World AIDS Day 2011

"We must encourage people to get educated, to get tested, to get involved in the fight against AIDS." -Gwen Moore

"AIDS can destroy a family if you let it, but luckily for my sister and me, Mom taught us to keep going. Don't give up, be proud of who you are, and never feel sorry for yourself." -Ryan White

"The subject no longer has to be mentioned by name. Someone is sick. Someone else is feeling better now. A friend has just gone back into the hospital. Another has died. The unspoken name, of course, is AIDS." -David W. Dunlap

"The heart of the security agenda is protecting lives - and we now know that the number of people who will die of AIDS in the first decade of the 21st Century will rival the number that died in all the wars in all the decades of the 20th century." -Al Gore

"AIDS and malaria and TB are national security issues. A worldwide program to get a start on dealing with these issue would cost about $25 billion...It's, what, a few months in Iraq." -Jared Diamond

"HIV infection and AIDS is growing - but so too is public apathy. We have already lost too many friends and colleagues." -David Geffen

"I tell you, it's funny because the only time I think about HIV is when I have to take my medicine twice a day." -Earvin "Magic" Johnson

"The moral immune system of this country has been weakened and attacked, and the AIDS virus is the perfect metaphor for it. The malignant neglect of the last twelve years has led to breakdown of our country's immune system, environmentally, culturally, politically, spiritually and physically." -Barbra Streisand

"It is bad enough that people are dying of AIDS, but no one should die of ignorance." -Elizabeth Taylor

"We've had too many World AIDS Days." -Richard Gere

AIDS is some serious stuff. We know this. I especially feel bad for those who are so poor or live in places where they cannot get the treat they need. It's heartbreaking.

What Richard Gere said is true. We've had way too many Word AIDS Days. World AIDS Day was the first global health day, held December 1, 1988. That was 23 years ago, and the disease has been around before then.

Please, if anything, KNOW YOUR STATUS, and get tested.

Here's to the family members, friends, and colleagues, who are living with HIV/AIDS.
Also, here's to the family members, friends, and colleagues who have died of HIV/AIDS. Rest in peace.

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