A Closer Walk

On August 19, 1992, a woman named Mary Fisher spoke on a rather sensitive topic in an attempt to change the world. In an address to the Republican National Convention, Fisher lectured on a subject close to her heart, HIV and AIDS. Mary Fisher is an artist, author, and of course political activist. She contracted HIV from her second husband and has since been on a mission to educate people about prevention of the disease and the treatment of people that have HIV or AIDS. Fisher was speaking at the convention in Houston, Texas in an attempt to get people to take action. Fisher wanted people to be informed about the diseases and have a genuine care about those infected. I found her speech exceedingly compelling as well as an exceptional display

At the Republican National Convention in 1992, no one was aware that Mary Fisher was about to alter the viewpoints of thousands of Americans. During the 1980’s and 90’s the public’s view on AIDS was uninformed, skewed, and ignorant. The purpose of Mary Fisher’s speech was to open up the conversation on AIDS and to inform the public of the deadly disease. Fisher’s speech came from a place of sorrow and passion because she and her newborn son were both diagnosed with AIDS. At this time, society deemed AIDS as only associated with homosexuals and that no straight person could contract it. Mary Fisher’s speech persuaded people to change their viewpoints on AIDS by the use of ethos, pathos, and logos.

Many individuals have this malnourished ideal that HIV/AIDS is a disease based on race. “AIDS; which has ravaged minority community in disproportionately large numbers, must be viewed as racial issue, the national commission member on AIDS said yesterday” (Priest). Years ago Yale University law professor Harlon Dalton said this about HIV/AIDS, “We cannot approach the AIDS problem in a color blind fashion” (Priest). With this being said we need to stop pointing fingers at blacks’ for the disproportionate factor of HIV in this country. And also stop pointing fingers at black homosexuals.

The AIDS epidemic began in the early to mid-1980’s and since it’s recognition in America it has become a very heated and debated topic among health professionals, the gay community, and most of all for the ones that are carrying the virus. The real debate is not over the virus itself but, rather about the infected individuals and whether or not they should be made morally obligated to tell their sexual partners if they are in fact infected. Both sides of the argument make very valid points. From one standpoint you have the gay community that believe in “safer sex ethic”, which keeps their partners in the dark about their overall health status and feel they are not morally obligated to tell their

Fisher begins by speaking of the non-existent impacts of movements that have attempted to raise awareness about AIDS. She utilizes the word “despite” in consecutive phrases to show that “despite science and research” and “good intentions”, nothing significant has occurred because “the

In this world and society many people are not treated with the right type of respect in the healthcare field. While they are not treated with respect it causes more problems in their daily lives because they are not getting the right treatment for their health problem. I believe that people shouldn’t be treated differently when it comes to healthcare conditions. Just because they are less educate, poor, and their race/culture is different shouldn’t mean anything.

Ryan White was an all American kid, who any American family could relate to. He had contracted the disease through a blood transfusion, which could have happened to anyone. Unlike homosexual men who were seen as outcasts to society and sinners to most religious Americans, Ryan White was someone that the American people could root for. Because of this the people demanded treatment for AIDS patients from the government and the government gave them exactly that. When Margaret Heckler was the Secretary of Health, the only people who really demanded funding for AIDS treatment was the gay activists and the CDC itself. This made the problem easy to ignore as it seemed to be limited to a subsection of society but as time went on and more cases like that of Ryan White slipped into the public eye, the government realized that action had to be taken. Luckily in present day, the AIDS problem is declining at an enormous rate. The number of new HIV diagnoses fell 19% from 2005 to 2014. Yet thousand of gay and drug user patients of AIDS died in the 80s because of a lack of funding for treatment. Had the government taken action sooner, fewer people would have contracted the disease and fewer would have died. In this day and age, it is important that the government provide treatment to anyone suffering from a fatal disease such as AIDS so as not to repeat the mistakes of the

