(ATLANTA :: 25 September 2009) - Positive Impact, AID Atlanta and many other Atlanta- and Georgia-based organizations rely on funding from the Ryan White Care Act. And the deadline to extend and/or renew looms in a few days.

With Congress atwitter about the healthcare debate, many eyes are off the ball and we need to focus to make sure this funding is not interrupted.

I just left a voice message with Sen. Isakson’s office, and his page crashed when I tried to send the following e-mail:

“Subject: REAUTHORIZE THE RYAN WHITE CARE ACT

The subject says it all, and you should make that an official topic in your pull-down menu. This is a HUGE deal for HIV agencies in the state of Georgia and it's not getting sufficient play - either in the media or from your public statements.”

Please take a moment to contact his office. Here’s his info:

Washington, DC Office
120 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-3643/ Fax: (202) 228-0724

Georgia Office
One Overton Park, Suite 970
3625 Cumberland Boulevard
Atlanta, GA 30339
(770) 661-0999/Fax: (770) 661-0768

Sen. Isakson, give your constituents the chance to e-mail you directly about this and other important issues. SHAME ON YOU.

Last, since this is a national-funding program, no matter where you live it’s important to let your representatives in the House and Senate know that reauthorizing Ryan White funding is critical to HIV services everywhere. Click here to find out how to get contact info for your representatives.

Give ‘em hell!

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Tags: willpollock.com breaking news, ryan white act, positive impact

Not a Miley fan, but this video is hilarious.

Here is a video round-up of Eagle-raid-related protests. Go here for a link to the SoVo video page, or here for the ongoing news story. Also, Mike Alvear has a great (but scary) round-up of what happened on his blog.

If you’re so inclined, write a letter of complaint to the Mayor’s office of communications and then make a comment here about the reply you get.

Here’s the contact info:

Beverly L. Isom, Director of Communications
404.330.6558 office
404.886.2334 cell
bisom@atlantaga.gov

Mayor Franklin has apparently played pretty dumb in responding to this aggressive action, so we need to hit them with protests.

A round of applause to Mike Alvear and Justin Ziegler and everyone else who spearheaded this City Hall protest - taking a stand in the torrential rain.







And then finally, a rally outside the bar:

Tags: willpollock.com youtube, rant, seriously?

As new host of the New York Philharmonic’s weekly, nationally syndicated broadcast on WQXR radio, Alec Baldwin laments the current state of pop music with a nod to EI. Here’s an excerpt from the New York magazine piece:

“In his dressing room, where the radio is tuned to WQXR “all day long,” Baldwin makes no apologies for his anti–Top 40 feelings. It’s part of his growing up. “Popular music has an emotional-intelligence quotient that’s geared much toward younger people,” he explains. “It’s all about”—he flattens his voice to a disaffected teen monotone—“ ‘You left me. Why did you leave me? I still love you. I tried so hard to stop loving you.’ And it’s like, well, I relate to that, I just don’t want to think about that. When you’re younger, you want to wallow in it. When you get older, you still love the person, and wonder why they don’t love you. You just have other things to do.” Baldwin had a relentlessly troubled relationship to his now-ex-wife, Kim Basinger, of course. It hit the news when a most unfatherly voice mail he left for Ireland somehow came out.”

I’m still very much a fan of quality pop - especially when it paints a picture or a story that actually means something.

Tags: willpollock.com emotional intellect

I stumbled across this on LastFM today. One of the better tracks on her debut CD, “Sober” is something I can really resonate with these days.

Tags: willpollock.com youtube, tunes, cool people

(4 September 2009 :: CHARLOTTESVILLE) - I learned a new term while traveling on a catered passenger barge for Rob’s birthday in France.

Aside from needing (and getting) regular exercise to work off the ultra-rich, amazingly tasty French cuisine, one must also pass through what’s called a “lock” when one travels down a canal or other body where the water level changes. I guess being a city boy I never had a need to know that.

This month’s header capture, “Emergence,” could only have come to pass because of these canal locks. The guy in the picture was working his boat with this two other buddies, rising up as the lock sloshed and churned full with murky water. He had his hands resting on the side of the lock and was waiting for the boat to reach the required level to move on.

I grabbed my camera and shot their entry into the lock, which turned out to be a very interesting group of pictures to say the least. Then... I went for a run.

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Tags: willpollock.com new captures, general posts

Ambivalence - Although it walks and talks like a passive action, the result is vastly different.

“Ambivalence is one of the sharpest, deadliest weapons one can wield against a loved one.”

Tags: willpollock.com quotes 2 remember, emotional intellect