An Anniversary!
It was on June fifth, 1981, that the first cases of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) were first diagnosed in the United States. We were driving home in the twilight from some meeting that is now long forgotten when the very brief news burst came across our car radio. As we have stated, the meeting that we were at has long faded into memory but that news item has stayed with us through the intervening thirty years.
There are those who would like to think that AIDS has faded from the American view. This is not the case! There are over one million Americans diagnosed with AIDS at the present time, and, that doesn’t count the many millions who have died tragic deaths from the disease both here in America and around the world. There are over thirty three million people worldwide who have AIDS as we write this piece. So many of them are on the continent of Africa where there are millions of AIDS children who have lost both parents to the disease. And, then, there are the many children who acquired the disease at birth simply because their parents, or, one of their parents had the disease and transmitted it to their new, precious, offspring. Many of these new, innocent, acquirers of this plague are now grown up and are beginning families of their own, knowing, perhaps, that there is a twenty five percent chance that they will past this inheritance on to children of their own. Still, many find the risk worth taking. Perhaps it is an indication that life is still worth more than the chance that one might have to spend it with AIDS.
They say that a great number of those who have AIDS do not even know that they have it and that it is a ticking time bomb waiting to go off in their lives and in their souls.
One of the saddest things about this disease is its supposed origins among the gay and lesbian community. There are those, through the years, who have said that AIDS is a plague from God sent down to punish those who are not living the life that they supposedly should be living. We personally do not follow such beliefs even though we have a strong belief in a deity that has shown great love and compassion for so many over the ages, the centuries and the years. However, there are so many who secretly, or, not so secretly, have rejoiced through the intervening thirty years at this supposed punishment for those who have not lived the life or the lifestyle that they supposedly should have done. Back during the George W. Bush administration, he sponsored, during republican rule of the house and the senate, an initiative that provided life saving drugs for those who have suffered from the disease, chiefly on the continent of Africa. As with most government programs, it has grown through the years, and it is now in the crosshairs of the deficit cutters in the newly reconstituted Republican house who seem to have little or no compassion for those who have no one but government to look out for their interests and their concerns. It seems these days that every time a deficit confrontation looms, it is some supposed liberal program that must be sacrificed so that this Republican controlled house will allow any thing meaningful to go forth. We suppose that in comparison to the millions who may be affected by the so aptly titled entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, that looking at the end of a program for poor children in Africa might not mean so very much at all. It is all really merely a symptom of the declining influence and concern that America has for those who have looked to her for so many years as the last resort in a world that so often seems not to care.
Government sponsored research has been responsible for so many of the positive things surrounding the AIDS crisis that still continues in this nation today. It was the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia that first noticed the AIDS disease in any really meaningful way. And, they have continued to monitor and provide statistics on the progress of AIDS and the continuing fight against its ravages. Other government funded projects have provided relief and new medical breakthroughs that have extended the lives of those who have had the misfortune of having acquired this terrible affliction. We saw on CNN this morning a portion of the AIDS quilt that was on display in a field in Atlanta, Georgia. The quilt, made up of the patches of those who have died from this disease, is now so large that it can really only be displayed in segments. But, it is a testament to the courage of those who have faced this disease and died and those who still care enough to continue the documentation of the individuals who have gone away so often due to no real fault of their own.
It is always the innocent who suffer the most when a plague hit’s a nation or some segment of its population. In the case of AIDS, it creates a segmentation all its own.
We have known some people even here in rural southern Illinois who have acquired AIDS. And, we have known some who have died from it. They were nice, giving, loving people who really did not deserve the thing that happened to them. They seemed resigned to the idea that they were going to die, but, as they looked out at us through their loving, caring eyes, we saw an inner light there that will stay with us until the day that our memory fails or we are called home to be with the maker. Someone has said that as we grow older death comes closer, perhaps, because we have a lifetime of memories of it happening to others that we must confront. AIDS deaths have a particularly prominent place for us because they strike those not afflicted with extreme age or some of its components such as Alzheimer’s disease that make the passage a blessing because we know that, in reality, the person has already gone away. All too often, AIDS strikes those who have so much still left to give, and that creates a sadness within us that is, in so many ways, beyond what simple words can describe.
IOVHO,
Regards,
Joe
To say that "God exists" is the greatest understatement ever made across space and time.
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