Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Where Is the Martin Luther King Jr. of HIV?
The Body ^ | 06.12.2008 | Terri Wilder, L.M.S.W.

Posted on 06/19/2008 8:41:49 PM PDT by Coffee200am

"We must now do better at delivering prevention: less than 20 percent of those at risk of HIV infection are currently receiving such help." --Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (Nature, May 15, 2008)

World AIDS Day has come and gone. The theme for World AIDS Day 2007 was "leadership." The commentary on the World AIDS Day webpage (http://www.worldaidscampaign.info) noted that this theme can be "as flexible as possible to accommodate a range of campaigning needs."

Isn't this type of "flexible" attitude around HIV part of the problem -- and the reason that we don't have the resources to get rid of this epidemic?

Honestly, I don't think that we have really ever had real leadership around this issue. And I think it's precisely because leadership has been allowed to be flexible, easily bent, and susceptible to modification, that it has only been half-assed ... when it was there at all.

Shouldn't HIV-related leadership be strong, unwavering and without flexibility? Maybe this is why it is lacking and perhaps has never existed. Of course, I don't know if I can even identify a time in history when we have had a definitive HIV "leader." I mean, have we ever really had a person that led the fight against HIV, totally and completely?

It seems that leadership related to HIV in schools, governments, homes, families and certain organizations has always been missing. It is as if everyone has been living in pre-HIV times ... when we didn't need to worry about "it," but we actually should have been.

Please hear me ... I am not talking about the people who have worked hard in HIV ... who have lived/are living with HIV ... who have spent hours upon hours trying to make change ... but as I sit here thinking about this theme I can't really identify THE person who has emerged out of the masses to lead us, advise us and inspire us.

I, of course, discount any AIDS Czar or appointed "leader" in my quest for examples of a "true" HIV leader, for they are often just puppets in an administration or group. We know that the majority of the time, these "leaders" are in fact NOT leaders but just talking heads placed before us to try to make us feel better about the fact that nothing is really being done.

So, what am I talking about? I am talking about a leader that we all trust, that is smart, that has a strategy, and that genuinely cares about people with HIV. I am talking about someone who will recommend a comprehensive prevention plan that is based on science vs. their moral beliefs.

I am talking about someone who is ego-less, who is not "paid" to do this work, and who rises from the masses to inspire us to do everything in our power to stop HIV.

What I am asking is ... where is the Martin Luther King Jr. of HIV? Where is the HIV leader who inspires a sense of joining with others in shared concern, motivates that concern into an active collective approach to addressing these concerns, and facilitates direct action so it can be focused toward accomplishment of goals? Where is this person? Does he or she exist?

I know you're thinking that maybe we have had an occasional leader, but for the most part even the occasional leader has come and gone. They came during a time when they were "needed", there was "something" to work on, when lives were fading away, when meds needed to be found, and treatment needed to be provided ... but then they left -- either through death, exhaustion, or by being beaten down.

So, I wonder what this theme was for: Was it to get leaders inspired to lead? Was it to get us to question our leaders? Was it to ask for new leadership while demanding that old leadership step down? Was it asking us to think about what leadership would look like if we were to go out searching?

I don't know ... so I am not sure how to implement last year's theme into my AIDS work, other than to say that we need a leader -- a real leader who understands that the clock is ticking and that every single day without a vision allows for one more infection and one more death to occur due to the lack of leadership.


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: aids; hiv
Gee....just say no and close your legs...
1 posted on 06/19/2008 8:41:49 PM PDT by Coffee200am
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Coffee200am

There are many ways the left gets us to finance our own demise. The AIDS farce is just one of them. How much of the billions we devote to fighting AIDS in Africa and elsewhere actually goes to fighting AIDS? Very little! In fact, it is well klnown that the diagnosis of AIDS is rendered for any disease which has any of the symptoms of AIDS but is not HIV related.

Why GWB falls for this farce is beyond me.


2 posted on 06/19/2008 8:50:24 PM PDT by Mind-numbed Robot (Not all that needs to be done, needs to be done by the government.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Coffee200am
What I am asking is ... where is the Martin Luther King Jr. of HIV?

And my reply to the article is, I don't know what your talking about, so here is a Watermelon Viking.


3 posted on 06/19/2008 8:53:14 PM PDT by phoenix0468 (Let freedom ring.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Coffee200am
"What I am asking is ... where is the Martin Luther King Jr. of HIV?"

What I AM asking is why friends let their moron friends write articles?

4 posted on 06/19/2008 9:03:35 PM PDT by Psycho_Bunny (Islam: Imagine a clown car.........with guns.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Coffee200am

5 posted on 06/19/2008 9:05:00 PM PDT by montag813
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Coffee200am
I don't know ... so I am not sure how to implement last year's theme into my AIDS work, other than to say that we need a leader -- a real leader who understands that the clock is ticking and that every single day without a vision allows for one more infection and one more death to occur due to the lack of leadership.

Okay you need a leader. How about this for wisdom. Do not stick needles in your veins or male members in your butt and the possibility of contracting the HIV virus are minimal.

6 posted on 06/19/2008 9:52:43 PM PDT by cpdiii (roughneck, oilfield trash and proud of it, geologist, pilot, pharmacist, iconoclast.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Mind-numbed Robot

GWB suffered (suffers) from the delusion that he can make liberals like him by throwing money at some of their sacred cows.


7 posted on 06/19/2008 10:41:02 PM PDT by Elsiejay (Rev.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Coffee200am

There’s a good reason that this disease was first named the Gay Related Immune Deficiency (GRID) syndrome, before it acquired a political identity and support network.


8 posted on 06/19/2008 10:43:59 PM PDT by Elsiejay (Rev.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Coffee200am

Is there some reason for posting this? I mean other than to provide amusement?


9 posted on 06/19/2008 11:20:41 PM PDT by count-your-change (you don't have to be brilliant, not being stupid is enough.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Coffee200am
Where Is the Martin Luther King Jr. of HIV?

Like so many potentially great leaders, he/she was likely aborted...

10 posted on 06/20/2008 2:03:13 AM PDT by Caipirabob (Communists... Socialists... Democrats...Traitors... Who can tell the difference?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Coffee200am

“Where Is the Martin Luther King Jr. of HIV?”

Giving some guy a hummer at the I-20 rest stop.


11 posted on 06/20/2008 4:40:04 AM PDT by L98Fiero (A fool who'll waste his life, God rest his guts.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson