today is a special day. it's not Xmas, it's not thanksgiving. today is world aids day.
what was your fist memory relating to aids? was it magic johnson admitting that he was hiv + and everyone was worried how this would affect his basketball career?
i don't think that magic was the first time i thought of it, but it probably was one of the things that did open my eyes to the disease. i also remember being in junior high and high school and having such stupid ideas about the disease. seeing signs that joked about aids and homosexuality and thinking they were funny. or hearing about rock stars that i "followed" wearing shirts that mocked the disease. it's not a perspective that i held on to very long, and for that i'm glad.
maybe when we were all being exposed to it, we all had stupid ideas. there was so much misinformation. no one really knew how big it would get. was it a flash in the pan or would this disease stick around and change everything. sadly, it seems like it's more of the latter and less of the former. relatively soon, it'll be the 3rd leading cause of death in the world.
we have to keep learning, and changing our preception of this disease. we have to keep fighting it. those that are infected need treatment. the rest of us, we need education and prevention. we also need empathy for the growing world populus that will pass away from this preventable fate.
i don't know exactly what to do. but, hey, why not check out product red, or one.org?
3 comments:
My first memory of aids is when that little boy Ryan White contracted it through a blood transfussion. I remember he was kicked out of school and his house was burned down because people were so fearful of getting it.
The stupidest part about it soon becoming the 3rd leading cause of death is that it is entirely preventable. It could be knocked out quicker than Polio if World leaders would pull their heads out of their asses and
a) quit denying that it is an epidemic destoying their country,
and
b) realize that sex education and condoms do not pave the road to hell.
Justin, I agree that it's a pitty that this is completely preventable. However it's not just a simple as giving out condoms. Where Aids is spreading so quickly is where the most unstable and corrupt governments are. We need to support stablelization of Central Africa. Also culteral attitudes of people need to change. I'm sure you already know this but most men in central see nothing wrong to go outside of marriage for sex. Wearing a condom is not seen as a sign of prevention but an acknowledgment of having a disease
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