Editor's Pick for Top Content of 2006 "Acceptance Speech" Article

Thank you very much to the Editors of Associated Content for selecting my article as their pick for Top Content of 2006 in the first annual People's Media Awards. To give you an idea of how unexpected this wonderful accolade is, when I first received the email notifying me that I'd won, I was convinced I was being scammed in some way. It took me about a half day of due diligence - including contacting Associated Content directly to confirm that the individual who first contacted me was actually who he said he was.

Once I finally accepted that, through some fluke of fate, this selection was on the up and up, it still took a while for me to comprehend the magnitude of this honor. I had read some very interesting, very powerful, and extremely well-written works from so many others on the site in 2006. There are 50,000 or so registered content producers on Associated Content. I don't know how many articles each of those CPs produced. Some may never have gotten around to writing anything for the site yet. I do know that both the quality and the quantity of articles on the site make this selection that much more special to me.

I hope that you will indulge me as I thank a few other people who contributed in some way to this honor.

First I would like to thank my Jewish mother without whose best intentions I'd never have turned out as messed up as I am which has of course given me plenty to write about. Like most Jewish mothers, she brings out the best and the worst in me. And I'm grateful for both.

I would really like to thank my agent and my publisher but, since I have neither yet, I'm just going to put a placeholder here for now. Any legitimate agents and/or publishers just aching to fill this void, please don't hesitate to make me wealthy beyond my wildest dreams.

Seeing as the article selected concerns living with HIV, I think it's appropriate to thank those who make my living with HIV just a little bit easier: all the doctors and staff at Northstar Medical, my shrink, my therapist, my case manager at Howard Brown, and, quite frankly, the state of Illinois which is a Mid-Western oasis of open-mindedness that ensures no one falls through the cracks of care for HIV or AIDs.

I would be completely remiss if I didn't acknowledge the owner of the Superman Homepage, Steve Younis. Working with him as a writer and editor for the site has improved my skills as a writer, reporter, and editor tremendously.

In that same vein, I also have to thank DC Comics who gave me the gift of Clark Kent and Superman. Superman has been my hero and a moral compass since I was very young. I couldn't fly and I look horrible in tights so the only true way to emulate my hero - beyond just trying to be a good person (and some days I'm better at that than others) - was to do like Clark Kent and write.

Last but not least, I have to thank my biggest fan - my daughter. She believes in me even when I don't believe in myself. In my darkest hours, her very presence in my life is a light that always leads me through.

Before the medical cocktails came along in 1995 that helped to contain - at least for now - the holocaust of the 1980s, too many good people died while too many other good people didn't do enough. Stopping the roaring tide of death, the medicines did a lot to save lives. Over the past decade or so, because people are living so much longer, the general public has become more complacent about HIV and safe sex. I know.

Intelligent people will never stop making seemingly short-sighted decisions with long-term consequences. Smokers do it daily. Bill Clinton did it with Monica Lewinsky in the Oval Office. At least as far as HIV is concerned, only a vaccine and/or a cure will stop its transmission for good. Until then, there's only one way to remain HIV negative if you're sexually active, gay or straight, and that's by using condoms.

Thanks again for this very cool and very much appreciated honor.