A Gathering

Thursday evening we met up with 8 others to share a connection with Brad Ogilvie a friend and colleague of many years focused on issues surrounding AIDS public policy and actions thereto. It had been a year since we had last visited with Brad. The others in attendance we last saw from 3 to 6 years ago!  How time flies when life moves on to other issues and pressures!

Brad is one of those people who champions truth and justice in most every bit of his days. He works now for William Penn House in Washington DC. But his work on policy development surrounding AIDS testing and treatment at the federal level still consumes much of his time. For Brad this is an issue of justice for the afflicted and non. Stigma is the target. AIDS in America remains a stigma of the gay community. Not the African-American community, women population or the young black males who are most affected by the disease. It is more convenient that Americans see AIDS as gay, not female, black or underclass.

It is even more convenient to see the plague as African and removed from American soil by continents. We shovel money there; not here. This is a global issue, not an American one. But in America… it is a gay issue and stigma. Convenient that image. Not truth. Not justice. Just convenient.

And the Brads of the world labor on to make it otherwise.

Fifteen years ago we were involved in the struggle. To a much lesser degree most of us remain interested but not much involved. In the main AIDS treatments, pharmaceuticals and policy have improved the lives of those with AIDS. They survive and improve their symptoms. They now have lives and can reach for the stars. Just don’t mention AIDS. Blips and burps will most likely develop for them.

Meanwhile Brad moves in circles that can get things done. This is good. Progress is made. And it builds on the small stepping stones of many actions over many years. And patience only Brad is capable of wielding. Not me. I am much too impatient. But I do observe and report.

Funny how the work of one era of life remains with you. Reviewing progress reminds us of the pace of change. Mostly slow. As with most of life’s changes, the pace is slow. I doubt it is due to carefulness and engineered responses. No; I know better than that. So do you. Change is excruciatingly slow when it is important.

Now changes in weather patterns are speedier. The dump of snow is quick. Also of ice and sleet. Rain, too; just ask Californians this past week…this weekend. Rain long missed returns now on dry treeless landscape and makes mud that slides down with lost anchorage but certain gravity. Pooling rains make floods, too, that wash over curbs, over sandbag barriers and threaten people, property and prosperity. Such is the change wrought of weather and Nature.

Same with population growth or movement of people to new areas of residence. Land use changes and months or years later rivers overflow their banks; bridges and streets are impediments and channels of rushing water. More change occurs. Too rapidly then to appreciate. But fear we do.

Making a difference requires change. Working for the right change takes time. Options are to be considered and chosen. Support for those chosen options are sought and hopefully gained. Public policy takes time. It is like moving mountains. Like recognizing plagues. And doing something about them.

Some give up. Some take a back seat. Others get involved and stay so. Like Brad. And his colleagues who care.

AIDS came on the American scene in the late 1970’s. It became a puzzling illness by 1980. It was identified in the early ‘80’s. It was a plague, a pandemic, by 1985. This is now the eve of 2015…30 years later. 36 million souls have died globally from this scourge. More than 650,000 Americans have succumbed to AIDS.

Yet the vigil for justice and acute action remains. Public policy is mostly stuck in neutral. Go figure. Must be a gay thing, huh? It is something other people get, not me. So I’m safe, and they aren't.

December 1 was World AIDS Day. Where were we in America? On this issue? Did your brother sister father uncle neighbor cousin suffer from HIV/AIDS? And what are you and we doing about it? 38 years and ticking is the clock on this change in public awareness.

Yes change is slow…unless it is Mother Nature.

December 8, 2014