not so cynical now, are we!

here at pamphleteers headquarters we love our bikes. we also love causes.

so imagine how excited we got when i learned about something that would combine those two things for the best cause, ever.

friends for life bike rally

i'm sure i've heard about this event peripherally over the years, but i was at work the other day when someone declined a pastry because they had just cycled to montreal.

yes, toronto to montreal. on a BIKE.

besides being extremely impressive, the fact that this bike ride was for the toronto people with aids foundation and managed to raise approximately $900,000.00 is amazing.

every year hundreds of people decide to fundraise money and then hop on their rides and trek for six days to raise money for a great cause.

geoffrey chown, who declined the pastry and unknowingly spurred two new riders through such a simple act, told me that he's done the friends for life bike rally for eight years-- four as a rider and four as crew. he also told me that anyone could do it: the youngest person riding this year was fifteen and the oldest was 72.

this seems to be true. there are a few qualifiers, such as fundraising a minimum of $2200.00, completing a bike maintenance clinic, completing training rides of 50kms and 100kms before a deadline, etc but other than that it seems to be something you decide to do and then do it.

so, eff and i are going to do it.

next year after some fundraising, training rides, and bike clinics we are going to ride our goddamned bikes 600kms to montreal for a great cause.

i mean, first we're going to have to buy bikes that didn't cost us $60 on craigslist and haven't been hit by hummers, but.. that's a small obstacle to overcome.

did you know...

that the u.s.a refuses to allow foreign nationals into the country if they are known to be HIV positive?

it's true. in some cases they'll allow a stay of 30 days but you have to apply to do that.

as well, immigrants with HIV are not granted legal permanent resident status except under very, very specific and rare circumstances.

if you're HIV positive and you want to cross the border into the u.s.a and you don't want to have to hide the fact that you have HIV because, you know, you believe that you should accorded full human rights regardless of whether or not you are positive you have to apply for a special waiver. the waiver is actually stamped onto your passport and is a permanent and visible record of your HIV status.
according to martin rooney, an HIV rights activist who was denied entry to the US in 2007,
"Barack Obama has not, and apparently will not sign the Executive Order to repeal the US HIV Travel Ban imposed back in 1993 by an act of congress. In July of 2008 congress voted for PEPFAR Bill with an amendment attached to repeal that Ban - Bush signed the Bill into law at the end of July 2008, but failed to sign the executive order "(from martin's facebook group "obama revoke the HIV travel ban now"-which you should probably join).

seriously? just sign the executive order. for real. denying people who are HIV postive the right to enter the u.s.a based on despicable stereotypes and bad science is beyond abhorrent and totally ridiculous.

honestly, obama was all 'im going to repeal don't ask don't tell', 'i'm going to close guantanamo bay', 'im getting a puppy', but he won't even allow people with HIV their basic human right to access and mobility?

walk the walk obama.


you can go here for more information on travel bans and HIV/AIDS___>http://www.plwha.org/(people living with hiv/aids)