CAPE MARKS WORLD AIDS DAY WITH A PIPE CEREMONY AT PARK

From a giant condom to the dimming of lights, there were observances across the globe Wednesday for World AIDS Day.

A Native American pipe ceremony at Capaha Park highlighted the observance in Cape Girardeau.

AIDS activists in Paris decorated the column in the center of the Place de la Concorde as a giant pink condom. A man dressed as a pink condom led a group of German activists who gave away thousands of condoms to Christmas shoppers in West Berlin.

Australians dimmed the lights on landmark buildings. On the streets of Bangkok, Thai nurses sold yellow roses to raise AIDS awareness and money for patients.

In India for the first time, a major newspaper printed a graphic sketch illustrating condom use.

Governments around the world marked the day with calls for better education and prevention to slow the spread of the disease.

On his morning jog, President Clinton sported a white T-shirt emblazoned with the words: "Time to Act, World AIDS Day."

The White House lights were lowered Wednesday night as part of a national effort to increase awareness of the deadly disease.

The World Health Organization estimates 13 million people worldwide are infected with the HIV virus, which causes AIDS.

A key player in the Cape Girardeau observance was Ted Fedler. For Fedler, AIDS isn't a news story; it's his life.

Fedler, who has AIDS, quit his job as security administrator for the World Trade Center in Dallas three years ago. In May, he moved to Cape Girardeau and now volunteers his time as president of the AIDS Project of Southeast Missouri, a group that has about 90 members.

The organization helps persons suffering from AIDS and HIV secure financial assistance and aid in areas such as transportation and housing through the Missouri Department of Health. The group serves a 23-county region.

In Southeast Missouri, many people view AIDS as someone else's problem. "They don't feel like it is part of the region," said Fedler.

"They also have an idea that this is a gay-male disease," he said. That's a faulty perception, said Fedler, pointing out that worldwide the disease can be found not only in the gay community but also in the heterosexual community.

"AIDs is everyone's problem," he said.

Fedler estimated there are about 300 people in Southeast Missouri who have AIDS or HIV. In terms of verified cases, there are over 100 in Southeast Missouri, he said. "Our numbers have doubled in the last four years," pointed out Fedler.

There are services available to AIDS patients in Missouri, including rural residents, he said.

Missouri, he said, is one of the leaders in providing such services. "This is a model program in the nation."

The AIDS Project of Southeast Missouri and Southeast Missouri State University's AIDS Advisory Committee held a number of events Wednesday in observance of World AIDS Day.

Red ribbons and information on the deadly disease were distributed at several places on the Southeast campus and a candlelight ceremony was scheduled for Wednesday night on the steps of Academic Hall.

About 20 people turned out over the noon hour for the Native American pipe ceremony, where Cape Girardeau resident Travis Clayton, a shaman or medicine man of Cherokee descent, appealed to Mother Earth to heal mankind. The pipe contained leaves, bark and pine needles.

Clayton, who lives with Fedler and is a correspondent for a St. Louis-based magazine for the gay community, smoked a pipe whose stem came from a medicine man who died of AIDS.

Cape Girardeau City Councilman Melvin Gateley attended the ceremony and read a city proclamation recognizing World AIDS Day.

Both Fedler and Clayton said it was appropriate to observe World AIDS Day with a pipe ceremony because the American Indian community has been hard hit by the deadly disease.

Even before the AIDS epidemic, the average life expectancy of a Native American male was 25 years below the national average, said Fedler. "Things are not improving," he said.

Clayton said the pipe ceremony is an important tradition for him and others in the American Indian community. In addition, he said, Wednesday's observance was significant to him because many of his friends have died of AIDS.

Clayton said he hopes a cure is found for AIDS and that this whole painful issue will ultimately lead to "a little less prejudice, a little less misunderstanding."

(Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press.)