Here in the USA the urgency is gone. AIDS is no longer sexy( to coin a phrase). It seen as just another chronic disease, not a death sentence. H1N1 gets a lot more media coverage. HIV/AIDS is viewed as a disease of the disadvantaged and morally depraved and for most middle class Americans has been put into the " it could never happen to me" category-- even though millions of Americans are living with AIDS and according to the CDC as many as 50,000 new cases are diagnosed every year.
On this World AIDS day I would like to share the story of my friend, Brian. Brian was diagnosed with AIDS in 1987 and died in September of 2003. I watched the course of his disease and how at the same time that it ravaged his body, it seemed to enlarge his soul. He was a man who had suffered much: childhood sexual abuse, alcoholism, mental illness, and discrimination because he was gay. I was privileged to know him for almost two decades and to call him my friend..
Please click on this link and read an inspiring article about Brian written soon after his death.. It puts a personal face on a terrible disease and I hope gives honor to a dear friend whom I miss greatly. That seems a fitting way for me to mark World AIDS Day 2009.
