“To the one”: In honor of World AIDS Day

Richard Shaffer, PhD, director of the Department of Defense HIV/AIDS Prevention Program, wrote that today, World AIDS Day is a day to “honor the millions of people around th world who have been impacted by the AIDS epidemic” (see here). Given the worldwide scale on which he operates, honoring the millions seems absolutely appropriate.

But, I want to take a different approach. I want to send a voice of encouragement out, not to the millions massed together, but to the one.  This “one” is a multi-faced composite of the images and stories I’ve encountered through the years. I don’t understand what life with HIV/AIDS is like. Only through what I’ve heard and seen and learned can I claim even a very tiny sliver of a perspective of what it might be. And, for better or worse, much of that perspective surrounds the potential stigma and immediate judgments that might be readily passed on you.  To the one affected by AIDS–as a carrier, or one who cares for a person with AIDS–I hope you are treated with the dignity that is yours to claim as a feeling, thinking, caring individual. And, to the one who I may or may not know has been impacted by AIDS–whether I meet you in the store, at church, at school, or on the street–I hope I extend to you the dignity you deserve…not because you’re “different,” but simply because you are you. I’m not sure if the appropriate salutation is “Happy World AIDS Day,” but today I certainly extend my hopes and wishes to you–the one–for a world that is more compassionate, less judgmental, and more hopeful with respect to persons affected by HIV/AIDS.