The Night My Sister Told Me
(1600 Hundred Children Die From AIDS Every Day)
Because I work lengthy hours, it often seems that my days melt into nights. While sitting in front of my computer working in the early morning hours, my sister came into my room at around 1 am and shared some shocking news with me. What she told me was so startling until it shook me and inspired me to write this chapter. I will never forget what she said to me:
“Angel, I just heard something on the television that I had to come and tell you.” She went on to say, “Did you know that 1,600 children die from AIDS every day?
And of course they played this announcement at night when everyone is sleeping, and nobody will hear it!”
I couldn’t believe it! The number was far beyond anything I could ever have imagined. For days following, I was literally in a state of shock, especially since my own brother had succumbed to the disease at the onset of the virus. Somehow in the back of my mind, I knew this all the time, but what camouflages these statistics so that they are not readily seen is that we usually associate AIDS with sexually-transmitted diseases. Consequently, we tend to associate the virus as something only adults contract, live with, and die from. What we forget is that adults transmit the disease to children; and when children are born into the world from infected parents, the result is a generation or generations of infected children.
You might be saying to yourself, “Well, if people were more responsible and had higher standards and better morals, then these things would not be happening.” That may be true, but when you consider the fact that your teenage son or daughter is more likely to come in contact with someone who has the virus than when perhaps you were the same age, the thought is frightening -- especially when it is very likely that your child is sexually active and may not be telling you that he or she is!
Years ago, Congress was approached by gay activists to fund research for what was then called GRID – today, we call it AIDS. But because the virus primarily was manifesting itself in the gay community, Congress refused to act responsibly and compassionately because it was not their problem, and it did not affect their families, so they foolishly thought. Thus, the virus was given wings to fly! Only after noted actors, entertainers, and athletes like Rock Hudson, Liberace, Arthur Ash, Eazy E, and Magic Johnson were known to have contracted the virus, did people really get serious about addressing the matter. But by that time, the pandemic had ravished nations and claimed the lives of multiple millions.
During the 1980s (the same time my brother contracted the virus), the tragedy of AIDS was a uniting force within the gay community and an important factor in pushing the community into a new maturity. Confronting such problems as violence, discrimination, and minimal government support, the gay community united with the sense that if they did not help themselves, nobody else would. Furthermore, HIV infection was a unique challenge to the community because it was a threat to every individual and consequently mobilized many men who had previously seen themselves as apart from community concerns. The result was the intense phenomenon of AIDS volunteerism which in 1984 was estimated to be valued at $7 million of funds raised and $ 3 million of volunteer work per year. It became clear that the burgeoning AIDS organizations were evidence of a developing sense of community among the thousands of gay men who had become involved as volunteers, donors, and clients. Hence, the gay community united and in many ways was strengthened by its response to the AIDS crisis.
I am extremely grateful to the gay community for responding so compassionately to those suffering from the virus because the majority of services and medications that are offered today is the direct result of their compassionate response. They continue to effectively and compassionately minister to the needs of people from all communities, as was evidenced by the way they so lovingly cared for my brother as he struggled to cling to life while in the midst of his own personal battle. One of the reasons I always cringe when I hear Pastors bash the gay community from the pulpit is because little do they realize, had it not been for the gay community, little or nothing would have been done to combat the virus, and the death toll would have been even more catastrophic. Not to mention, since the African-American heterosexual community is disproportionately affected by the pandemic, thousands of heterosexual males and females access these same services, whom by the way attend their Churches.
In the popular press, the initial confusion surrounding AIDS would be amplified through the use of a variety of disease names: GRID, gay cancer, gay pneumonia, and even the gay plague. The first AIDS article was published on July 3rd, 1981, in the NY Times, entitled Rare Cancer Seen in 41 Homosexuals. Located on page 20, the single-column article was largely eclipsed by an overwhelming bank advertisement on the same page. Despite its small size, Reporter Lawrence Altman had managed to interview Dr James Curran, chief of the Venereal Disease branch of the CDC. Dr Curran described for the New York Times (and hence the people of America) a typical AIDS victim as a white gay male, approximately 35 years old, with a college education, good job, and vigorous social life. These comments were said and printed despite the growing evidence at that time, that a second group, intravenous drug users (IVDU), was also being affected. The words would help to shape AIDS as a gay disease in the minds of America.
