WORLD AIDS DAY

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It Is World AIDS Day. The photos are of What matters, the FACES of AIDS.The Children, the Orphans, and Women are dying daily.No Children should watch their parents die. But who will take care of these children, why are they being left behind by the rest of the World ?How many of the orphans in the pictures above are already dying I don't know ( they all are AIDS orphans). This disease has staggering statistics now, 25 million dead in the past 25 years,39.8 million are infected Worldwide, ONE Million are living with HIV in the US, and yes it has risen under Mr.Bush's Regime. 570,000 children under the age of one are infected in the World, and a child dies every minute.It is a Problem that is Worldwide now. We should not be fighting Wars, we should be fighting this Pandemic. AIDS is not just about a Disease, it is about Poverty, Malnutrition, Economic Starvation and Joblessness,Disenfranchisement and Education Issues, and also the Need for Healthcare to be a Right.

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SOME KIND OF TROUBLE.....
I am an old Nurse, I was a Nursing student in the 1980's when HIV evolved into a Horrorific event. I was working as a nursing assistant on a Inner City Oncology floor , it was winter time and the End of Disco. Young Men, thin, beautiful were ending up on our floor, dying of wasting and pneumonia. They were placed in strict isolation and dying without a diagnosis. Their friends did not come visit , they died alone. I remember thinking that this was something Bigger, a tip of a Ghost Iceberg of immeasurable magnitude. " I'll be home for Christmas" reminds me of being 21 holding the hand of a Young Man named Paul that was only only two years older than me. It was Christmas eve I sat with him waiting for a Priest to come. I sang the song over and over because Paul liked it. He would squeeze my hand everytime I finished. I would sit and look at his skin, the blue glow that outlined his bones, and wonder What had done this to him ? Mere weeks ago he had been dancing at the Hippodrome with his friends. He had had Lovers, could Love have killed him ? I remembered thinking that. I was working with an older nurse, and I voiced this worry to her, and she said " Well, honey if Love is killing folks - then we in for some kind of Trouble."

THE TROUBLE HAS A NAME.....
After working in the inner city of Baltimore for a few years, the Disease began to mold it's course and fate, it became known as HIV, and AIDS. Men that were dying were able to know WHAT was killing them. But even a cough was viewed with incredible fear. I moved North took care of children, and babies in New England. But I was still haunted by this disease. By the late 1980's I had moved to Seattle Washington, and AIDS was more than Real it, it was a Daily Battle but atleast now there was a medicinal aresenal and better care to be given.

I was working at an AIDS Hospice and in the ER. I was working at a Needle Exchange on my days off. I was spending my days off going to highschools and teaching about condoms and also standing on a corner on 3rd ave by the Pike Street Market trying to teach Working Girls that spermicides would save their lives and not to use Lambskin condoms. Yet between the ER, the Hospice and living inner city, I was surrounded by this disease, it was inevitable that I would embrace it. By now I was married and I kept thinking this Disease is not just about gay men, and drug users, it is also about women and children. We had arguments at the Hospice because my global concerns were not considered relevant. ( There were only two of us that were staight that worked at the Hospice, and I was annoyed that they were losing perspective on the bigger picture, it's a People's Disease). A hospice is different- it is a place that has to be a Home while providing care and comfort in someone' s dying moments. And these early AIDS hospices also often provided care and comfort after families had abandoned a loved one. It was one of the better places for me as a nurse, because there was a garden, and a kitchen and books, I could care for my patients in other ways. It was a Home. But trying to reach and teach families and help them get past stigmas and myths and their own bad judgement and misconceptions was another part of the Battle.Illness should never Isolate.

After I worked at the Hospice I moved to Homecare, because I was more appreciative of trying to keep people in their own home. And I worked with AIDS and Cancer, but it was not about people dying, it was about helping people LIVE as long as possible on their own terms.But I was also watching the Religous Right start to effect the Care by effecting the Prevention. Abstinence Contracts Kill young people, I can give you names. I beleive in Condoms as a way to protect, an attempt to help keep people safe, Condoms are not just about Sex, they are about Health. If you have a teenager, and you love them , you will go buy condoms with them.Buy them the expensive ones that have been well tested. Explain that vaseline and oil based products destroy the surface. Explain that Spermicides help prevent STDS, and can be used safely with condoms. If you need to demonstrate and teach I recommend bananas, and cucumbers ( not the waxed ones- they are too slippery). The "Trouble" is more than Out There, it is thriving, and we need to protect our Children.

FINAL THOUGHTS....
I could write on and on about this for days....I have spent most of my Nursing career taking care of AIDS patients and fighting it.....There are Faces I still see at night., not just patients , but also friends....and names....hundreds of Names....There are not enough Tears.