have volunteered to be models for the "HIV Stops With Me" slogan, in spite of the fact that they would be discrimated against simply for having a disease. All these people are my heroes! They have made a huge difference in not only educating the general public about AIDS but also in stopping the spread of it.