reasons.jpgThe news of Steve Gilliard's death was, to put it mildly, pretty stunning.  Even though he'd had health issues for a number of years, it was still a blow when he passed over to the other side, and away at last from pain's grip.

But I think that Steve would want us to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and get back to work.  As depressing and disheartening as his subject matter could often be, he was at heart an optimistic person.  When people talked about the suspension of habeas corpus and other matters and that there was no way that America they had known could recover, he gently but forcefully reminded them that for people of color, habeas corpus has always been iffy and didn't actually exist for the first four score and seven years of this country's life.  There were two main lessons here:  1) The America that most light-skinned people (myself included) know is, to this day, not the same country as the one that Steve Gilliard and other black Americans inhabited; 2) As bad as it seems to be now, we — and black Americans especially — have seen worse and yet managed to emerge from the struggle better off than before.  Only when we give up have we truly lost.

So, in honor of Steve Gilliard's life and work, I hereby present the following Reasons To Be Cheerful:

– Looks like there's been a big, BIG breakthrough at Purdue University in the creation of energy from hydrogen.  Dr. Jerry Woodall of Purdue talks about using tap water, aluminium and gallium to generate energy safely, cheaply and easily using current technologies at a cost of around 2 cents per kilowatt hour, which is comparable to what gasoline costs right now; all that's needed is the venture capital (or better yet, government involvement) to pull this off.  (Our next President, if he or she's a Democrat, should be pushed to pull this off.)  This, when added to the gains made in existing energy technologies, may well be what saves us.

– A major breakthrough in AIDS treatment is reportedly on the horizon.  Three new drugs are set to revolutionize the treatment of the thousands of AIDS patients in the UK, and the millions more around the world, who are infected with those forms of the virus most resistant to conventional treatment.  Hiroyu Hatano, an infectious disease specialist, and Steven Deeks, an associate professor of medicine from San Francisco General Hospital and the University of California, wrote in the British Medical Journal that while this will not end the problems presented by drug-resistant AIDS strains, "We will probably witness in the next year a remarkable transformation in the prognosis of a generation of chronically ill, HIV-infected adults."

– Even Evangelical Christians are less conservative than they were twenty years ago, according to various studies and polls referenced by Christianity Today.  For instance:  In 1987, 73% of American evangelicals thought it was OK to fire gay schoolteachers; now, only 42% think this — a drop of nearly half in twenty years.  Over that same period of time, the number of evangelicals who thought AIDS might be a punishment on gays has dropped from 60% to 38%, and the number of evangelicals who don't think that women should go back to their "traditional" societal roles (i.e., return to being baby machines that are the sole property of their husbands) has grown from only 20% in 1987 to 42% today.

Speaking of optimism, there's a concert coming up on July 7 that's devoted to that theme.  One of the folks involved is a guy you may have heard of, Al Gore.  I'm told that this should be worth watching.

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