By Bonus Round Reader, BRBN
In response to AIDS in NY: The First Five Years
In response to AIDS in NY: The First Five Years
I hope that this work of being an inside reporter
is as useful to the planet as it is altruistic.
the awareness factor is important;
but the dumbing down of the youth
is perhaps the more scary proposition.
in my 57 years I myself have contracted many of the
nuisance STD - the ones that don't outright kill you but shorten your happiness factor.
and I paid attention and knew how and where and why.
When in fact - what did I care at that time? I was getting some -
I was plain lucky.
One evening after a month long small time courtship with a gal from the Police Station Radio Room
where I had been dispatching my way thru College -
the two of us turned out to have the same 3 day weekend off.
I invited her to go with me to NYC for a long weekend getaway for some fun and shows and food
and a room and some casual hotness to see how well all things went together.
on the way into town while crossing over from Hackensack /
she yells "take a right!"
I did it - made a sneaky exit that stuck me on a dark street in Harlem.
At a particularly freaky corner I saw a building with a hole in the wall.
It looked to me like a scene from the nightly news
in Viet Nam except more citified like Beirut looks nowadays.
Before I could comment i noticed that my companion was
no longer in the car but running towards this hole in the wall.
The light changed and I was forced to circle -
I liked her but I was a bit scared to go in after her.
I didn't have to -
she was out in less than a minute
with a bloody sleeve and fresh vomit on her silk shirt.
She jumped back into my car slowly and said,
"I got three bags - 1 for you and 2 for me. This will make our weekend fun all the easier."
I turned the car around as she wrecked the front seat with more puking
and asked why she thought that this was a good idea.
There were no good answers -
and I brought her to her mom's house,
and then to a local clinic - her mom said it was
a five year old problem already and she was done;
but that this was where to take her.
Imagine how many people she was
with and had shared needles with?
Narrow escapes.
Seriously she never spoke to me again at work
and I never told her or anyone else of her problem
except that she had been hurt on the street in NYC.
The Captain said, "We know why you were both there -"
I passed a drug screen and kept my job - this was
her 15th offense but strings pulled by her uncle had kept her there.
She disappeared and I felt awful.
but the last I heard was that she had OD'd -
a better fate than the AIDS she was carrying -
for me as well. Sounds evil no?
at the time it was more of a gay issue than today
mainly because denial threatens all sentient beings.
I learned early that it's not a gay issue.
I hope you don't mind but I forward these blogs to almost all of my friends and family -
we all have or know people who need the info and/or inspiration.
Also some non-governmental truth.
is as useful to the planet as it is altruistic.
the awareness factor is important;
but the dumbing down of the youth
is perhaps the more scary proposition.
in my 57 years I myself have contracted many of the
nuisance STD - the ones that don't outright kill you but shorten your happiness factor.
and I paid attention and knew how and where and why.
When in fact - what did I care at that time? I was getting some -
I was plain lucky.
One evening after a month long small time courtship with a gal from the Police Station Radio Room
where I had been dispatching my way thru College -
the two of us turned out to have the same 3 day weekend off.
I invited her to go with me to NYC for a long weekend getaway for some fun and shows and food
and a room and some casual hotness to see how well all things went together.
on the way into town while crossing over from Hackensack /
she yells "take a right!"
I did it - made a sneaky exit that stuck me on a dark street in Harlem.
At a particularly freaky corner I saw a building with a hole in the wall.
It looked to me like a scene from the nightly news
in Viet Nam except more citified like Beirut looks nowadays.
Before I could comment i noticed that my companion was
no longer in the car but running towards this hole in the wall.
The light changed and I was forced to circle -
I liked her but I was a bit scared to go in after her.
I didn't have to -
she was out in less than a minute
with a bloody sleeve and fresh vomit on her silk shirt.
She jumped back into my car slowly and said,
"I got three bags - 1 for you and 2 for me. This will make our weekend fun all the easier."
I turned the car around as she wrecked the front seat with more puking
and asked why she thought that this was a good idea.
There were no good answers -
and I brought her to her mom's house,
and then to a local clinic - her mom said it was
a five year old problem already and she was done;
but that this was where to take her.
Imagine how many people she was
with and had shared needles with?
Narrow escapes.
Seriously she never spoke to me again at work
and I never told her or anyone else of her problem
except that she had been hurt on the street in NYC.
The Captain said, "We know why you were both there -"
I passed a drug screen and kept my job - this was
her 15th offense but strings pulled by her uncle had kept her there.
She disappeared and I felt awful.
but the last I heard was that she had OD'd -
a better fate than the AIDS she was carrying -
for me as well. Sounds evil no?
at the time it was more of a gay issue than today
mainly because denial threatens all sentient beings.
I learned early that it's not a gay issue.
I hope you don't mind but I forward these blogs to almost all of my friends and family -
we all have or know people who need the info and/or inspiration.
Also some non-governmental truth.
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