Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Christine, Meg and Ali left for Rwanda to spend 2 weeks working with Paul Farmer in his Clinic. More later.

Invited to the White House (East Room) to witness and celebrate the signing by the POTUS of the reauthorization of PEPFAR at $48 Billion. The law is officially H.R. 5501 – The Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde United States Global leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria reauthorization Act of 2008. The usual cast of HIV-related characters was there. It felt good to see the attention, success and promise of a project that I developed. Now we need to make sure that this reauthorization ultimately turns into an appropriation. July 31 – Sept. 15, 2008 – Busy summer with little time with family. Chris and girls went to beach while I stayed for duties at work. Chris, Megan and Ali went to Rwanda to work with Paul Farmer for 2 ½ weeks. I did not go since I had to give Keynote Lecture at the IAS Meeting in Mexico City (August 3-8). I focused on a discussion of whether we will ever have a “cure” or a vaccine for HIV. It stirred much discussion and was well received. We moved Megan into her dorm at Columbia last week in August. It was great fun. I have a very good feeling about Columbia and hope Megan has a good experience. Jenny has taken a job teaching in a Charter School in the Brownsville Section of Brooklyn (adjacent to Bedford-Stuyvesant). She is living in Prospect Heights-Crown Heights. After my childhood growing up in Brooklyn, I never would have imagined that my 22 year old daughter would be living in the toughest section of Brooklyn. She loves teaching the children. Amazing political season in Washington, D.C. Sarah Palin has been chosen as John McCain’s running mate and this has shifted the momentum (amazingly so) to the Republicans since she has energized the far-right conservative base. I may be prejudging, but she seems to be totally unqualified to be Vice-President (or President) of the USA. On Sept. 14, went to a great BBQ party at Sam Donaldson’s home in McLean, VA. All the usual suspects were there with whom I have become friends with over the years and we talked election year politics: Colin and Alma Powell, Lee Hamilton, Bob Barnett, Fred and Marlene Maleck, John and Debbie Dingel, Bill and Janet Cohen, Wayne and Catherine Reynolds, Steve and Alice Rosenberg, Ben and Candy Carson, Birch and Kitty Bayh, and many others. On the evening of Sept. 15 Chris and I attended one of the spectacularly elegant reception/dinner parties hosted by Wayne and Catherine Reynolds at the Eisenhower Theater of the Kennedy center to celebrate the re-opening (after upgrading) of the Theater. Again, all the usual suspects of Washington glitterati were there – most people from Sam Donaldson’s party the night before as well as many other media, government and military people: Gens. Jim Walston, Wesley Clark, James Jones, Colin Powell; the Eisenhower grandchildren (Anne and Susan); journalists (Chris Wallace, Wolf Blitzer) and on and on. Really a very relaxed evening with spectacular entertainment. The reception was in the foyer outside the Theater and the dinner was right on the Theater Stage with performances by dance troupes, Jane Alexander, the entire original cast of “Mame” right within a foot or two of the dinner tables. Wayne and Catherine do it again!