FORUM
Fond memories of Sen. Ervin
R. Lewis
Ray
Guest
Columnist
By 1974, I, R. Lewis Ray,
a graduate of Winston-Salem
State University and a 1969
graduate of N.C. Central
University Law School, had
become a well known local
trial lawyer and decided to try
to fulfill an old dream.
While serving as an Air
Force enlisted man. I had
envied the privileges, as well
as the pay, of commissioned
officers, and knew that, as a
lawyer, it was possible to be
directly (commissioned as a
captain, skipping both grades
of lieutenancy.
In seeking one of the rare
commissions in the Judge
Advocate General Corp of the
U.S. Army Reserve, knowing
there were only 20 to be
granted that year to lawyers in
50 states, I decided to solicite
the help of Wilmer Mizell,
who was then the U. S.
Representative in the 5th
District, asking him to in turn
to contact Senator Jesse
Helms for his assistance,
since they were both members
of the same political party.
Their response letters
File Photo
The late Sen. Sam Ervin was
one of North Carolina's most
beloved leaders.
evoked little enthusiasm and
no encouragement. Both
Mizell and Helms sent me
copies of Army letters point
ing out that "the competition
is very keen for the few
vacancies" and saying, "there
is no assurance that Mr. Ray
will be selected."
Now, not willing to give
up, 1 then wrote to Senator
Sam Ervin, ? who was rather
busy that summer a as
Chairman of the Watergate
Hearing Committee, whose
actions led to the resignation
of President Richard Nixon..
Quickly, Ervin dispatched this
reply: "In an effort to be of all
possible assistance to you ... 1
have intervened with the
Secretary of the Army and
with the Commanding
General of the First United
States Army at Fort Meade,
Maryland. I shall keep you
advised."
Within days, First Army
headquarters recommended
approval. I got my silver cap
tain bars.
My relationship with
Senator Ervin dates back to
1968, beginning when I was a
third-year law student and
president of the Student Bar
Association at North Carolina
Central University Law
School in Durham.
In the minds of state budg
etary legislators, NCCU Law
School, a product of the
Separate but Equal Doctrine
Era, had served its purpose,
and so UNC Chapel Hill Law
School begin just 12 miles
away. The law school at
Central was being threatened;
there was talk of closing it.
1 wrote Senator Sam Ervin
a letter, and he responded. He
said the school had been a real
service to the community, and
that he had some good friends
who had graduated from
Central.
He said he knew some
people in higher education in
state government and that he
would certainly speak to them
on the school s behalf. The
school was saved and has
since prospered. It has pro
duced such graduates as our
own Governor Mike Easley,
Class of 1976, and nationally
renowned attorney, Willie
Gary, known for his class
action lawsuits, among many
other well known graduates.
The next year, when I
began to practice law, Ervin,
himself a member of the
North Carolina Bar, wrote me
a personal letter, addressed to
'Honorable Robert L. Ray."
"1 wish to extend to you
my heartiest congratulations
upon your passing the North
Carolina bar examination,"
the Senator wrote, adding: "I
know of no field of endeavor
which offers more satisfac
tion. Furthermore, no one can
fire you except your clients,
and they will never do so as
long as you render them intel
ligent and loyal service."
For me, the brief associa
tion with Ervin, even from a
distance, had been pleasant. I
kept the letters and assumed
the I would have no further
contact with Ervin. As you
have seen, I was wrong.
R. Lewis Ray is an accom
plished local legal profession
al.
HIV/AIDS numbers game
Feds run HiV/A^
George
Curry
Guest
Columnist
MEXICO CITY - When
it comes to HIV, the virus that
causes AIDS, the federal gov
ernment has been running a
numbers game. That was veri
fied this week when the
Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention acknowledged
that it has been underestimat
ing the number of HIV cases
oeach year by 40 percent.
