September 12, 2008
STAND AGAINST AIDS IN NYC
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Walk against AIDS! |
Want to participate in the Stand Against AIDS, but can't make it all the way to the group's big Mississippi shindig later this month? You're in luck! Next Thursday, September 18 at 1:30 p.m., the Stand Against AIDS Northeast Link Caravan will lead hundreds of AIDS activists in a march across the Brooklyn Bridge to a rally at New York City Hall.
As hopefully you know by now, the Stand Against AIDS is a multiweek effort of the Campaign to End AIDS demanding that presidential hopefuls Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama commit to creating a national plan to end AIDS with in 100 days of taking office. Nine caravans of AIDS activists are traveling across the country to make their demand in person at the first presidential debate in Oxford, Mississippi on September 26.
Members of the Northeast Link Caravan, who are driving from Portland, Maine, to Oxford, Mississippi, will help lead the march and rally in New York. In addition to the National AIDS Strategy demand, next week's march and rally will highlight the consequences of $6 million in HIV/AIDS budget cuts in New York City this year—just as new statistics show that New York City's HIV infection rate is three times the national average.
At 1:30 p.m. everyone will gather at Cadman Plaza East in Brooklyn. At 2 p.m. the march across the Brooklyn Bridge begins. At 3 p.m. participate in a rally at New York City Hall. Throughout the day, activists from across New York and throughout the Northeast will outline why a national AIDS strategy is critical and how it can help stop the spread of HIV and ultimately end the epidemic. At 4 p.m. you can go home.
The Stand Against AIDS caravans, including one "walking caravan" (172 miles from Jackson to Oxford) are traveling a total of 10,851 miles through 47 states in September, culminating in Oxford for the presidential debate. The Northeast Link Caravan starts in Portland on September 16 and travels through Concord, Providence, Hartford, Boston and Albany before arriving in New York City on September 18; the caravan will then continue through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Washington, DC, West Virginia, South Carolina, Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee before arriving in Oxford with the other caravans from different parts of the country. Once the caravans arrive in Oxford, they will participate in four days of Stand Against AIDS activity, culminating with a mock funeral just before the first presidential debate begins on September 26.
For more information about the New York city event, contact Dennis Weakley at d.weakley@housingworks.org