Below is an excerpt from an e-mail sent to friends and fans of actress Sheryl Lee Ralph and her husband State Senator Vincent Hughes (PA). We thought we'd share some if it with you - very moving!
On HIV/AIDS, the silence is deafening. On a disease that kills millions on every continent in the world, the quiet hush breaks our eardrums, and works to end our resolve.
There have been some positive developments - communities are moving toward rapid testing of HIV/AIDS where you can know your status in 20 minutes, as opposed to having to wait a week. Women are battling to take control of their lives and their sexual health. Churches and places of worship are getting the word that a sensible health ministry is in good keeping with the basic tenants of their faith.
But in too many cases, there remains a deafening silence - and consequently the appropriate public policy remains longing for a response that is consistent with the scourge of this disease.
Television and radio have stopped discussing the issue. The Fox affiliate in Los Angeles refused to run a public service announcement about HIV. We got a response from a television show producer who said that HIV/AIDS is "just not sexy anymore." We wondered whether HIV/AIDS is not sexy - or worthy of discussion, or are the people who are now getting HIV/AIDS, black and brown women and children, "not sexy anymore?"
Even in the USA, although President Obama has begun to make real change on HIV/AIDS, the message, and the policy, has not caught up with the spread of the disease. In fact the age old fear of addressing any disease that implies that people are having sex, has led to a fairly recent study by the Centers for Disease Control that indicates that one in four young women of all races and colors is already infected with some sort of sexually transmitted infection (STI).
As cities and states face difficult funding decisions due to the recession, and tight budgets get slashed, HIV education, prevention, and treatment programs become vulnerable. While we fight to protect their funding, the focus must shift to Washington for the help to deal with this epidemic. But the national response has not met the medical demand for action. Except for President Obama's historic march toward the reinvention of the American health care system, the action in Washington, does not meet the health care demand.
We must teach that HIV/AIDS is not only devastating in its own right, but that it is also a predictor of other health care and social problems that may exist in an infected community. When we fight and win on HIV, we get a chance to win on so many other issues that are legacy predators on communities whose defenses are weak.
For some it may not be sexy to talk about HIV/AIDS, but it is absolutely necessary to talk about HIV/AIDS, at all times, and more importantly, to do something big about HIV/AIDS, immediately. On a personal level, if you are going to have sex, PRACTICE IT SAFELY, GET TESTED, and KNOW YOUR STATUS. On a family and community level, GET INFORMED AND TALK TO ONE ANOTHER from a factual basis. On a policy level, let's get a strong health care bill passed that covers the uninsured and provides high quality preventive health services to people at a cost they can afford.
Let's make it sexy to not just talk about HIV, and to not just fight the spread of HIV, but to WIN THE VICTORY over a disease that is 100% preventable. Join us and get engaged as we fight for the humanity that we know still exists in all of us. Join us as we work to end the unnecessary spread of HIV/AIDS.
0 comments:
Post a Comment