LEVY ON AIDS

PROFESSOR WANGARI MAATHAI

The first black African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize gets attacked by AIDS Establishment

The March 2005 POZ magazine, the gay lifestyle magazine that claims to be the premiere HIV magazine in America, carried an article by Lucile Scott accusing the first black African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize of preaching AIDS conspiracy. Professor Maathai found herself in a controversy after a Nairobi newspaper quoted from a talk she made to a group of constituents, in which she appeared to say that AIDS had been intentionally created by "evil scientists" to kill black Africans. The AIDS establishment and other supporters of the 'green monkey' theory of the origin of HIV went ballistic. Apparently, Ms. Scott was angry with Peter Piot of UNIAIDS for enlisting Sister Maathai to help reduce African HIV rates. Before I respond to this obvious attempt to discredit Professor Maathai, let me introduce her to some of us who don't know this exceptional black woman. She was born in 1940 and has three children. Her former husband, whom she divorced in the 1980s, was said to have remarked that she was "too educated, too strong, too successful, too stubborn and too hard to control." In the late 1980s, she became a prominent opponent of a skyscraper planned for the middle of the Kenya capitals main park, Uhuru Park. She was vilified by President Daniel arap Moi's government but succeeded in thwarting the plans. Wangari Maathai rose to prominence fighting for those most easily marginalized in Africa, poor women. A pioneering academic, her role as an environment campaigner began after she planted some trees in her back garden. This inspired her in 1977 to form an organization, primarily of women, known as the Green Belt Movement. It aimed to curtail the devastating effects of deforestation and desertification. Her campaign to mobilize poor women to plant some 30 million trees has been copies by other countries. More recently, she evolved into a leading campaigner on social matters. Fast forward to March 2005. It didn't take a second for the powerful AIDS establishment to jump on this black woman. Let me respond to the accusation first and then the AIDS establishment’s opposition to any difference of opinion or theory about AIDS. In a Jan. 25, 2005 interview with Jeffrey Brown on the News Hour with Jim Lehrer, Professor Maathai was asked about her alleged remark. She said, "I want to clearly say that I was completely misrepresented, that I didn’t say that and I don’t believe it. There are people who are experts. I would, I should really leave the discussions of the nature of the virus, where it came from, how it behaves, to the experts. I’m not an expert. I do not claim any knowledge whatsoever. But I was completely quoted out of context, trying to respond to questions that people ask as you try to tell them how they should protect themselves." So, there you go. She didn't say it although I wish she had said it. I would be the first black man to come to her defense if she did. The AIDS establishment has a history of beating up on African people who disagree with the HIV=AIDS=DEATH dogma. Remember when South African's President Thabo Mbeki dared to question the AIDS dogma at the International AIDS conference in Durban? The South African president said that AIDS was a disease caused by poverty, not by HIV. There seemed to be a worldwide outcry at the time. Lately, President Mbeki stepped up the emotional controversy over his country's response to AIDS, saying Africans should chart their own course on the disease with help from, among others, scientists who dispute the prevailing views in the West on the causes and treatments of the disease. Avowing skepticism about the relevance of Western medical models to the "uniquely African catastrophe" of AIDS, Mbeki wrote in hand-addressed letters that it "would constitute a criminal betrayal of our responsibility to our own people" to mimic foreign approaches to treating the disease. He insisted on South Africa's right to consult dissident scientists who deny that the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, causes AIDS. And he accused unnamed foreign critics of launching a "campaign of intellectual intimidation and terrorism" akin to medieval book burnings and 'the racist apartheid tyranny we opposed." I wholeheartingly agree. I can't add anything to what Mbeki said except to say that the powerful AIDS establishment is based here in the U.S. and contrary to what we might be told by them, there is growing opposition to their AIDS dogma by scientists, experts, and activists. Let us be open minded in the black community and not inflexible to different theories and beliefs despite the threats from those who are bought by AIDS money. Professor Wangari Maathia said, "No one can underestimate the challenge that the tragedy of HIV/AIDS puts before all countries. Nowhere is the devastation been greater than in sub-Saharan Africa. Methods to alleviate the suffering and, hopefully, find a cure require our full commitment. For too long, discussing HIV/AIDS in our communities has been taboo. This must end." Right on sister.

He Made A Difference!

Harry was a great talker. He would always share a funny common experience that would bring everyone closer together. He was like that.  But, he was inflexible about some things -- like the need to abstain from drug use completely. Harry died on September, 1999, at the age of 53.  He died of liver cancer. The toxic effects of the mutilple diseases of Hep C, addiction, and AIDS, multiplied by that of the new AIDS drugs, finally destroyed his liver. The cancer sapped his strength, his fire, but never his determination to survive. He struggled to get up from his sickbed right until the end. Finally, he fell into a coma for the last few days of his life.

It was painful for me, but this is not a story of Harry's last days. This is a tribute to Harry's triumph over drug use and AIDS. It's one man's story of living life on life's terms.                        

Drugs

There were ten of us kids. Harry was the second oldest. Next was me, then Dot, Rick, and so on, with a couple of years between.

Harry, Rick and I were close. When Harry was 17, he started hanging out in the streets of Cincinnati, Ohio, and experimenting with alcohol and drugs. Heroin was his drug of choice. Harry became a white-collar criminal, specializing in stolen check and credit cards to support his heroin habit. Three stays in prison sharpened his forgery skills, and he traveled across the country living off forged checks. In 1977, Harry moved to New York City because "it was the drug capital," he said. He spent years in a drug-crazed blur with nameless women.

