New Jersey is the dead-last state to adopt a life-saving needle-exchange program.
Behind the entire Bible Belt. Behind Mormon Utah. Behind everybody else.
As Newark mayor Cory Booker says in today's Ledger, "It's been proven nationwide that a needle-exchange program coupled with awareness and treatment will significantly reduce the spread of AIDS and other diseases."
With about 500 residents with HIV/AIDS per the US Census, Plainfield ranks among the top ten communities in the state for HIV infections, according to a story in Monday's Courier.
Plainfield was also among only twelve communities eligible to apply for a pilot needle exchange program.
After I called attention to Plainfield not being among the cities designated for the pilot program, I learned from someone who attended the mandatory 'bidder conference' for pilot program communities that both Plainfield and Elizabeth were expected to send attendees to the meeting, but that no one showed up from either community.
Sadly, this will mean that Plainfield will not participate in the pilot program at all and that the spread of HIV/AIDS in Plainfield will not be checked by this progressive program with the support of Mayor Robinson-Briggs.
This is a bitter irony indeed, as much has been made of Robinson-Briggs being Plainfield's first woman African-American mayor.
The needle exchange legislation was first introduced in 1993 by State Sen. Wynona Lipman who, in 1971, was the first African-American woman elected to the New Jersey State Senate.
Lipman, who introduced 145 pieces of legislation in the course of her Senate career, died in 1999 after a battle with cancer (more about Senator Lipman's life and contributions here).
The Legislature honored Lipman's memory by establishing a chair in women's political leadership in her name at Rutgers. The chair is administered by the Center for American Women and Politics, part of the University's acclaimed Eagleton Institute of Politics.
The Legislature further honored Lipman's memory last year by passing the pilot needle-exchange program legislation after another female legislator, Sen. Nia Gill, piloted her version of the bill to successful passage.
So sad that with such heroic female role models, the Robinson-Briggs administration just couldn't -- or wouldn't -- measure up.
Another dropped ball, only this one will cost lives.
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