Wow, that's kind of scary. I was born the same month as Magic Johnson, watched his career from College and was stunned when he announced he had AIDS at 31. I thought he be done in five, but 16 years later he's still rolling. Sometimes I wonder if the health care is better for the wealthy?
Jay dedman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Some of you may know Ferd Eggan, a videoblogger who joined this list last year. He died on Saturday of liver cancer. He did a videoblog called Cranky PWA (person with AIDS): http://crankypwa.blogspot.com/ Here was his first post: http://crankypwa.blogspot.com/2006/07/watch-video-person-with-aids-talks.html Ryanne and I got to know Ferd really well over the last 12 months. He had a long history of activism and using different media for his art. I wish he had more time to learn to use videoblogging to explore parts of life media usually ignores. It was exciting to work with someone who was not afraid of trying something new. anyway....as our community gets older, I guess these are the breaks. maybe one day youll get to see me die! I'm determined to get it on camera. Jay ________________________________ My friend and comrade Ferd Eggan died this morning at 7 minutes before 7 on the 7th day of the 7th month of the 7th year of this millennium. I guess he wanted to have an auspicious send off into wherever his spirit and energy goes next! He was a warrior, strategist, writer, artist, activist, friend ... in the political, social and intellectual movements for liberation of our time. He was engaged wholeheartedly and variously in the southern US civil rights movement, the anti-Vietnam War movement, women's and gay liberation, Weather Underground, Puerto Rican Independence, political art (as a writer, actor, film maker, website and blog creator), queer and critical theory, ACT UP, harm reduction, "post-Marxist" anti-capitalism, anti-imperialism, trans and gender variant rights and freedom, etc etc etc. I am grateful and proud to have been his comrade in fact for the past 17 years and comrade in spirit far longer than that. We shared the experience of growing up as bright, rebellious, anti-racist, not-yet-aware queer boys-to-youngmen, yet privileged in some ways as males and whites and "lower middle class," escaping the "idiocy of rural life" in small town America to elite universities, on full scholarship, only to find a new kind of alienation, as we were repulsed by the blithely self-confident scions of the ruling class we found there as well as the role proffered us as loyal servants in exchange for a well-off "upper middle class" lifestyle. We each dropped to work full time in the Southern civil rights movement and then on to the contradictions and joys of sexual and gender liberation and radical politics, sex and drugs and 'personal liberation' and careers as teachers and organizers, meeting up for the first time in 1990 in ACT UP and Being Alive -- the PWA Coalition of Los Angeles, where he was the E.D. and I was the Board Chair. He recruited Mary Lucey to AIDS activism when she was still fresh out of prison with an ankle bracelet and hired her partner Nancy McNeil at being Alive; we both encouraged and supported them in founding what became Women Alive. Ferd went on to be an innovative AIDS Coordinator for the City of L.A. for 8 years, persuading the Republican mayor to permit and allow Ferd to use city tax money to fund needle exchanges, get federal money to build a housing project (Safe House) for PWAs who might still slip and use drugs sometimes, and to spearhead and fund a landmark study (by Dr. Cathy Reback) of crystal methamphetamine and its effect on the gay community and HIV-transmission-risky sexual behavior. He retired on disability in 2001 and went on to write a novel and then create a variety of multimedia political art and journalism, some of which can be seen on his web site ferdeggan.net, including some compelling interviews with figures from the past several struggles of social struggle, and his blog, "Communiques from a Cranky PWA." Jimmy CraicHead TVVideo Podcast about Sailing, Travel, Cocktails and other good Craichttp://www.jchtv.com/ --------------------------------- Sick sense of humor? Visit Yahoo! TV's Comedy with an Edge to see what's on, when. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
