The AIDS Battle: Lack of a Caring Public Is as Dangerous as the Disease

So somebody has AIDS . . . Who cares?

Who should care? Obviously, the patient, loved ones, family and friends should care. Those in so-called “high risk” groups should care. That makes for a lot of people who care. Why isn’t that enough?

There is such confusing clamor surrounding acquired immune deficiency syndrome. The media, both print and television, serve up daily a bewildering (and often contradictory) array of technical medical bulletins and statistics. Health officials warn, politicians equivocate, insurance companies sound retreat, school boards wrangle, employers discriminate, fundamentalist bigots blame the victims in shouting condemnation, the fearful cry out in confusion, while the indifferent shrug and ask, “Who cares?”

Lost in this great public tumult are the soft sounds of the suffering, dying and bereaved--the people in pain and those close to them whose grief and sorrow are real and lasting. As a pastor ministering to homosexual men and women in San Diego, I hear these heart sounds almost daily.

The scenes are dramatic, acted out by unwilling participants. Only the names change. The roles and script have remained much the same. The shell-shocked young man in the prime of his life hears the dreaded diagnosis: “AIDS.” His lover, numb with grief, is at his side. The mother and father in soul-deep pain struggle to cope with the twin revelations: “Your son is gay; your son has AIDS.”

When, outside of wartime, have families known such sorrow? And even during war, still tragic, it may be at least understandable in the context of a “noble cause.”

The AIDS virus is an unseen, silent enemy. If suffering and dying from it confer no nobility, then perhaps the struggle to defeat it may. These wounded people are our friends, neighbors, co-workers. Everyone should hear them, and everyone should care.

Our preachers, pastors, rabbis and priests especially should care. Surely God cares. The assertion that human illness is “punishment from God” is a false and cruel doctrine, an echo of archaic and primitive religion. Such a cold nostrum neither comforts nor heals and serves no one well except those who seek to sell it.

This incredible notion certainly does not reflect the “mainstream” of current religious thought in America. I reject it totally, and so should every person of faith and good will. Simple human compassion makes claim to our sympathy for the suffering. Decency demands it. We should all care.

In the event that an appeal to our “better instincts” fails to reach us and we remain paralyzed by fear, energized by prejudice or indifferent by complacency, I am prepared to argue the case for caring in more secular terms--basic self-interest and the “bottom line.”

AIDS is a virus--a killer virus. It is among us. In other countries (in Africa, for example), this lethal virus is ravaging the heterosexual population. In America, a majority of the victims have been homosexual or bisexual men, intravenous drug users via contaminated needles, and hemophiliacs via blood transfusions. Ideally, the identity of the “high risk” groups as persons of whom many may “disapprove” (i.e. gay or bisexual men or intravenous drug users) should not have diminished others’ compassion or given them a false sense of security. In fact, though, it has. But now the whole picture is changing.

Amid the general din about AIDS are some voices screaming to be heard, calling our attention to some sobering facts that give an entirely new perspective on this tragic illness. Newsweek (July 14) quotes officials at the Centers for Disease Control on the increasing incidence of AIDS in American women, apparently through heterosexual intercourse (20% of all female victims).

New roles are being added--same scene, same script. Anguished young mothers and doting, eager grandparents hear the shattering diagnosis: “The baby has been born with AIDS.” Centers for Disease Control officials call pediatric AIDS “one of the fastest-growing” groups of AIDS patients in the country, with 350 cases in children under 13 (61% of whom have died).

The implications of these emerging facts are as mind-boggling as they are inescapable. AIDS cannot be (indeed, is not) confined to “expendable” risk groups. Unlike people, a virus doesn’t discriminate.

We are engaged in a battle with a wanton killer. Health care providers and facilities are approaching overload. Health care costs are being projected in astronomical figures, and with health insurers retreating, these catastrophic bills will be faced by taxpayers (the bottom line).

Everyone must care. We can’t afford not to care.

Beyond all of that, the price being paid in human grief and sorrow cannot be measured or calculated, and the end is nowhere in sight. That’s really why we all must care. Our dignity as a people (our nation’s soul, if you will) is at stake.

We have faced, fought and conquered mysterious and terrifying “new” diseases before. We will again. But we must be united in our collective will to do so.

Education, understanding and compassion are at once our coping mechanisms and our first line of defense against fear and hysteria, which, along with the deadly virus, are the enemy. In January, our church in San Diego sponsored a 50-hour vigil of continuous prayer for the suffering caused by AIDS and for medical breakthroughs in prevention, treatment and cure. The weekend also included panels, lectures and seminars by experts in the field of AIDS health care, and by AIDS patients and their families. More than 1,000 people attended. Much was shared; much was learned.

Our fellowship of churches subsequently asked me to coordinate such a weekend vigil throughout our 200-plus congregations. Earlier this month, that worldwide vigil took place in eight countries. Thousands of churches of all denominations joined in this weekend of prayer and education. Persons with AIDS felt their spirits lifted; grieving families everywhere were comforted. Our churches were blessed.

Ask your pastor or rabbi to hold an information forum at your church or synagogue. Get the facts. Share your knowledge with others.

Understanding the facts about AIDS (e.g. AIDS is not spread by daily, ordinary, casual contact or via tears and saliva) will help right-thinking people defeat wrong-headed, mean-spirited legislation like the insane “final solution” proposed in California by the La Rouche group (Proposition 64 on the November ballot). Such divisive tactics won’t help anybody, and ultimately hurt everybody by obscuring the real issue.

AIDS is a virus. We must attack and kill it rather than one another.

Compassion, truly, is key to all of this. We can’t learn and we won’t help if we don’t care. It begins with you and me--simple things. Don’t laugh at so-called AIDS jokes. They’re not funny. Don’t encourage them and don’t repeat them.

Spike rumors; counter myths and misinformation with the facts. Comfort those you know who are suffering--AIDS patients, grieving loved ones, friends and families. Give, as you can, of your time, talents and financial resources, and encourage others to do the same.

The spirit of compassion has always been one of this nation’s most admirable traits. It may be our greatest strength.

Have a heart. Please care. Say that you care and show it. The next heart broken may be yours, mine--it will be somebody’s. Let’s be there for one another; we’ll win this one too.