OPINION CHRON 1C LE Ernest H. Pitt Elaine Pitt Michael A. Pitt T. Kevi? Walker Publisher/Co- Founder Business Manager Marketing Managing Editor (A \y ? "<j nmoui Nawapapw PuOMtwr* AMoeMtton Hi CarfMIr^ Press AssocoUon MCT Photo A Haitian man searches for food. Help Haiti ! Kendrick Meek Guest" Columnist In light of the recent worldwide food price increas es, Haiti is facing an acute economic crisis. Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere and is just 700 miles off the coast of my home state of Florida. As Americans, and especially as African-Americans, we must come to the aid of the Haitian people. In Haiti, where the typical Haitian makes $2 a day, the increase in food prices is unsustainable for the typical Haitian. In addition to the food price crisis, Haiti suffers from a high percentage of job lessness, which results in per sistent poverty. During my 1 1 trips to Haiti since my election to Congress in 2002, I have observed firsthand the obsta cles Haiti must overcome to revitalize their economy. For me, and my South Florida constituents, this is an issue which concerns ys deeply. During my most recent trip to Haiti on April 20 and 21, 1 met with Haitian President Rene Preval, U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Janet Sanderson and representatives from the inter national community. President Pr6val and I discussed ways to provide humanitarian assis tance to the Haitian people. The President has determined that over the next six months, Haiti requires: 30,000 metric tons of rice (4 percent broken quality) per month; 15,000 metric tons of wheat 'per month; and 7,000 tons of cooking oil per month. Upon my return from Haiti on April 22, 2008 I wrote a let ter to U.S. President George W. Bush urging him to allo cate to Haiti at least $15 mil lion in direct monetary assis tance from the Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust, which helps nations facing surging food prices. In addition, letters were written to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and U.S. Agency for International Development Director Henrietta H. Fore explaining the importance of the U.S. involvement in providing humanitarian support for the country. Haiti has many strong sup porters in the U.S. Congress, especially within the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC). Members of the C&C traveled to Haiti in mid-May on a fact finding mission and have returned with an increased sense of commit ment to assist Haiti. Already we as a Caucus are taking the lead in urging the internation al community to provide immediate debt relief to the Haitian government. This year, Haiti will send $48.7 million in debt payments to multilateral financial institu tions. That money can be bet ter spent to assist the Haitian PC?And. the CBC has also renewed its support for granti ng Haitians residing in the United States Temporary Protected Status (TPS), a tem porary immigration status. TPS may be granted when any of the following conditions are met: there is ongoing armed conflict posing a serious threat to personal safety; it is requested by a foreign state that temporarily cannot handle the return of nationals due to environmental disaster, or when extraordinary and tem porary conditions in a foreign state exist which prevent aliens from returning. On May 15, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Haitian Hemispheric Opportunity through fartiicrship Encourage Act of ZUU8 (HOPE II). HOPE II is vital legislation which expands trade preferences to Haiti. Humanitarian assistance for Haiti in the short run is criti cal, but creating jobs by revi talizing the Haitian economy in the long run is essential. The international commu nity is playing a vital role in stabilizing Haiti, but ultimate ly it is Haitians who need to rebuild their economy by developing homegrown indus tries. and HOPE II gives Haitians that opportunity. The Congressional Black Caucus is actively working and advocating on behalf of Haiti in the U.S. Congress. We have remained engaged on this subject long before the current situation in Haiti began gar nering worldwide attention, and we will remain engaged for the indefinite future. U.S. Rep. Kendrick B Meek represents the 17 th Congressional District of Florida which includes parts of Miami-Dade and Broward Counties. He serves on the House Committee on Armed Services and is the lone Floridian sitting on the House Committee on Ways and Means. \ iua\R psrtRVcnnsM ? ~TVie\R VSILOR... VJNPSUlABLe A c "Twelve sacRtnoe... ? vjKForaarrraBi^ MaMORl^iL- D?4V Letter to the Editor Great Coverage To the Editor: Pleaseoaccept my sincere thanks for covering our story at Mineral Springs Middle School ("A Cut Above," March 29). The Chronicle exemplifies communi ty mindedness and I look for ward to reading it each week! The article, "Africa on the Back of my Head" is one of many that tell of good things happening in our schools. Surpassing my $100 chal lenge, our students and faculty raised $1,000.36 for the Samaritan Ministries and Sudan. Plus we delivered 172 cans of food to Crisis Control. This is an * amazing end to the story written by Layla Farmer! Mineral Springs is a very spe cial place and I thank you for recognizing us and so many! Sincerely, Janie B. Livengood, 7th Grade Social Studies Teacher Rk Photo Teacher Janie Livengood with one of her seventh-graders. A more perfect union Phill Wilson Guest Columnist By striking down California's law that limited marriage to opposite sex cou ples, the California Supreme Court took a major step toward the formation of that "more peff&ict Union" that our forefathers dreamt about. The ruling is a blow against marginalization, and stigmatization, therefore, a blow against HIV/AIDS. Black America should applaud the Court's decision. It is by now clear that shame and stigma surround ing sexuality ? whether gay, straight or bisexual? is dead ly. When our public policies reinforce a social order in which some relationships are valued more than others, we push people to the margins. When we refuse to affirm open, healthy relationships, we encourage hidden, self damaging ones. And that's something Black America cannot afford. Many of our leaders are calling on a mass Black Mobilization to end the AIDS epidemic in our com munities. Central to that effort is a frontal assault on pervasive and a corrosive blame and shame paradigm that under mines AIDS education, pre vention and treatment efforts. As a community, we can no longer accept the plague ravaging members of our fam ilies. Study after study has shown HIV infection rates among Black gay and bisexu al men to exceed those in KRT Phrto The late Coretta Scott King was a well known proponent of equal rights for homosexuals. some of the hardest hit cor ners of the globe. A seven-city U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study found 46 percent of Black gay and bi-men to already be HIV positive. And the t^H is partic ularly high among young men: A New York City health department study last fall found that a stunning nine out af 10 HIV infections among gay and bisexual men under age 20 were among Blacks and Latinos? most of whom don't know they are infected. Many different factors come together to drive these trends, ranging from the social to the biological. And 1 far too many questions remain unanswered. One villain, however, is clear: Sexual shame and fear. And public policies that devalue loving, supportive relationships help spread these emotional vec tors of disease. . Mortover, our nation's sexual caste system is not only unhealthy, it's immoral. "Homophobia is as moral ly wrong and as unacceptable as racism," the late Coretta Scott King reminded us. "We ought to extend to gay and lesbian people the same respect and dignity we claim for ourselves. Every person is a child of God, and every human being is entitled to full human rights." From child custody to health benefits, our govern ment denies those rights daily through intrusions into the family decisions of same-gen der couples. They are denied access to more than 1,000 legal rights and responsibili ties that marriage brings. It's an injustice carried out. against a broad swath of soci ety. The 2000 Census found same-sex households in 99.3 percent of U.S counties. And not just white people: 10.5 percent of those households were Black and 11.9 percent were Latino. And not just the couples themselves: 34 per cent of the female couples and 22 percent of the male couples were raising at least one child in their home. 1 welcome the day when every state follows the lead of California in working towards true equality for all of our families. Phill Wilson is a longtime AIDS activist and the founder and Executive Director of the Black AIDS Institute.

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