World AIDS Day
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009December 1st is that day every year that I go through my personal list of friends and remember the lives of all of my people that have died from AIDS. And while I’m at it, I also celebrate the few who are now living with it.
HIV/AIDS wiped out an entire group of my friends over a period of five years. Most of my friends who died from the disease were artists or creative people, from my famous art schoolmate Keith Haring to my unknown best friend Kevin Perry. He was a painter and a jeweler. This disease is the great equalizer among those who have it and they had AIDS during that time when it was commonly known as the plague and its diagnosis meant a death sentence.
Because so many in the first wave of death were artists, musicians, dancers, writers, and creatives, December 1st started out as A Day Without Art. When AIDS started claiming people under any job description, in any income bracket, December 1st became known as World AIDS Day.
Now, people don’t suffer from the disease but can live full lives after an HIV diagnosis. People can live with the disease if they have access to the drugs. Mothers can resist passing the disease on to the unborn children if they have access to the drugs.
Even though we know so much about the disease, it is still running rampant, like all over the continent of Africa. One of the first ways to stopping the spread of the disease is to get educated about the disease. Check out the link below to get information on HIV/AIDS.
