The AIDS quilt was in the library all this week. Today there was a closing ceremony. Now from having know someone very close to me who had AIDS, it was difficult to see and remember. But to see that many people are still ignorant to the facts of AIDS. NORMAL people get it! Not just drug users and gay people. Mothers get it, fathers get it, brothers get it, sisters, aunts, uncles, friends. ANYONE can get it. The rollercoster of emotions that I experienced while there was incredible. First I was angry. These people DIED and we are turning are backs, closing our eyes and hiding the truth. We ignore what we do not want to see. We won't teach about it, won't learn about it, refuse to understand it because its frightening. Or we don't know it could be us. One out of 92 college students has HIV. I am damn sure that I know at least 92 people. Probably teice that by name. Thats two. At least. Yet we ignore it! And then I was saddened. Only these people and their families and friends remember and understand this tragedy. Yes, their FAMILY and FRIENDS. People are missing and crying because their loved ones are gone. Victims of AIDS are not "getting what they deserve." The largest group of people in America (you know the safe perfecct country that we live in?) that have AIDS is NOT the gay community. It is retired people in Florida. YOUR GRANDPARENTS. YOUR ROOMMATES GRANDPARENTS. Not junkies. Not gays. Grandparents. I was sad that such an epidemic is being ignored. Then I was frustrated. How can people ignore this? How can they turn their heads away and say "Not me." Maybe it isn't you right now. Maybe it is. Have you been checked? Has your partner? Have all of your partners been checked? What about your partner next year? The guy/girl you meet at the bar next week? I don't understand how when there is such vital information that we NEED to hear that it can be ignored. And then I was angry again. What kind of priorities do we have when so few people know just how bad it is? Why aren't we teaching this to kids in school? Yes its terrible. We don't want to harm their delicate little minds. What the fuck do we think will happen to their sweet innocent bodies if we don't educate them on what could happen to THEM?

And then, I sat back and I thought. And I thought. And thought. Maybe we all should think about it. Just a little more.

-kln-

I feel better when I remember you are only an ocean away.