Oakland, CA, USA -

Dear Friend in the Fight Against HIV and AIDS:

The room erupted with enthusiastic outbursts of approval at our Debate Watch Party in reaction to moderator Gwen Ifill's question about AIDS and Black women. Her question was quite specific: " ... I want to talk to you about AIDS, and not about AIDS in China or Africa, but AIDS right here in this country, where Black women between the ages of 25 and 44 are 13 times more likely to die of the disease than their counterparts." Momentarily motionless, hardly breathing, we awaited the responses from the two 2004 Vice Presidential candidates, only to have our half-hopeful anticipation turn to exasperation. Both Cheney and Edwards responded in Media Training 101 style, by using the opportunity to get across other platform messages - as if asked completely different questions. At the end of his response, incumbent Vice President Dick Cheney did return to the original question with an open admission, that he had "not heard those numbers with respect to African American women." That moment in history was probably the most profound confirmation of what Black health advocates had previously known -- the health of Black women does not rank with any priority on the national agenda. -- Lorraine Cole, Ph.D., President & CEO, Black Women's Health Imperative [Emphasis the columnist's]

Blacks in the United States traditionally have the weight of under-employment on their backs, then came the crack cocaine epidemic (which some hinted sinisterly was provoked by the actions of the US government.) The fact of Blacks being the predominant victims of the American gulag, effectively stripping their communities of males of child-producing age served to further devastate an already struggling people as the pool of eligible men of African-American heritage shrunk dramatically. There was also the prevalence to death and stroke by heart disease to add to the mix. And some environmentalists claim that more toxic oil refineries and other ecological hazards just happened to be sited in communities of color. ... READ MORE

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BRAD BALFOUR WITH GUS VAN SANT:

New York, NY, USA - Veteran director Gus Van Sant doesn't like to do anything predictably. A publicist warned that he speaks in long extended passages. But, in this interview, Van Sant did the opposite, answering in brief short passages that could be classed as terse to a fault. In his latest film "Last Days," he approaches the subject matter -- a rock star's ultimate demise -- with similar terseness of dialogue and shots. The 53 year-old Kentucky native rarely follows form from one film to the other -- witness the breadth of his style ranging from films such as "My Own Private Idaho" to "Finding Forrester" to "Elephant." Now, as he did with the Columbine massacre in "Elephant," Van Sant uses actual history -- the suicide of Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain -- to examine the psychological circumstances behind such an act in "Last Days." And through his offbeat, improvised and oblique filmmaking, how rock stardom impacts on a person and a band.

G21: When did you decide to do "Last Days?"

GVS: I thought of doing it in 1994. I was interested, at the very start, of doing something that was more of a biographical thing, about Kurt Cobain himself and not Blake [the fictional version]. I stopped working with that idea really fast, because it started to seem like "The Doors." Then, at one point, I wanted to do the same thing except with [The New York] Dolls, because I was into The Dolls at that moment. It was 1992 I think. I thought we could do a real bio pic, but it wouldn't look corny like "The Doors," because it would be The Dolls. You would be distanced enough that it would be interesting. Then I wrote about two pages and I stopped. ... READ MORE


LIONEL ROLFE REMEMBERS:

Los Angeles, CA, USA - Please understand me, it isn't that all virtue resides on the Left. I've met some really awful people who claimed to be Leftists, and some wonderful people who were, if not reactionary, privileged and conservative. Moreover, they were far more honest human beings than the Leftists I knew with whom I shared my politics. When they said they'd do something, their word was good. If they said something wasn't true, especially if they knew it from their experience and not their ideology, it probably wasn't true. Nonetheless, I still adhere to a vision of things that includes the premise of human progress.

Looking at things as scientifically as we can, and conducting our public affairs in the most democratic of terms, are basics of any progressive outlook. We have the ability to ennoble ourselves, as well as to grovel in the most debased of our instincts. The Free Market debases the best in our culture and, at its worst, will lead to the horrors of fascism.

But there was also the Gulag.

It was socialism's misfortune to have had its first trial run in the Czar's Russia. Had socialism evolved in Germany, where it almost triumphed over capitalism but instead failed opening the way for fascism. history wouldhave been quite different.

Thousands of socialists were elected to office, including the mayorships and councilmanic posts of some good-sized American cities, in 1912. I have written the story of how socialism and organized labor were then defeated by General Harrison Gray Otis and his Los Angeles Times in Bread & Hyacinths: The Rise and Fall of Utopian Los Angeles. I believe that the combination of socialism and democracy, based on a rationalist, scientific base, would have turned the United States into a paradise.

But I promise no cheap philosophy here. A big part of me would like to do what Rush Limbaugh does, and proclaim my views to the millions. But even if I were as articulate and slick as he is, which I'm not, it would never happen. The left has been barred from the national dialogue in this country for now. Still, I'll give Rush Limbaugh some ammunition with which to attack me. I'll tell you about my time in the Communist Party. ... READ MORE