▪ 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 5