That means instead of
40,000 cases annually - the
CDC standard estimate -
there were, in fact, 56,300
new infections. '
AIDS activists have been
saying for years that CDC
understated the extent of the
epidemic. But government
officials turned a deaf ear,
haughtily saying they were
the experts, and community
activists, who were closer to
the community, did not know
what they were talking about.
Phill Wilson, the executive
director of the Los Angeles
based Black AIDS Institute,
was one of those voices
screaming to be heard.
"The CDC's announce
ment makes me very angry,"
he said after learning about
the new figures. "Had the
government listened to the
Black AIDS Institute and oth
ers - had they respected what
we were telling them - there
is a possibility that we could
have been able to prevent
some of these infections."
If the numbers game
stopped there, it would be bad
enough. But it doesn't.
Equally disturbing is the gap
in global and 'domestic spend
ing on AIDS.
"Over the last five years,
the White House and
Congress have increased
spending on HIV prevention,
treatment and support pro
grams for low-income coun
tries dramatically - at the
same time that domestic
spending has remained all but
flat," concludes a report by
the Black AIDS Institute
titled, "Left Behind."
A chart in the report makes
the point. In 2005, U.S.
spending on AIDS globally
increased by 21 percent while
domestic spending on AIDS
remained unchanged. The fol
lowing year, global spending
increased by 22 percent and
domestic spending decreased
by .4 percent. In 2007, interna
tional spending jumped by 46
percent while domestic spend
ing increased by only 2.5 per
cent. This year, global spend
ing is expected to increase b^
34 percent while domestic
spending inches up by 1.2
percent.
"Black communities
throughout the United States
continue to bear a dispropor
tionate share of the AIDS epi
demic," the Left Behind
report states. "More than
500,000 Black Americans are
living with HIV, and more
than 20,000 or more become
infected each year. Blacks liv
ing with HIV have an age
adjusted death rate more than
twice as high as HIV-infected
whites."
Nearly one of every two
people living with HIV in the
U.S. is Black. AIDS is the
Phill Wilson
leading cause of death among
Black women between 25-34
years and the second-leading
cause of death in Black men
between 35-44 years of age.
Black women are 23 times
more likely to be diagnosed
with AIDS than White
women.
Blacks make up 70 percent
of new HIV diagnoses among
teenagers.
Stung by those numbers,
the Congressional Black
Caucus prodded Congress in
1998 to establish a Minority
AIDS Initiative, with the goal
of reducing HIV-related racial
and ethnic disparities.
"Between 1999 and 2008,
federal appropriations for the
Minority AIDS Initiative
roughly doubled, rising from
$199 million to $403 mil
lion," the Black AIDS report
noted. "During that same peri
od, by contrast, U.S. govern
ment funding for global AIDS
programs (excluding
research) rose 37-fold - from
$146 million to S5.5 billion."
The U.S. should be
applauded for taking on the
leadership role in combating
AIDS internationally. But it
has a lot more work to do at
home.
"While international
spending on AIDS by the U.S.
government increased by
more than 14-fold between
1995 and 2004, HIV preven
tion spending rose by a mere
46%, or at rate roughly com
parable to the increase in the
cost of living."
On Monday, a group of
AIDS experts attending the
international AIDS conven
tion here proposed that the
U.S. spend $1.3 billion a year
to implement a comprehen
sive national prevention strat
egy
"It is outrageous that the
U.S. AIDS epidemic, espe
cially the Black epidemic,
gets no attention, and that we
American citizens have to
fight so hard for basic, life
saving services," said
Pernessa Seale, founder and
C^O of the Balm in Gilead.
"...As the U.S. has chronical
ly neglected its own AIDS
epidemic, that the epidemic
has continued and grown - a
tragedy that is completely
unnecessary and that must be
reversed.'"
George E. Curry, former
editor-in-chief of Emerge
magazine and the NNPA News
Service, is a keynote speaker,
moderator, and media coach.
He can he reached through his
Web site,
www.georgecurry.com .
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