Showing posts with label opinion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label opinion. Show all posts

3 December 2007

better later then not at all...

I know that World AIDS day has passed but I was in Sydney seeing a specialist neurologist about my peripheral neuropathy, which was caused by HIV. It seems that in some cases the longer someone has HIV the virus can sometimes damage certain cells and in my case it is the nerve receptors in my feet. I will never be able to fix or cure this problem as it currently stands and the doctor says that unfortunately it will only get worse. After 21 years of living with HIV I thought that I had gotten to a point where I was winning. I have had really bad times and times where I almost died but I fought back and took control. I made sure that HIV did not define my life and that it would be something that is merely part of my life, albeit a constant part of my life. In the end here I am after all of this time and I feel like HIV has kicked me in the head just to remind me that it is still with me and if I want to win I will have to keep fighting. I'm not going to lie, it's a big ask.

Anyway, as a small reminder from the official site for World AIDS Day Australia. I leave you with this:

By 31 December 2006 there were 26,267 diagnoses of HIV infection in Australia. There were 10,125 diagnoses of AIDS and 6,723 deaths following AIDS had occurred. The annual number of new HIV diagnoses in Australia rose from 763 cases in 2000 to 998 in 2006 an increase of 31%.

Something to think about considering that these numbers are from a westernised country and not somewhere in Africa. We are not immune. We are affected and we are responsible for making a difference. I'm just sayin'...

27 August 2007

Here's trouble....

Why is it that many within our community (and I'm only speaking about the gay community), why is it that we are so judgemental? Now maybe I'm about to get into big trouble but really at my age I've been through enough and seen way more than I care to have seen. So, what the hell here goes. I won't be the first person to write about this and I am sure I won't be the last. Anyway, I'm just so tired of all this inside bitterness that many within the community have against one another. Maybe it's because so many of us are still uncomfortable about who we are and as such it necessitates taking others down so we feel better ourselves. Maybe it's because all of our lives we've had to fight to get where we are and it seems that many of had to take on the "take no prisoner's" approach to the world around us. Why attack each members of our own community and simply because we don't fit a certain model set not only by society but within our own community. I mean within our community we seem to have all of these standards we're not young enough, buff enough, we're too fat, too hairy, we're whatever. We will never be able to be accepted and garner equality if we continue to fight with each other and discriminate within our own community..

What I'm looking at would be impossible, a Utopia if you will. It would be impossible because at the end of the day we are all human (or at least I'm lead to believe so for matters of this post) and no matter what label you put on us/yourself be it gay, straight, bi, queer, what ever; at the end of the day you/we are still just human beings with all the same emotions, feelings, needs and wants as the next person. Why any of us thinks we are better than the next is besides me. Don't get me wrong I have been as guilty as the next person and I surely don't like myself because of it. I would like to think I've grown a bit past that and have become more accepting or at least I damn well try and will admit when I don't.


So you say, what's my point? Well my point is that just maybe before we start attacking someone because they don't' fit our criteria for "being normal" we might want to just stop and think how we've been treated in the past (or are being currently treated) and just maybe we will be willing to give that person a bit acceptance and a lot more benefit of doubt.
None of us is perfect and considering the state of the world and the bigger picture we have so many things we need to worry about, but then again just maybe we need to start within ourselves before we start trying to change the world around us. That's a whole other rant.

Anyway, I'm not sure where that all came from as I said earlier I'm getting older and I'm tending to spout off and maybe it's true as you get older you start to say things that you wouldn't normally have said because you just get tired of holding your tongue. It's not that I don't care but I get real tired of people telling me what I can and can not say. I will say what I want as long as whatever it is I say does not pointedly hurt someone. It's my opinion and like the rest of the world I'm entitled and to the rest of whoever you may be I leave the question: Why do we do it?


(really I'm not that old and angry I just play that way for those around me)

5 January 2007

Another view...

It's not my personal view but that of someone else, however my view does not vary from this person's view. I do agree with this person and because he articulates his thoughts much better than I ever could I wanted to share. I support the men and woman serving in Iraq because they are doing their job as they have been directed, but I do not support the people responsible for sending them there...
Be aware that this video is over 10 minutes long but so worth watching...