World AIDS Day

I was reading an article on Yahoo earlier this evening about a widowed woman in Pakistan who has been fighting a monumental battle to make her country more aware of HIV. She contracted HIV from her husband in 1995 who received infected blood in Africa after an accident -- he has since died from the disease. She has never had money for meds, she has two children, and she lives in a conservative Muslim nation which not only is in denial about the presence of HIV/AIDS in general but doesn't listen to women, widowed or otherwise. I was simply in awe of her bravery and determination. How many of us would just decide to live our life in the best way we could and just be with those children? Would any of us have the guts to speak out to those who don't want to listen because of our gender? This woman has been speaking out for nine years. NINE YEARS of no one really listening, and still she keeps going, keeps talking, keeps ramming the issue down the throats of those who have closed their eyes.

How many of us would have that kind of courage? How many of us have read about someone living with HIV or AIDS and said, "They probably deserved it, being like THAT." THAT is not the issue the majority of the time. The issue is that there are thousands, millions, of men and women and CHILDREN living every day with this disease that eats them from the inside out, and too many of us would shun them if we met them. I've known a couple of people with HIV, went out with one of them, and I'm here to tell you that they deserve our attention and our admiration for fighting a battle that for right now has only one, terrible end.

I admire that Pakistani woman, I admire that man I went out with, and I could only hope that I would be as brave in the face of a terrible disease that NO ONE should have to suffer. Tonight, I light a candle in honor of all those who are battling HIV and AIDS, and I pray that each day one more person's eyes and heart can be opened, and I pray for a cure.