Bird-dogging Obama in NYC

Five of us spoke to Senator Barack Obama today about health care workers, universal access and the Ryan White CARE Act at the Barnes and Noble bookstore on Union Square in New York City. We all got there early to get wristbands to be in the signed-book section of the standing-room-only audience, which was loving them some Barack Obama. Dude was treated like a total rock star, but each AIDSVote bird-dogger had the opportunity to have a detailed, quick conversation of substance with the Senator and future Presidential candidate. Jeanne Bergman (pictured) talked about the need for $8B for healthcare workers and gave him the one-pager with all the details. Derrick Chandler talked about his personal experience as a 50-year old Black man living with AIDS and the need to get universal access to treatment and care on the political agenda. I talked for a second about my growing up on the South Side and then gave him the rap about 'no one should die on a waiting lists for AIDS drugs in South Africa OR in South Carolina.' Jose Cruz got him to autograph the book for his daughter Marisol and in so doing had more time to talk about Ryan White and the need for full funding. We got hustled out before Lucio from ACT-UP asked his question, but we hope he'll post in a bit. All in all, a good session. Nice crowd, good venue, we sought and got time with our guy. Jeanne was really good at holding the handshake until she was willing to let him go. She's the bird-dogging rock star for today!