Ryan White was one of the many people entangled in the hysteria. White, who contracted the virus through a bad blood transfusion, endured much ridicule in his short life. Rejected by his friends, neighbors and even his own school, White felt like an outcast. (Johnson, 1) Most of the people’s fear, stemmed from their ignorance on the topics of AIDS.(Johnson, 1) Hysteria started when people thought AIDS could be contracted by a simple handshake, which made people scared of getting the disease.(Johnson, 1) White began to educate people about this disease by spreading awareness on the subject.(Johnson, 1) People slowly started to realize that the disease wasn’t as contractible as the hysteria led them to believe.(Johnson, 1) Ryan White died at age eighteen, from complications from the AIDS virus.(Johnson, 1) White still serves as reminder of how much we learned from the hysteria. (Johnson,

In the article The Doctor Won’t See You Now by James Gorman, the author achieves his purpose of ridiculing the unethical functions of doctors during the aids epidemic by utilizing sarcastic language, negatively connotated diction, and vague supplication of details in his arguments. For example, after Gorman depicts the prevalence of doctors’ preferences of not treating certain patients, he makes the remark “ Smart thinking”. This sarcastic remark, similar to others within the text, is used in order to exhibit the author’s obvious feeling of anger toward physicians who act unprofessionally. Furthermore, his selection of vocabulary, such as “ slob”, “stupid”, and “pig-like,” forms offensive generalizations of people intended to demonstrate how

When the AIDS and HIV virus crept its way into the human-race, it quickly, and without warning, claimed the lives of millions. Then when its destructive wake had finally been abated, it left behind several untold mysteries. Throughout the course of this class, all the new material we have been exposed to has added some unique piece to the puzzle of the AIDS epidemic. Each puzzle pieces have ranged from speculations on how the AIDS epidemic had begun, to what exactly has the epidemic done. We have also tackled the question and how it forced a change in society. Our newest piece of the puzzle is the documentary “The Age of AIDS,” by William Cran. Although this documentary did not surprise me in its content, it did, however, affirm certain types

As a group, HHS (Health and Human Services) says, these people “have been particularly vulnerable to insurance industry abuses” and face barriers to obtaining care from qualified providers to help them. Not only does the Affordable Healthcare plan provide a safety net for citizens living with HIV/AIDS, it also expands Medicaid so that those with low incomes can get early access to treatment, while also eliminating limits on their lives. Many citizens living with HIV/AIDS have issues obtaining health Insurance because of their pre-existing condition. At the same time these citizens can not apply for Medicaid because some of them are not ‘sick’ enough to be considered ill or disabled and the government thinks that people have to be in a bad condition

Opposes and seeks solutions against the discrimination of people with AIDs, finding associations to help this

Although the “war on AIDS have contributed to the development of policies, one important aspect of the disease was the Ryan White Care Act that came about from a young men who at the age of 13 was diagnosed with AIDs through a blood transfusion. It was this movement that brought about much awareness that HIV/Aids can happen to anyone. He was the first teenager, the first with hemophiliac to have AIDS. At the time, there was no education or information on AIDS. Since, the life and struggle of Ryan White, there has been changes in helping those with the disease. His death has sparked a national outcry for those who suffers with HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) the virus that causes AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). His legacy has left behind for people to receive better care and live a longer life.

“Ryan White’s struggle with HIV/AIDS sparked a desire within his friends to stand in his honor and fight for children facing life threatening illnesses” (6). Ryan White was diagnosed with AIDS at age of thirteen. At the time many did not know a lot about AIDS and were afraid of coming in contact. Many people in his community started discriminating towards White, even though he was not contagious. National news hit and White became a star. People like Michael Jackson and Elton John came to meet him to spread awareness. Years had passed and Ryan was interviewing and on news often. By the time he was about to become a freshman in college, White lost his battle with AIDS. Many of White’s friends and family planned a tribute to him by having a

Issue: Is New England Telephone guilty of discrimination against Paul Cronan strictly because he has a disease that is disabling called HIV/AIDS?