FORUM
December 9. 2011
Occupy soldiers on through cold weather
movement have left its members more homes will have a place to live until they
determined, with more dramatic statements are removed, at which point the family
in the works. is back to square one, or worse, should
Occupy Wall Street, teaming up with someone be arrested for the occupation,
the Occupy Our Homes movement, has Another issue with this plan is a practical
planned a National Day of Action for Dec. one. Foreclosed-on houses are often not
6. On this day. Occupy protesters in 15 cities maintained properly. In my neighborhood,
will march to undisclosed foreclosed-upon opportunists often break into houses and
homes and move in homeless families. steal copper piping and metal fixtures to
By Adrienne Mattson-Perdue
Staff Writer
Thousands of houses stand empty
around the country. Soon, a few of these
buildings will be Occupied.
Last week I stated that Occupy Wall Street
should run a candidate in the upcoming
election season in order to solidify the
movement's impact on the world. Now, I
would like to take a look at where Occupy
Wall Street is actually taking their effort.
Things have not been looking good
for Occupy Wall Street in recent weeks.
Protesters have been bruised. Evictions
across the country seem to have left the
movement in shambles.
Occupy Wall Street soldiers on.
Rather than battering down the will
of the 99 percent, recent attacks on the
This action makes
a clear point. The
Occupy movement
is tired of banks
taking homes from
families whose tax
dollars bailed out the
banks.
This action,
however, does not
offer a permanent
"Rather than battering down the will
of the 99 percent, recent attacks on
the movement have left its members
more determined, with more
dramatic statements in the works."
sell as scrap.
This can go
unnoticed for
months in the winter,
because many of
these houses are left
without heat, leaving
the remaining
plumbing blocked
with ice until spring.
Unless the
solution. A National Day of Action is still Occupiers have a way of getting heating oil,
just one day. electricity, and other services that are often
While moving a family into an cut off when houses are foreclosed on, their
abandoned house is an excellent way efforts will be unsuccessful,
of demonstrating what the government Occupying homes makes a dramatic
should be doing in the eyes of the protesters statement, but it does not make a permanent
— keeping families in their homes — it change. Without more long-term planning,
does not actually prevent families from the movement will fail to have the impact
being removed. it wants.
The people moving in to these abandoned After all, winter is cold in New York
AIDS: a weapon of mass destruction
By Natalie Sutton
Staff Writer
Can you imagine a world without AIDS? Chances are if
you were born in the 1980s or later, then you have never
known such a world. If something does not change soon, we
may never live to see an AIDS-free world.
Since it is AIDS Awareness Month, now is the chance to
question how much time, money and effort has been put
into AIDS research and finding a cure for the disease. Is
enough being done to stop the worldwide massacre that
AIDS creates?
I would say not, considering that, unlike other fatal
diseases (like cancer), we know exactly how people get AIDS,
and yet still millions die every year. Let's use December as
the time to say, "Something must be done to stop this global
destruction."
AIDS is an extremely misunderstood disease. There are
many different, often extreme, conspiracies surrounding
AIDS and a general closed-minded misconception of who
gets the disease.
Some people speculate that pharmaceutical companies
are not trying hard enough to find a cure because it is more
profitable to treat the disease than to cure it.
Some say the disease was invented in the White House as
a means to cause genocide of people of color.
Since there is not enough proof to back up such powerful
claims, I do not buy them.
What I do believe, however, is that there is a particularly
unfair and inaccurate stigma that comes with the word
"AIDS."
People think of AIDS as the "gay disease" or the "black
disease" or the "disease of sin." Such small-mindedness and
ignorance is part of the reason that AIDS Awareness Month
is so important. Obviously, people of all ages, races, sexual
orientations, religious beliefs, etc. can become infected with
the disease.
To believe otherwise is ignoring science and reality.
So let's use December as an opportunity to eliminate such
small-minded ignorance and learn more about AIDS as a
disease and the progress of research and finding a cure.
