OK. So a few minutes ago I was trying to get through the Friday afternoon doldrums by posting this interesting story about virgin shark birth. Trying to make the day go by faster, because I can’t wait for tomorrow’s Red River Shootout which I am confident Texas is going to emerge victorious from, when I come across this:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/basketball/nba/10/10/magic.radio.ap/index.html
I don’t know who these guys are, Chris Baker and Langdon Perry, but I’m guessing that they aren’t that interested in making a donation for a little event we’re having here in Austin on Sunday October 19th called AIDSWalkAustin08. Yeah, a bunch of us gullible morons that actually believe and care that thousands of our fellow citizens are living and dying from HIV and AIDS related illness and that’s not mentioning the millions more across the world. Bunch of fakers they are, just like Magic.
Ugh. I don’t listen to conservative radio show hosts or any other form of talk radio outside of the occasional sports show, but I’m sure this is probably not that far removed from their typical conversations in between calling Senator Obama a terrorist and having flashbacks to the 1990s trying to blame the current economic crisis all on President Clinton. This news is just breaking so I’m not sure how much of an impact it’s going to have, if at all. I came across it on SI.com and so maybe it’s only the sports and celebrity aspect that’s getting it any real publicity out of it, but if it comes to people protesting and pleading with the radio station to fire Perry & Langdon I say no way. Instead make these guys spend a week volunteering at a Hospice program. I’m sure Minneapolis has a fine one and they’ll find out what a faker really looks like.
I can still remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when I saw the news come in about Magic Johnson in 1991. I was at home working on a plaster of Paris model of The Alamo for my Texas History class. It was this gargantuan project that took up the entire kitchen table and as I watched Magic’s press conference I knew then and right there that I would never forget that day. I had already been familiar with the Ryan White story but like a lot of people in the country at the time it felt like this was the first person we actually knew who had this disease. It was something we could no longer just pretend like it was a fringe cause who only affected people we didn’t know or didn’t care about.
And while HIV may have cut Magic’s NBA career short he has managed in the 17 years since then to become an incredible role model for young people throughout the country based on what he has done off the court including numerous foundations and charities to raise money for HIV/AIDS awareness and research. He also started Magic Johnson Theaters, a movie theater chain that has focused on bringing entertainment and jobs to inner-city areas that were lacking in both. On top of all of that Magic Johnson never took pity on himself or tried to blame anyone else but himself for the actions and mistakes he made that put him in the position of being at risk for this disease. Which brings me back to Chris Baker and Langdon Perry, Who the hell are you? Who the hell are you to accuse and defame someone like Magic Johnson while offending anyone with common decency? Fuck you assholes! Let’s go plug a good cause.
For more information on AIDSWalkAustin08, just head on over to the website:
http://www.asaustin.org/site/PageServer?pagename=AW08_findteamwalker
We’re trying to raise $175,000 for local HIV/AIDS welfare, treatment and prevention programs. Right now the tally sits at over $67,000 so we have some work to do. I hope that if you can give some, whatever little bit, that you can. And come out for the walk if you can as well. It is a good cause despite what knuckle-draggers on the radio say.
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