Author Archives

Virally Suppressed is a progressive blog and outreach movement centered around matters of HIV & social justice in America and across the globe.

• Mountaineers Are Seldom Free: Union-Busting in the West Virginia Mine Wars

  By Drew Gibson on March 19, 2015 • ( 3 )

  

  Everything on and about my person had been coated in a thick film of stale tobacco smoke. After 30 days, 10,000 miles and 4 cartons of cigarettes, the air inside the cabin of my car had obtained the same translucence… Read More ›

• Detroit’s 73 Story Mid-Life Crisis: How The GM Renaissance Center Embodies The Motor City’s Struggles

  By Drew Gibson on March 19, 2015 • ( 0 )

  

  I’ve always found it strange that the melting pot is go to metaphor for politicians and public figures looking to expound upon the merits of America’s diverse populous, when all a melting pot does is mix ingredients about until they’re… Read More ›

• A Heads Up Play: Chris Borland’s Early Retirement & What It Means For The Future of Football

  By Drew Gibson on March 18, 2015 • ( 2 )

  

  “I got to go. I can’t be here.” Those were the last words of former Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher, spoken in the parking lot of the team’s practice facility on the morning of December 1, 2012. Less than… Read More ›

• Strictly Business: West Virginian Statehood & The Geography of Poverty

  By Drew Gibson on March 15, 2015 • ( 0 )

  

  “God has blessed West Virginia with prolific hand; a topography grand to contemplate; a wealth unparalleled in coal, iron and oil—her hills fairly groan with undeveloped resources, and all of these at the very threshold of the great marts of… Read More ›

• Angels In The Outfield Asking For Help: Josh Hamilton & Baseball’s Other Drug Problem

  By Drew Gibson on March 13, 2015 • ( 0 )

  

  If, in the distant future, some baseball historian were to come across the box score for the Cincinnati Reds’ Opening Day in 2007, he wouldn’t find anything that seemed particularly noteworthy. On that day, the Reds’ notched a 5-1 victory… Read More ›

• A Snowball’s Chance In Hell: Why We Can’t Wait For Congress To Accept Climate Science

  By Drew Gibson on March 6, 2015 • ( 0 )

  

  When Copernicus first advanced the idea of a heliocentric universe in the mid-16th century, the theologian and Christian reformer Martin Luther declared it to be heresy. Speaking for most of the western world at the time, Luther believed, in accordance… Read More ›

• Portrait of the Hedge Fund Manager as a Young Man

  By Drew Gibson on March 2, 2015 • ( 0 )

  

  It was once said, by that grand dame of American etiquette Emily Post, that knowing how to properly enter a drawing-room is one of the surest tests of good breeding. As with all matters pertaining to manners, there are very… Read More ›

• The Bones of a Country: One Night in a Dead California Desert Town

  By Drew Gibson on March 1, 2015 • ( 2 )

  

  Driving the 220 miles of road that lie between the Tehachapi mountains and the California-Arizona border, I started hearing the voice of Tom Joad ring in my ears. This here’s a murder country, he said to me. This here’s the bones of… Read More ›

• So I Can Be Quiet Whenever I Want

  By Drew Gibson on February 25, 2015 • ( 8 )

  

  It was the same thing every night. Come 11 o’ clock, one of the overnight techs would come in the room to bid goodnight to we princes of Washington, we kings of the pacific northwest, before turning off the lights… Read More ›

• Death By Doctor: The Assassination of James A. Garfield

  By Drew Gibson on February 22, 2015 • ( 0 )

  

  On the morning of July 2nd, 1881, a slight, shifty-eyed man paced about the Baltimore & Potomac railway station with purpose, his freshly shined shoes digging furrows in the waiting room’s thick carpet. His name was Charles Guiteau and he… Read More ›