According to The New York Times, the number of deaths
from AIDS "declined for the third year in a row, falling to 1.8
million in 2010 from a peak of 2.2 million." Additionally, with
all of the new drugs available for AIDS patients, the disease
"is no longer an automatic death sentence."
Along with a decreased death rate and increased drug
supply, "the number of people being treated has soared to
6.6 million of the 14.2 million people sick enough to need the
drugs," according to The New York Times.
Although this is all good news and it makes me optimistic
about the future of AIDS research, there are still 1.8 million
people dying from the disease and not even half of those who
are diagnosed are able to afford proper treatment.
This is a huge deal. Imagine if not even half of those with
cancer had access to treatment. There would be enraged
protests and shouts of injustice and mass murder.
Why is there none of this for AIDS? Are people still so
ignorant about the disease that they find it an unworthy
cause? We should not tolerate indifference and ignorance
being shoved onto millions of people's lives.
To see a world without AIDS, prevention and treatment
strategies are needed. Unfortunately, with the economic
recession, funding for the cause has slowed.
The New York Times reports that "the global economic
downturn led to a collective decline in donor assistance last
year - to $7.6 billion in 2010 from $8.7 billion in 2009 - well
short of the $24 billion thought needed by 2015."
Will we ever live to see an AIDS-free world again?
No one can say for sure, but I certainly hope so. With the
economic crisis and huge AIDS-related death tolls, it seems
unlikely at times, but recent improvements in medicine and
research appear to be taking us a step closer to such a world.
But a step closer is still not good enough. As a society, we
should not settle for "better," we should not be satisfied until
we live in an AIDS-free world.
AIDS is a weapon of mass destruction and my hope is
that people will start getting angry about this world-wide
genocide and start demanding justice.
Staff Editorial
The GuOfordian:
the upcoming
semester
With the end of the year rolling in,
everyone is wishin’ and hopin’ and praying'
S' for things to help them get through the
s^ess of finals.
The Guilfordian is no different. We have
a wish list for the spring semester. These
items might not fit into a stocking, but we
hope they will enhance your Guifordian
e>tperience in the new year.
Without further ado, here's our 2011
Wish List:
1. The Guilfordian is ditching our
College Publisher website and creating a
new more user-friendly page. We hope the
website will allow for more multimedia
packages,complete with videos, soundbites,
slideshows, interviews and more!
2. In other Internet news, our social
justice team is excited to unveil its new
social justice website in January. The
website will be linked to www.guilfordian.
com and will provide stories from Guilford
and the Greensboro community. The
team hopes to join forces with CPPS and
other organizations on campus to spread
awareness of social justice issues.
3. Here at the Guilfordian, we work hard
to represent the whole campus, and we
want to make sure that everyone's voices
are heard. We hope that the new website and
the social justice team will offer doorways
to discussion and cooperation among all
members of the Guilford community,
4. A new study abroad blog will be
started next semester by an editor on our
staff who will is traveling to London.
We hope this will close the gap between
Guilford community and our students who
are exploring other cultures.
5. The Guilfordian wants to put a face
to the paper that you read weekly. We
hope to do this by creating a brand, or an
identity for ourselves, one that represents
who we are. We will be holding events and
functions in the future to promote this new
identity.
We here wish you a pleasant, relaxing,
and happy holiday season. We cannot wait
to return in January and begin working on
making our wishes for the paper and our
community come true.
The editorial board of the Guilfordian consists of '
' FIVE section editors, A PHOTO EDITOR, LAYOUT EDITOR, i
WEB EDITOR, DIVERSITY COORDINATOR, ADVERTISING MANAGER,
JtOEO EDITOR, aECUTlVE PRINT COPY EDITOR, EXECUTIVE WEB
. COPY EDITOR, SOCIAL JUSTICE EDITOR, MANAGING EDITOR, AND
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF.
Reflecting Guilford College's core Quaker values,
THE topics and CONTENT OF STAFF EDITORIALS ARE CHOSEN
THROUGH CONSENSUS OF ALL 16 EDITORS.