We Shut Up...

This article is about  how we don't talk about HIV & AIDS anymore, not really.  When I was a teen & 20 something, back during the '80s & '90s, there was info on HIV everywhere.  It was on billboards, magazine insets, posters at school.  There were drag shows & benefits held at gay bars to give to AIDS charities helping people living with HIV.    You couldn't turn to any form of media without HIV eventually showing up in the conversation.  

They thought they were helping by getting the word out there.  But, the way they approached it, all it accomplished was desensitizing the public to the subject.   We were bombarded & overwhelmed.    HIV was a scary & highly stigmatized subject in the 90's.   All this info overload was taxing &  isolating.  Most adverts were aimed at highly, sexually active gay men & IV drug users.  Not something, a lot of people wanted to be associated with back then or now.

People got tired of hearing about it,  People always get annoyed hearing things they don't want to after a while.  No matter how relevant. I wondered if some of that wasn't intentional on some groups part.  Let's desensitize them to this & they'll get lax on the matter.  

If that was the case, it's working.  HIV is spreading due to ignorance & lack of communication.  Treatment as prevention isn't going to stop HIV. We need serious & genuine conversation.  We need to talk about the issue, not have it blasted at us by 50' billboards or unnerving magazine inserts.   We need to discuss the topic & promote awareness, risks, testing, treatment & understanding.

We need to use our words again.  Not as a judgement or a means to separate, but as a means to unite & move forward against HIV.

Cya...

Yak Yak Yak

My NCIS & NCIS LA will meet fowl fates tonight.  They shall be PREEMPTED.   Why you ask, because this man feels the need to talk, yet again on national TV.

I know it's the State of the Dysfunctional Union speech, but please.  Do we really have to let this man talk for another couple of hours, accompanied by a pre & post shows?  What is this, the Super Bowl? (Not that I'm going to watch that either)

I was convinced that Mr. Bush was going to be our all time most talkative president.  I was wrong.  At least with Bush there was always this slight bit of amusement of watching him look confused as he across some big word or foreign concept/word his writers had put in his speech.  You could enjoy the face palms of his family & staff as he verbally stepped right in the middle of a steaming mess. You just can't do that with Obama.

No, Obama likes to talk, a lot!  He should've been a salesmen, not a president. Some say the rapport is good for the nation.  I say there isn't any rapport.  For that to be, there have to be a real interactive conversation between all parties & there just isn't.  This is one man prattling on.  He's like a magician pointing here & there, doing sleight of hand so no one will notice the wires, smoke or mirrors.

I am not Republican or Democrat.  I think both parties have outlived their usefulness. I feel that all this continuous political rambling does is rile people up, build false hopes & make me miss my shows.  Enough with the talk, just get to it & show us what you can actually do, not what you can talk about ad nauseum.  I'm tired of hearing the hate speech, the holier than thou rants & pathetic sales pitches.  Do something  or go home, stop all the BS.  Stop paying homage to Herb Tarlek.