In AMERICA We Really Ought to be Ashamed

When you take a look at history and at how societal issues were addressed back then, it has the ability to stir up many different emotions..at least it does in me. Especially when it's done with cruely and unfairness to those who were in no way able to protect themselves or their families from the forces that ruled. Take the Holocaust for example where human beings were killed because of who they were, their genetic or cultural origins, or health conditions.

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn't a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.  Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984)

So here we are and we're not living under these circumstances THANK GOD!  We currently have a choice and more importnantly we have a voice that is protected in the 1st and 14th Amendments to the Constitution of the United States. But we CHOOSE to be SILENT on the issues surrounding HIV & AIDS in our community!!! It just makes my head want to explode, because although we don't have our babies being stacked into gas chambers we are leaving them vulnerable to being infected when we don't handle our buisness as parents and keep it real with them. Is it going to take seeing and smelling the decomposing bodies of those we love before we come together and take a stand?
 
Right now, yes, there are medications available to a lot of people to treat this illness. But have you ever paused to consider what will happen if one day the supply of medicine ever runs out? We are literally putting our lives on the line because what? we trust that the government has got our backs? Remember Katrina? The examples are endless. Who remembers the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment?  It's quoted as being “the longest nontherapeutic experiment on human beings in medical history.” Where 399 African-American men were sick with this sexually transmitted desease on into its late stages and their doctors had no intention of telling them or treating them?
 
Is AIDS another plot to exterminate African-Americans? I really do not know. But what I do know is that I am not taking any chances that are within my control and I'm not going to not tell my children what they need to know in order to protect their bodies from HIV and also how to protect themselves.
 
That's all for right now. And I must say thank you for reading what I have to say, because sometimes I don't know when to stop and I'm by no means a great writer. But I am a work in progress. So thanks for listening and take care.