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| Celebrating, but not forgetting: At Juneteenth celebration, activists promote awareness of Iraq and AIDS |
| Other website - 00:00' 21/06/2006 (GMT+7) |
 RACINE - Amid the local Juneteenth Day celebration of emancipation from slavery, two small groups worked in pursuit of different kinds of freedom.
In one case, freedom for U.S. troops from the fighting in Iraq. Freedom from AIDS, in the other.
Both appear to be uphill battles.
Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration of the ending of slavery in the United States. It was on June 19, 1865, that Union soldiers landed at Galveston, Texas, with news that the war had ended and that enslaved blacks were free - 2½ years after President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation had declared them so.
While others socialized, ate and listened to music Saturday at the Juneteenth festivities at John Bryant Community Center and Roosevelt Park, a few people had larger concerns on their minds.
One of them was Daryl Carter, abstinence educator with the AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin. For the third straight year, the center was offering free HIV tests inside the Bryant Center.
It was a lonely vigil for Carter and his assistant. As of about 5 p.m., more than halfway through the Juneteenth event, only two people had taken the HIV test. "Usually the people who need to get tested the most are the most ignorant about it," Carter observed.
The HIV test involves a tiny finger prick and 20 minutes to get the results, along with some education. "You don't just want to test the person and let them walk away," Carter said.
Asked about the incidence of AIDS, he shook his head and replied, "It's not good. Especially for African-Americans. And it's not good for women, either."
Carter pulled out some statistics. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, of every 10 U.S. women infected with HIV, six are African-American, two are Hispanic and two are Caucasian. But blacks make up only 13 percent of the total population, he said.
"It's epidemic in the African-American community for real," Carter said, "and a lot of people don't know about it."
Bring the troops home Another small group fighting a big battle were volunteers for the Racine Coalition For Justice and Peace. They're trying to get an advisory question placed on the November ballot in the city of Racine calling for the pullout of all American troops from Iraq.
It would be a purely symbolic statement, if put to referendum and passed by voters. The Racine City Council has voted against placing the question on the ballot, but supporters can still put it there by collecting 3,105 petition signatures from city residents.
The response at Juneteenth Day was encouraging, said two volunteers.
"I haven't had anybody tell me no," said Connie Hohlfeld
Molbeck.
Carl Lassiter said only a handful of people, including three elected officials, declined to sign the petition. He said some people remarked that that American troops should never have been sent to Iraq in the first place.
The group has two months to collect the needed number of signatures for the question to reach the November ballot. |
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