One day in the early 1980s, Harry met a woman and fell in love. He got married and became the father of a daughter who changed his life. Harry loved his daughter, and he wanted her to be proud of him. He worked as a luxury car driver for many years.

At some point -- nobody knows exactly when -- something went wrong in Harry's life. He returned to drugs and women. He was diagnosed with HIV in 1987. Doctors put Harry on AZT, but he said the HIV drug interfered with his drug high, so he stopped using it.

In 1993, Harry came down with a disease the doctors couldn't recognize. He was hospitalized. The physician in charge said, "Mr. Levy, if you believe in God, it's time for you to pray to Him, because we have done all we can do." My grandmother, a pastor, prayed with Harry day after day, and, miraculously, he got better and eventually made a full recovery. "I wake up in the morning and just feel like, 'God, I'm glad to be alive,'" he said afterward on many occasions.

Sobriety

Harry became a member of Narcotics Anonymous and a regular at NA meetings in the Bronx. In 1997, Harry became a self-taught HIV treatment educator, with firsthand experience taking many of the new AIDS medicines. He co-founded the Black and Latino AIDS Coalition with me, and we began speaking to people living with HIV around New York City. I can testify that Harry was my strongest supporter. He stood with me regardless of the issue . . . if he agreed. We argued endlessly if we didn't agree, and many times we would stop speaking to each other for weeks. But we always got back together. Best friends as well as brothers!

Harry also wrote when the spirit moved him. He wrote one of the first articles about the silent epidemic of hepatitis C among substance users in the black and Latino communities, and he fearlessly addressed the need to educate recovering addicts in NA about HIV. Harry educated many people in the AIDS community, and it wasn't until after his death, at his tribute, that I fully discovered how he touched the lives of people.

Farewell

At Emmanuel Pentecostal Faith Church in the Bronx, Bishop Betty Middleton hosted a tribute for Harry that drew a hundred people; the small chapel couldn't hold more. One after another, ex-drug users, HIV-positive people, ex-cons, and just regular folk came forward and told stories about how Harry had touched their lives. Some credited Harry with helping them stay off drugs. Others spoke about Harry's compassion and sympathetic ear when they were confronted with a crisis. A lady with tears in her eyes remembered how Harry always listened to her no matter what time of day or night she called. Another said Harry helped her to build confidence in herself. "He taught me how to drive a car," she said. "Nobody ever believed enough in me to teach me anything except Harry!"

It was very moving to me, and a revelation. I suddenly realized that it's the small, personal things, like Harry did, that sometimes make the big difference in someone's life. We don't have to be a big star, celebrity, or millionaire to make a difference. All we need is love. It's simple. Love is the answer.

Interestingly, everyone fondly remembered Harry's 1985 beige Cadillac. It was clean. He bought the car in 1997, from money he saved by not using drugs. He never hesitated to give someone a lift or carry another one to the hospital or shopping. Harry loved that car. You could find Harry nearby if you saw his Cadillac. Last year, someone stole his Cadillac, and he never got over it.

A brother of mine in Cincinnati, who couldn't make the tribute, said he had a dream a couple of days before Harry's death. He said he was riding down a highway on a bike, and suddenly he saw a car approaching from the other side of the highway. As the car got closer, he recognized a beige Cadillac, and as it sped past him, he saw Harry at the wheel. Harry turned with a smile on his face and waved at him. As fast as my brother could turn around, Harry and his Cadillac were gone! Well, it might have been a dream my brother remembers, but I like to believe it was Harry saying goodbye.

For the record, goodbye, Harry. I'm going to miss you!

FRONTLINE HIV/AIDS REPORTS

AIDS experts ended the 12th Annual Retrovirus Conference in Boston the last weekend of February. Two reports are troubling to me as the former E.D. of the Black And Latino AIDS Coalition (BLAC) and a poor black man living with HIV in New York City. First, most of the experts said they believe the so-called virulent, potentially new HIV strain found in New York City is most likely an anomaly. They said New York health officials might have overreacted by issuing a public health alert Feb. 11^th. I thought so right from the beginning. It was irresponsible that the New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden and CEOs of the old line multimillion dollar AIDS organizations would put out this frightening information without being absolutely sure it was a health emergency. The so-called health alert caused fear and panic among many poor people of color when the New York Post sensationalized the unproven facts. ‘AIDS SUPER BUG’ last Saturday’s New York Post headline screamed. "Nightmare strain shows up in city," it continued. Pa-leeze. The story was a variation on the old AIDS game of scaring the public by exaggerating AIDS death numbers to get more funding. This time instead of juggling the AIDS data to show more AIDS related deaths, the usual suspects actually presented old data in frightening new ways. They knew HIV could mutate into another strain each time a person starts and stops their powerful AIDS drug regiment and then starts it again. They also knew that anal sex with multiple partners and heavy drug use can produce new HIV strains. In this case, the so-called new HIV strain was discovered in one gay male who admits to heavy drug use and sex with hundreds of partners. Under the circumstances, it is proper to inform at risk drug using gay men to be careful and practice safe sex techniques. That is standard policy. But, much more investigation and research is needed before public officials scare the daylight out of everyone by implying we might have a ‘new’ AIDS crisis. Trust me. This is not the resurgent of a new AIDS crisis.