It is also interesting to note that early evidence from Europe disputing the fact that homosexuality was an essential diagnostic criterion was ignored. Thus, for example, in the case of a woman (a surgeon working in central Africa) who died in Copenhagen in December 1977 and whose clinical picture corresponded to that of the gay Americans, no one dared to make the connection until 1983, that is, until well after the publication of American observations on heterosexual patients. Consequent to the initial connection between AIDS and the gay community, the popular press took little interest in it. This fact becomes increasingly apparent when compared to the media’s tremendous response to the sudden outbreak of Legionnaire’s Disease in 1976 and the cyanide-laced Tylenol scare in 1982. Both ‘epidemics’ threatened white middle- class heterosexual families and therefore were judged to be newsworthy. The quick and intensive media response (and subsequent public outcry) was at least partly responsible for the rapid understanding and solving of these crises. No such response existed during the initial outbreak of AIDS, even though it quickly killed more men than both Legionnaire’s Disease and the Tylenol scare combined and only seemed to be getting worse.
Without a doubt, no one wants to face the fact or let it be known that our nation’s lack of response because of its prejudice and bias came back to bite us in the butt. You may not know this, but the new buzz on the internet regarding AIDS is something that is so frightening until it is literally mind-boggling! The AIDS epidemic has so overwhelmed our Nation’s Capitol (Washington, D.C.) until it has exceeded the horrific numbers of infections in what we consider third-world countries like West Africa. At least 3% of District residents have HIV or AIDS, a total that far surpasses the 1% threshold that constitutes a "generalized and severe" epidemic, according to a report scheduled to be released by health officials earlier this year. That translates into 2,984 residents per every 100,000 over the age of 12 -- or 15,120 -- according to the 2008 epidemiology report by the District's HIV/AIDS office. "Our rates are higher than West Africa," said Shannon L. Hader, Director of the District's HIV/AIDS Administration who once led the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's work in Zimbabwe. "They're on par with Uganda and some parts of Kenya."
The District's report found a 22 percent increase in HIV and AIDS cases from the 12,428 reported at the end of 2006, touching every race and sex across the population and neighborhoods, with an epidemic level in all but one of the eight wards. Black men with an infection rate of nearly 7% carry the weight of the disease, according to the report, that also underscores that the District's HIV and AIDS population is aging. Almost 1 in 10 residents between the ages of 40 and 49 have the virus.
Anytime we forget the mandate given to us by God to love our brothers as we love ourselves, we are the ones who end up losing the most in the end. As stated previously, today we are blessed to have many medications that do not cure the virus but do extend the life of the person battling and living with it. But just as I had incorrectly assumed that the majority of individuals dying from the virus were adults, many falsely assume that these new medications are a cure when in fact they are not!
Americans have been so inundated with information about AIDS in an effort to stop the spread, until we have become calloused and unresponsive; however, we really can’t afford to be because it is our children and our children’s children who are at risk. Nothing ever goes away if we hide our heads in the sands of denial, selfishness, and prejudice. If we are going to save our lives and the lives of our children, then we must act with righteous indignation and never give up until every child on every continent is AIDS-free.
The reality is that we are our brother’s keeper; and when we deny this fact, we are exposing ourselves, our children, and all who are dear to us to the destructive forces of life. Rest assured that AIDS is not the first pandemic, and it will certainly not be the last! When we lock arms together and fight as a unified body or force, then the words spoken by God in Genesis 11:6, “Nothing that they plan to do will be impossible for them…” will ring true in our lives, and victory over every adversary will be assured.
by Terry Angel Mason, Global Author
WWW.TERRRYANGELMASON.COM
Excerpt from the best seller: Love Won’t Let Me Be Silent
www.TerryAngelMason.com
by Terry Angel Mason
I'm Terry Angel Mason,
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