Sars,

The Vine letter from “Take My Blood, Please” is correct. A male is
ineligible to donate blood if he has had sex with another male since
1977, even once. A bunch of other populations are also considered
to be at increased risk — for HIV among other diseases — so they’re
deferred as well. Only 60% of the population is actually eligible
to donate blood.

The full rules are here.

Saying that the rule is “unfair” may be accurate, but totally misses
the point. The restrictions are there to protect blood recipients, by
making the blood supply as close to perfectly safe as it can be. That
requires very conservative decisions, and often means casting a very
wide net to make sure no accidental contamination slips past. If the
choice is to offend 10,000 potential donors or let one recipient die,
being offensive doesn’t look like such a bad thing.

J. Random Blood Donor

Dear J.,

Yeah…I get that. This isn’t about political correctness. I have a friend with a blood disorder who actually got tagged with Hepatitis C from a bum donation; contracting anything from the existing blood supply is a real concern for people who have to have repeated transfusions.

But the primary issue, to my mind, is that to rely on people to self-report their own “at-risk” behavior is ridiculous. I don’t think, based on what I know of human behavior, that it’s an effective screen, because 1) people can just lie; 2) donors may not know every in and out of their partners’ pasts or their partners’ partners’ pasts; 3) you’ve got “safe sex” according to the CDC, and you’ve got “safe sex” the way most fallible human beings practice it.

I don’t advocate lying to the blood center, or behaving carelessly with regard to sex and drug use — but I do think that there is a middle ground here that wouldn’t exclude the responsible/low-risk sector of an entire demographic. I understand that the testing is expensive, and I understand that certain viruses don’t turn up for six months; I don’t have a simple solution for bringing testing prices down, or for fine-tuning the tests themselves, and I obviously can’t advocate relaxing the restrictions simply on the basis that they might seem homophobic. But it does seem to me that an a priori exclusion based on behavior, which relies on the behaver to self-exclude him- or herself, is absurd on its face. Do you see what I mean? To put it another way, I had the same partner for four years and a series of clean tests over that time, so nobody blinked an eye when I went to give blood — but how did they know I had the same partner and clean tests, and hadn’t gone to England, and had never done IV drugs? Because I told them. And it was the truth, but…how would they know? How would they know my tattoo was five years old and not five months old?

The questionnaire system is unreliable, is my point; I see the job it’s trying to do, but I think it’s the wrong tool for that job. I don’t have an alternative that isn’t impracticable, but it does seem to me that if you can bring in a stack of clean blood tests and proof of faithful spouse, they should let you give blood.

Dear J,

Well…what exactly do you care about? Which issues do you feel the current administration is not addressing? Because when you look at things from the broad-strokes stump-speech perspective, it’s really overwhelming. But when you, say, turn to your readers and say, “Hey, public schools could use your help — if you wouldn’t mind throwing a little money in here, we could make a tangible difference in this specific classroom,” you see results. Boy howdy do you see results.

So, if you’re scared about the direction choice is headed, look up your local Planned Parenthood and see if they need volunteers. If the environmental policies of the White House concern you, see if the Sierra Club needs help in your area. Or go even more local; organize a canned food drive, or collect winter coats for a shelter, or get signatures on a petition to get a municipal trash can put on your corner so the local teenagers aren’t leaving their damn Snapple bottles in the street for you to run over and wreck your tires. Okay, that’s a selfish one, but if I can get all the business owners on New Utrecht Avenue to stand with me, I can get a trash can, and the park will be less litter-y, and the neighborhood will be a slightly better place.

It’s a matter of deciding what’s important to you and finding a way to effect a change in that area. It’s a matter of making the time to do that — doing the research, rearranging your schedule, organizing. It can work, but we’re not at a point in this country’s history where we can sit back and wait for others to take the lead.

Dear Write Me In Care Of The Blues,

Man, where to begin. Okay: This is not over.

Yeah, I know. No…I know. Listen: This. Is. Not. Over.

The United States is about potential. No other country has a dream named after it, a dream about improvement and achievement. The results of this election fill me with dread, frankly, but also with determination, because the dream is not dead. This country is, to my mind, in some serious fucking trouble right now. It’s a big job to fix it, the guy in charge is wrong for the job, the legislature is wrong for the job — it’s depressing and shitty. But millions of people thought Bush sucked and tried to vote him out — millions! It didn’t work, which is a grave disappointment, but — millions! Think what millions could do if they applied themselves — in any direction! Writing letters, protesting, raising money, organizing, educating themselves and others. Stubbornly staying put and refusing to back down. Improving the country. Achieving something.

Yes, Bush won. Yes, I want to barf until my stomach lands in the bowl and I die. Yes, I hate that I live in a country where more than half the citizens think that dumb-ass is a good leader. But I also live in a country where I nicely asked people to give some money to public schools, and those people raised more than ten grand in a week. Yeah, it’s a contest, but y’all didn’t do that because you wanted a tote bag, for God’s sake. You did it because you give a shit. And my readership is not composed of Fortune 500 types, either. (As far as I know. Fortune 500 types welcome, of course. Hi, Mr. Soros! Call me!) It’s just folks. It’s just you guys, people trying to get by, who did something nice and tried to help and became a part of something. I can’t tell you what that’s worth.

So, no, it’s not a good day, but this country still has so many good people and good ideas in it, and I can’t imagine that the good in this country won’t prevail. And until that happens, I won’t leave. There’s work to do. There are faces to get up in, which I’m happy to take the lead on, because I already have an FBI file so what the hell, right?

Senator John Edwards just said that “this fight has just begun.” That’s goddamn right, cutie. So, readers, get drunk, kick something really hard, scream into a pillow, cut that photo of Karl Rove out of The New Yorker and stab it with a pen, but — stick around, because I’m telling you, this show is about to get good.

This is not over.

[11/3/04]

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