Some Thoughts on World AIDS Day
World Aids Day happens every year on 1 December. You'll notice now that it is well past 1 December. You'll notice it because I've just pointed it out. If you choose to consciously not notice it, you're just being silly. Stop that right now.
I found it to be a different sort of experience this year, something a bit quieter, a bit deeper than before. I was trained by the Red Cross to educate my peers, young people. We are the generation of imitation, riding on the coattails of all that came before us. What is our rallying cry? We have no Kent State. We have no liberation, no revolution. It seems nobody is interested enough anymore. I try to educate my peers on how to not contract HIV, because that's the best way I know to fight it. It seems like it falls on deaf ears.
I fight AIDS because it is a worthwhile cause. I think that it's important, it doesn't get enough attention, and that some people are maliciously or ignorantly spreading misinformation. It's just a cause for me though. What made it different for me was speaking with one of my professors. For me, AIDS is a disease which kills tens of thousands of people in the US and millions of people globally each year. For her, it meant the loss of friends, classmates, and colleagues. She remembers when Ronald Reagan first mentioned AIDS publically, four years after the first outbreak and two years after the virus had been isolated. I was 16 days old. Hearing her talk about it gave me new resolve. The job of an activist, I learned, is twofold. The first is to raise awareness, educate the public, and influence policy-makers. The second is to remind those who pioneered this cause that the fight isn't over, and there are still people carrying on the torch.