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EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK
LETTERS
Letters are posted
and archived on JN Online:
www.detroitjewishnews.corn
la
A Magic al Approach
dwina Davis' grandmotherly warmth belies a steely will to stare
down a worldwide scourge on behalf of people struggling to stay
alive.
The West Bloomfield resident is stepping aside after 7 1 / 2 years at
the helm of Detroit Jewry's champion against HIV/AIDS: the Michigan Jewish
AIDS Coalition. She'll be honored at a MJAC benefit on Saturday, Oct. 6, at_
Congregation Shir Tikvah in Troy.
Under its first executive director, MJAC has become a national model for bat-
tling a disease that knows no bounds — infecting fetuses as it attacks pregnant
women and afflicting women as it does men. Davis embodies MJAC's core val-
ues of dignity, compassion, hope and prevention.
Let's be frank: HIV/AIDS kills people of all backgrounds, not
just homosexuals, by slowly and painfully disabling the immune
system. The U.S. logs 40,000 new HIV infections each year;
one in every two involves a person 25 or younger. Some 13,000
Michiganians have HIV or AIDS. These numbers may not
mean much, unless they embrace someone you know.
I, for one, am thankful for what Davis has done to stir public
outcry against what Mary Fisher calls "a roaring conflagration of
agony." Mary, a daughter of Franklin's Marjorie and Max Fisher,
ROBERT A. announced she was HIV positive in a 1992 speech at the
SKLAR
Republican National Convention. She has two boys; her hus-
Editor
band died of AIDS in 1993.
Last year, Mary Fisher came home to Temple Beth El in
Bloomfield Township, where Davis also is a congregant, to urge Jews, as a peo-
ple, to help dispel the myth that HIV/AIDS is "just a dirty little sex thing."
For the record, it's contracted in various ways through the sharing of bodily
fluids. Jews carry the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and die from the
acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), but so do other Americans.
Gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders develop
HIV/AIDS, but so do heterosexuals. Blacks, Asians and
Hispanics get it, but so do other races. No group is
untouched.
A Global Problem
Worldwide, 36 million adults have HIV/AIDS. The disease is
rampant in Africa, where one of every two children is infected
Edwina Davis
and, says Fisher, is "too hungry and too weak to do anything
more than whimper."
That's why Davis, a native Detroiter, will join the American Jewish World
Service — "a Peace Corps for Jews," says this grandmother of three. The former
Planned Parenthood staff volunteer coordinator plans to spend up to eight
months in Africa next year boosting public awareness about the ravages of
HIV/AIDS and the rewards of family planning.
Meanwhile, MJAC's executive reins move to Arlene Sorkin. For the past three
years, she piloted the MJAC outreach program dubbed ECHO (Educating our
Community about Homosexuality through Outreach). ECHO has made the
ideal of "inclusion" something to experience, not just ponder.
"In a perfect world," says Sorkin, "there would be a cure for AIDS and no
such thing as homophobia, which would put us out of businesses, but for now,
we are here to educate and save lives. -
What can we, the Detroit Jewish community, do for MJAC beyond what we
give locally through the Max M. Fisher Jewish Community Foundation, the
Jewish Fund and our hearts?
We can learn and care more about HIV/AIDS. And we can show compassion
toward carriers and their loved ones, not out of pity but because it is the Jewish
way. They need support, not scorn.
In the latest issue of the newsletter MJAC Moments, Davis told it like it is
about her beloved MJAC: "We have grown into a major Jewish organization,
one that we can all be very proud of."
Detroit Jewry is proud of you, too, Edwina, for caring, building and reaching
in a way that inspires instead of alienates — that brings people together, not
drives them apart.
Attorney States
Lantz's Position
A Jewish News article in Staff
Notebook ("Campaign Trail," Sept.
14, page 6) stated that Southfield
City Councilman Sidney Lantz's
court protest over the rejection of
absentee ballots that were delivered
late in the 1999 election was denied
recently by the Michigan Supreme
Court." This statement is inaccurate.
It has never been Mr. Lantz's posi-
tion to request the courts to include
any ballots in the official vote totals
that were not received by. the city
clerk before the close on election day.
The Nov. 2, 1999, election was dis-
puted because absentee ballots
received by the clerk before the close
of the polls were not included in the
official count.
Mr. Lantz contends that the disput-
ed ballots that were not counted by
the clerk and not produced for public
inspection may well have changed the
outcome of the election 1999 elec-
tion.
Your article goes on to state: "His
lawyer says he may appeal to the U.S.
Supreme Court." The Jewish News
never talked to me, attorney for
Southfield Councilman Sidney Lantz.
Your article goes on to state: "Lantz
contends he would have finished
higher than fourth in the 1999 elec-
tion and would have won a four-year
council seat"; this is erroneous. There
is no way Mr. Lantz could know how
he would finish without knowing the
content of the disputed ballots.
Appeal to the United States
Supreme Court is imminent.
"
Stephen Korn
Warren
We Must Never
Stop Dancing
Any Israel trip today would cause us
to consider the obvious: Is it safe?
What will the security be? Should I
wait and go later? But for some rea-
son, I felt this pull inside of me to go
to Israel and to go now ("Mission Of
Emotion," Sept. 21, page 12).
Even though I have been to Israel
six times, to celebrate family simchot
and trips with friends during the
bar/bat mitzvah years of our children,
I realized from the moment I made
the decision to go on the Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan Detroit-
❑
LETTERS on page 6
BECAUSE
EVERY
CHILD
IS PART
OF OUR
COMMUNITY
JARC
Merle and Shirley Harris
Children and
Family Division
Services for children with special
needs and their families.
✓ Outreach, support,
information, referral and
advocacy for families
✓ Educational and social
programs for families
✓ In-home respite care with a
trained JARC staff person
✓ Case management with a
person-centered focus
✓ Funding for aides so children
with special needs can
participate in recreational
activities with their non-
disabled peers
✓ Comprehensive supports to
help children with special
needs successfully attend
religious schools
Thanks to The Jewish Fund
and Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit for their
support of the Harris Division.
Call JARC at
248-538-6610
Ar
30301 Northwestern Hwy.
Suite 100
Farmington Hills, MI 48334
10/5
2001
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