European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 8, 1995, Darmstadt, Hesse                                F \ vast if a a i in Quot Quot 4 Ita k \ 7 a of % ? 1 a r a a a l?50 stories you can count on this year Andy Rooney Quot v a a a a a a a a. A a a a a a a a a a a a a a Here a a theory in the news business that i there Are Only so Many stories. Here Are i 50 you can depend on Reading in 1995 i 1. Holiday travel crowded Airport Road traffic. 2. Stores Are doing better worse than usual at Christmas with sales up Down. 3. First baby of the new year bom at local Hospital. 4. Woman Dies leaving $2 million to her cat. 5. Twenty car pileup on Highway As snowstorm delays commuters. 6. Lack of heat in apartments of the poor 1,269 complaints. 7. Brother and sister Are United after 50 years when she arrives front Dnepropetrovsk. _ 8. Super bowl Story on sports about too Many sports Page stories about the super bowl. 9. President undergoes annual physical examination and doctors proclaim him to be in perfect health. 10. Ground hog Day. There will be More fewer Days of Winter. 11. The proliferation of potholes in City streets after hard Winter. 12. Painting bought for $12 turns out to be a Van Gogh Worth $4 million. 13. Baseball opening Day. President docs does not throw out first ball.14. Highly respected City official found to have Arcaoio san Jose Costa Rica Swiss Bank account Homes in Aspen Cannes Beverly Hills and Monaco. Fraud suspected. He did not return phone calls.15. Mayor announces he a putting More police on streets by reducing number of cops doing desk work. 16. Last minute income tax Rush. 17. Anniversaries chernobyl Pearl Harbor the. Titanic. A a. A. A a a. A a. 18. Widow of the victim says she is not bitter. 19. Police announce biggest drug bust Ever. 20. A weeping statue of the Virgin Mary draws a crowd to Back Yard. 21. Children of family in Remote area travel 27 a Miles to school. 22. The first lady appeared in Public yesterday j with a new Hairdo. Quot 23. Strike by teachers who say they re paid less than janitors. A 24. Jogging liquor cauliflower is Good bad for you. 25. Wedding takes place underwater sky diving in. A balloon. 26. High school students die in Post graduation party car Accident. It 27. People who work nights july 4th/labor Day Christmas. 28. Warning to sunbathers about risk of skin cancer. 29. The hottest Day of the year with pictures of children under hydrant Spray women in bikinis at Beach Lake. 30. Neighbors say teen Ager who murdered store owner was a Good boy. 31. Bus plunges Over Cliff in und Ragga killing 53. 32. Product recall. Manufacturer says there a no danger to Public. 33. Dow Jones is up Down unchanged in Light moderate heavy trading. 34. Neighbourhood rejects plan to use building As homeless shelter. 35. College tuition is going up. 36. Eight year old girl who wrote to the Queen president gets a Handwritten answer. 37. Halloween warning. Safety pins May be found in Candy bars. 38. A letter is delivered 27 years after it was written. 39. The candidate votes with picture of him her drawing curtain. 40. Cabinet member is fired. Announces he a resigning to spend More time with his family 41. Turkey farm a week before thanksgiving. 42. Thanksgiving at the local salvation army she Ter. 43. Woman fired for posing nude for a menus Magazine. 44. More people Are leaving the farm to live in the City. 45. Training for Street Santa clauses. 46. White House entertains prime minister of Transylvania. A 47. Airliner crashes. Faa investigates. 48. Mailman arrested after a room in his Home is found filled with undelivered letters. 49. The ten Best worst movies books plays i r deos dressed. It 50. Newspaper of the future will no longer be thrown on the Doorstep but will be delivered to each Home electronically. Tribune Modla sort los a a Andy Rooney is a former stars and str pop reporter. _ Tell it straight aids is a Gay disease by Gabriel r0tell0 new Day Nee upon a time i was an enthusiastic proponent of what Isnow called the Quot de saying Quot of aids. De saying is the term used for promoting the idea that aids is not solely a a Gay disease a a that everyone is at equal risk. For years it was a Staple of aids activism for two very Good reasons. First it seemed possible that Gay men were just the accidental a first victims of the his virus and that aids would soon explode among straights the Way it had among Gays. 7 if our suffering As Gay men was to have any meaning we argued part of it must be to prevent what was happening to us from happening to others. 7 second the epidemic was being ignored because the Public believed it was confined to marginalized groups. The Only Way to get attention and funding was to emphasize that everyone was equally at risk. \ our fears were bolstered by the his epidemic in the third world which is spread primarily through vaginal Intercourse. But epidemiologists now recognize that aids in the developing world is fuelled by very different conditions including High rates of untreated venereal lesions Low immunity Multi part. Ner heterosexuality and widespread medicinal use of unclean Needles. It is now Clear that the world will continue to witness two very different epidemics and that aids will not explode among the Middle class Hetero sex urls in developed countries the Way it has in the third world. If aids is not spreading among the Western middie class however it continues its relentless Satu. Ration of Gay men in drug users and their female partners and children. The reasons Are Complex but some have to do with the Quot de Gay Inge and "de-mar-7 finalizing a campaigns themselves. Resources desperately needed for specific programs to prevent new infections among Gay men in drug users and their partners Are not available partly because we successfully convinced society that everyone was at equal risk and society responded accordingly. Cali fornia for instance spends 9 percent of its prevention dollars on Gay men though they make up 80 percent of the states caseload. The figures Are similar nationwide. The de saying strategy even encouraged Gay run aids organizations to downplay their Gay identity. Quot Many pretend that they Are not Gay groups even when their memberships Are almost entirely homosexual de saying even seems to have contributed Toa feeling in the Gay world especially among youth that the Gay epidemic is under control or even declining and that we can now relax about safer sex. Nothing could be further from the truth. At this Point continued attempts to a a mainstream the epidemic have become hazardous to the health of the most afflicted groups. We need to Tell the truth about aids and the truth is this up to 50 percent of Gay men and in drug users Are infected with his while just a tiny fraction of 1 percent of mid. Dle class straights Are. There Are indeed rising cases. Of a heterosexual aids a but they Are almost All clustered within extremely disadvantaged minority com unities. And there Are indeed rising cases among Black and latino men but most arc Gay or bisexual. While we still must emphasize that anyone is at risk who has sex outside a monogamous relationship with an uninfected partner we need to target prevention strategies and prevention dollars where the problem really lies. Natany aids advocates Are terrified that a knowl a edging this True will result in society simply turning its Back on people with aids. It is a significant fear especially since society did just that at the beginning of the epidemic. But denial is causing significant harm and will ultimately erode the credibility of aids advocates. The Challenge of the future is not to cover up the facts but to convince society that aids matters despite the fact that it primarily is and will remain a disease of the Gay and the poor. Los angolan times Washington Post nows service. Clarence Page is on sabbatical. R a a. R Page 20 sunday january 8,1995