AIDS
I remember when I was young, I thought that only gay people got AIDS. Then, when I was a little older, I thought only promiscuous people got it and that if they were willing to take the risk and have unprotected sex, then they deserved the consequence. But, for a lot of people, that's not the case. And I just can't get it out of my head. I also can't understand how so many people can turn a deaf ear to this subject, like it's embarassing. I read somewhere that there's this tribe in Africa where the men think that they can get rid of the disease by sleeping with a virgin. And since the men have it, the women that they rape get it also. How horrible is that? And what if those women get pregnant? Their baby gets the virus too. And then, when the mother/father dies from it, they are orphaned and, most of the time, have to take care of their other siblings-while they have the virus. This means that sometimes 15 year old girls have to support their brothers and sisters. How can they possible do that when they're 15? I read another article that said a lot of the young women turn to prostitution to support thier families. So basically, if they don't already have the HIV virus, they'll contract it too in an effort to feed their siblings. It's a horrible cycle and I just can't stop thinking about it. It's so easy to blame everything on the disease, or even point the finger at people who have unprotected sex, but seriously, it goes way deeper than that. Why do the people in developing countries suffer more from this disease than people here? Why aren't we helping them more? We're so focused on finding the "cure", but maybe the cure goes beyone the disease.
It just makes me really sad, our brothers and sisters are suffering. Not only in the straight, white community in America, but in India, in Nigeria, in Thailand, in the homosexual community, in South Africa, everywhere. And this makes me think, "Wow, I'm really fired up about this. I really want to do something." I'm frustrated because I want to do something now, but I feel like I can't. Ok, I think I need to stop writing. Anyway, I hope I enlightened at least one person today...