Today is World AIDS Day
It’s amazing how far things have come since 1984-85 when I was in high school and this was a newly discovered “gay mans” disease. It amazed me more, how little I know about it, as I found out from taking the Reality Check Test at FRONTLINE: the age of AIDS. I only got 3 out of 13 questions right. I was astounded, because I like to think of myself as a well-informed, intelligent (no comments from the peanut gallery) person. So it would seem we, the general public, may have a lot more to learn about this devastating disease than we realize.
I do not personally know anyone with HIV or AIDS, but it makes me sad to think of anyone having to suffer from it. It’s disheartening that this disease can also be a divisive one, with those who ignorantly continue to think that it’s merely a gay man’s disease or that somehow those afflicted with it deserved what they got. It’s hard to believe that there’d be anyone out there who would still think that way, isn’t it? But you know there are. Shouldn’t we as human beings, simply care that there are others suffering from it, and all compassionately seek the keys to understand and cure this awful disease?
Please check out the sites I linked, and educate yourself. Even if you think you know all you should know, as I did. You probably aren’t as informed as you think.
December 2nd, 2006 at 6:13 pm
Well, I only got four right, and I found myself guessing on almost every answer. I read some of Ray Kurzweil’s work, and he seems to think that we’ll have a solution to all diseases within the next 40 years through genetics, nanotechnology, and robotics (he’s a little far-fetched compared to some scientists). I hope that he is right though. It would mean an end to awful viruses like this.