Blog #11 Education is just the beginning...

Hello Fellow Bloggers,

This week I'm trying to get things finished early because my ex-mother in law starts chemo this week so I need to be there with her.

I'm going to talk about how much this class has impacted me, not only on educating me on HIV disease but on life lessons as well. My grandfather was a wise, uneducated man and before he passed he sat me down and gave me a life lesson I will never forget. He said this to me in Spanish but I'll give it to you in English. He said, 'mija, you'll always have three things in life that you can't run away from; 1. taxes 2. death 3. and your legacy.' (yeyo)

I've learned that selfishness is not an honorable quality and by surrounding oneself with people who are selfish in nature, growth is a very unattainable goal. Living and prospering in today's society is about leaning on others and relying on help from everyone. I'm sure everyone is in accord when I say no of us could have gotten where we are if it weren't for family and friends who care and put us at the forefront of their thoughts and help in anyway possible to see us prosper. It indeed takes a village to grow into a great human being. We all need to feel wanted and must have a place in our own families in order to become the person we know we are destined to become.

How does that relate to HIV? It is selfishness that is one of the reasons I feel we've become the lax nation we are today. Its about the bottom line, the amount of money made, the size of our wallets and material things. In the movie, 'And The Band Played On, Dr. Don Francis stands up during a meeting in Atlanta, GA and said , 'how many more have to die before it becomes cost efficient for you to do something about it?' (film) The blood bank was selfish and didn't want to spend more money to implement testing for HIV in their blood bank supply and create procedures for testing future donations.

By creating a selfish population from children who only think of themselves to adults that imprint how our world operates. We've taken the golden rule and bent it to suit our own needs. Instead of treating others like we want to be treated we say treat others like we want and then charge them for it later. We stroke our own egos and that surely isn't helping our society and its definitely not helping to end this war with HIV disease. When are we as parents going to take initiative and lose our selfishness and start teaching our kids life lessons they need to survive? We tell them to brush their teeth, be polite, use their manners. Why can't we drop the front and teach them to protect themselves. I mean come on. We want them to be healthy and live a long productive life, right?

If we really think about it, we all have been selfish at some point in our lives. None of us can truly say that we are untouched by selfishness. In this class, we have answered questions like; if education isn't working what other methods can we use to educate on HIV disease, is it ethical to continue testing on monkeys in search of an HIV vaccine, would you give your sibling an infected organ if that was their only chance of living? and so on and so forth. They all are based on human selfishness. How we react in certain situations determines our level of selfishness.

Take this weeks question for example. If education isn't working as proven by an increase in HIV infection statistics, what other methods can we use to educate on HIV disease? This is a complex question in which, thinking outside the box is a must. I think everything starts at home. Whether you live in a two parent home, go to church regularly, your age, your orientation we all have something in common. We are all humans, we are all selfish and the only way to solve this problem is by educating our children and moving forward from there.

Did you know that according to Global AIDS Alliance, "Worldwide, over 15 million children under the age of 18 have lost one or both parents to AIDS—a number that is expected to reach 20 million by 2010." (globalaidsalliance.org) This is absolutely disheartening. I don't want to be selfish in sharing information that could be vital to my son's survival and have him become a statistic. The article really sheds a light on the tremendous impact HIV has on our children. Their lack of emotional support is what struck me hardest. I couldn't imagine not having my son to hug and kiss on. We really need to get off our high horses and support all of our children.





works cited:


Pablo Mora de Limon. Personal Conversation. Circa 1990.

Spottiswoode, Roger (Director). (September 11, 1993) And the Band Played On [TV Movie]. Sarah Pillsbury, Midge Sanford (Producers). Arnold Schulman (Writer) HBO

Protect the Children. (2009). Global AIDS Alliance website. Retrieved November 18, 2009 from http://www.globalaidsalliance.org/issues/protect_the_children/