So like many others with an internet connection, I’ve been trying to keep up with the news and updates on COVID-19. I remind you right here: I’ve lived through a pandemic and lost friends to a virus that was abysmally mishandled by the administration under whose watch it first struck, by agencies that were supposed to inform and protect the public, that was politicized and whose sufferers were marginalized, cruelly treated, mocked… I could go on, but to what point, really.
Recent history. I posted as I always do on World AIDS Day (December 1) to recognize those living with HIV and lost to AIDS, among them people I still love because love outlasts death. I also posted on Instagram, and my post was noted by an account called theaidsmemorial, who asked if they could use my photos and if I’d share a little information about my friends. Of course I said yes to all, and I also began following their account.
It has been emotionally brutal. Reading people’s stories and seeing their photos of the lost ones has taken me back to the hardest time in my life. I read every single post and usually end up crying. Time has not softened these losses or the hurt survivors still feel at how often family, society, medicine, government, church failed to comfort, support, respect, and care for people with AIDS. Don’t get me wrong. I saw and experienced powerful stories of compassion and love, as well. I remember every healthcare worker, agency representative, family member, and friend who sustained my loved ones and me through those years. I remember every celebrity and political figure and public figure who rose to their absolute best as advocates and supporters. But most of all, I remember the ill and the dying having to find their OWN way to fight for their lives, to form movements, to wage war against apathy, cruelty, and inaction even as they fell. ACT UP, FIGHT AIDS! and SILENCE = DEATH were not slogans. They were battle cries.
These days, I read and study and follow each day’s news and wonder, Did we learn nothing?
I understand the complexity and many-sidedness of a public health crisis, but I’m offering fair warning to those who know me. Do NOT try to engage me in any conversation in which you defend the indefensible. A lie is lie. A failure is a failure. Incompetence and bigotry can hide behind whatever facade they wish to, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t there. I will call out hypocrisy, dishonesty, indifference, and inhumanity as I see it, and I don’t give one solid fuck where your politics reside. I know where my conscience resides.
I guess I was lucky that I didn’t know lose anyone to AIDS, but I was at school then – leaving at the end of the 80s. I partly put the AIDS crisis down to my coming out so late. The message as my puberty struck was if you’re gay you will get AIDS and die.
Many people are selfish and, from a governmental point of view, it all comes down to economics. It doesn’t matter if people die, as long as no one loses money over it.
Well a shit ton of the people who’ve been feeling secure about their money are having some rude awakenings now, and since they’ve fooled themselves into thinking the current administration was driving the good economy, this may turn the tide. It won’t be pretty. Sadly, the working poor and under- or no-insured are going to pay a price far beyond financial.
I totally agree.
Love conquers hate. Hopefully the rich and powerful will finally alter their views to fit the facts this time around, er, well, except the current president who still needs his diapers changed. The president is the executive and is responsible to the people, for the people and by the people which means Everyone. To claim otherwise, or to simply ignore a minority suffering an unknown disease, is a disgrace to that office and to the people.