In a man's life he will take a fall, but how low he goes.....that just depends. -Rancid. For me, those falls had been often and severe. There were many lows, and in those lows I had come to realize that someone very special was right there beside me. Someone who was ready to help if I'd only asked. This story or testimony is the journey of a punk rocker coming to realize who that someone was as I make my way through life. I want to engage my brothers and sisters in punk in a new way. You might feel that reading sucks, I generally do. However, I encourage you to take a couple hours out of the busy life you live and be The First Ones into the punk rock testimony. For 16 years I played drums and vocals for Chainsaw Johnny, the best worst punk band ever. Our three piece combination of bass, drums, and power chord guitar pushed hardcore punk to the extreme. After the death of our bassist Dean, the spirit of Chainsaw Johnny died too. To me, punk rock was full steam ahead and a screeching halt. After a time of re-direction, I have come to realize that we're in a spiritual battle. I know that religion often leaves a bad taste in people's mouths, but I want to share with the world of punk rock, a testimony of what happens when you take a fresh look at a man called Jesus. A look at life, through the eyes of a punk rocker.

John MacPeace, AKA Johnny Dodger, is just an accident waiting to happen-or at least that's how it seems to those around him. Incidents just seem to occur whenever and wherever he happens to be. It has been that way as long as John can remember. Johnny has been dragged back home to his small Indiana town, a place he thought he would never see again, and finds himself in a life and death struggle when he agrees to do a small, albeit shady, delivery job for a man he never liked and often fought. But money being money and John without any, he agreed to take the gig only to find out he has been duped and is now set up as the patsy to take the fall by his hated nemesis. He does his best to solve a case that the local police are sure has Johnny Dodger's name written all over it. As if those weren't enough problems for John, his long-lost girlfriend, Ellie Stomperheim, has reasserted herself into his life and has decided to assign herself as his partner while she is on summer break from her teaching job. Thomas Magnum he is not "A very funny novel. J.B. Purdy is Indiana's modern-day Mark Twain." David D. Hale, Visiting Defense Fellow, Centre for Policy Studies, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. "Johnny Dodger is an irresistible cad-and I love him for that!" Karen Burden, Tucson, Arizona. "Once I started this book, I couldn't put it down!" Cindy Pierce, Terre Haute native.

The University of Texas (UT) opened in 1883--38 years after Texas became a state and 7 years after the Texas Constitution called for the creation of a university of the first class. UT started off with 40 acres just north of Austin and with 221 primarily rural and local students. But since its founding, it has grown extensively and acquired worldwide prominence. Now, UT has 431 acres on its main campus and over 51,000 students enrolled from all 50 states and, at least, 124 different nations. UT is recognized as a top-rated state university, providing high-quality instruction and research. The university has also acquired architecturally interesting buildings, cherished traditions, and exciting sports programs over the years.

The Deep South has seen a 36 percent increase in AIDS cases while the rest of the nation has seen a 2 percent decline. Many of the underlying reasons for the disease’s continued spread in the region—ignorance about HIV, reluctance to get tested, non-adherence to treatment protocols, resistance to behavioral changes—remain unaddressed by policymakers. In this extensively revised second edition, Kathryn Whetten and Brian Wells Pence present a rich discussion of twenty-five ethnographic life stories of people living with HIV in the South. Most importantly, they incorporate research from their recent quantitative study, “Coping with HIV/AIDS in the Southeast” (CHASE), which includes 611 HIV-positive patients from North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Louisiana. This new edition continues to bring the participants’ voices to life while highlighting how the CHASE study confirmed many of the themes that originally emerged from the life histories. This is the first cohesive compilation of up-to-date evidence on the unique and difficult aspects of living with HIV in the Deep South.

In the second wave of the HIV epidemic, those with the disease are more likely than ever to be female, younger, heterosexual, a racial minority, and rural-living. Vital to the development of user-friendly health care systems is an understanding of the vastly different lives of this second wave of HIV-infected persons."You're the First One I've Told" offers a view into the lives of men and women infected with HIV. The experiences of twenty-five people living with this disease in rural eastern North Carolina serve as the foundation of this book, which also draws upon unique HIV/AIDS survey data collected by the authors and statistics from the Southeastern United States. This combination of qualitative and quantitative information provides readers with a vivid description of how people live with HIV/AIDS in the midst of their often traumatic lives, and why they manage their illness in ways that seem to contradict mainstream medical and social wisdom. The people interviewed represent a variety of races, genders, professions, family lives, and medical and social service access and utilization.This book is the first to address a history of racism, distrust of formalized medical systems, homophobia, trauma and their interplay with HIV treatment, particularly in the South. It is an indispensable read for students needing to understand health care for the disenfranchised, as well as any provider, policymaker, or researcher involved in HIV service provision.

Celebrating the 20th anniversary of Alaskan favorite Children of the Midnight Sun, the same author and photographer join again to collaborate on this new book Children of the First People to present the voices of a new generation of young Alaska Natives and how they celebrate their unique cultures and traditions. From the Southeast rainforest to the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta tundra, to the reaches of the far north, Alaska Native kids live a life that mixes ancient traditions with modern culture. Inside this book you’ll find ten profiles accompanied by beautiful color photographs of kids of various ages and from diverse cultures and backgrounds, as well as a map and a glossary of Native terms. No other book for children delves into all ten Native cultures with expert authority, making Children of the First People a one-of-a-kind treasure.