Ryan White was the most prominent HIV/AIDS activist. He had become the national poster boy for

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

On August 19, 1992 in Houston, Texas people gathered to hear Mary Fisher give her speech “A Whisper of Aids” at the Republican National Convention. The purpose of her speech was to raise awareness for HIV and AIDS and to make people speak up about it, “I asked the Republican Party to lift the shroud of silence to an end” (1). Fisher’s audience was anyone who would and could make a difference. Anyone who would speak up and not be silent on this issue. Someone who would bring awareness of HIV and AIDS. Her father once said “They came after the Jews, and I was not a Jew, so, I did not protest. They came after the trade unionists, and I was not a trade unionists, so, I did not protest. Then they came after the Roman Catholics, and I was not a

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is a chronic, potentially life-threatening condition caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). AIDS weakens the immune system hampering the body’s defense mechanisms. AIDS is known to be a deadly disease, especially if it is not treated in a timely manner. AIDS and HIV is an epidemic that is increasing among the African American population with roots tracing back to Africa, AIDS and HIV needs greater exposure and more awareness within the African American community and in the homosexual community.

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 dawn of the AIDS crisis in the early 1980’s prompted delayed waves of responses sweeping out across America. First impacting a scattering of gay men in San Francisco, the disease gained the stigma of being a “gay disease” that fascinated the nation as health systems and communities struggled to cope with its rapid spread. However, one man, seemingly unaffected by the mix of panic and curiosity, did not react. The Ronald Reagan administration has historically been criticized for its lack of response to the AIDS crisis. Many different aspects of society were instead forced to step up and carry the burden of slowing and responding to the crisis, in a reactionary shift. The Reagan administration’s lackluster response to the AIDS crisis of the

Mary Fisher, in her persuasive speech, "A Whisper of AID's" (1992) informs the Republican party of the stigma of AID’s. Fisher develops and supports her thesis through, anaphora, rhetorical questioning, metaphor, visual imagery, logos, and pathos. Her purpose is to persuade the party to address the issue of the epidemic. Fisher addresses the Republican party as she strikes a passionate tone in exclaiming her hope for future AID’s patients.

On August 19, 1992, Mary Fisher had the country in silence and paying full attention. “…I asked the Republican Party to lift the shroud of silence which has been draped over the issue of HIV and AIDS. I have come tonight to bring our silence to an end.” This analysis of her speech will allow the reader to further understand how the American public politicized the contraction of a virus that can affect anyone and how Mary Fisher was able to help bring an end to this stigma. The way in which Fisher uses rhetoric connects with her audience on a personal ground, allowing them to sympathize with her and her struggles, further allows her to use their support for her cause. By using the feminine style of rhetoric, Fisher’s speech reaches an audience that has up to this point, not paid much attention to the HIV and AIDS crisis in America. Through this style, she is able to relate better with the conservative Republican audience in attendance while also connecting and identifying with the disadvantaged populations that have contracted HIV and AIDS that do not have the

Twenty years ago, the HIV community lost one of its fiercest allies when Ryan White passed to spirit at the tender age of 18. Just a month shy of graduating from high school. In junior high he had been banned from public school when it was discovered he was living with HIV. But By sharing his own experiences with discrimination, Ryan has helped bridge the vast gap between

In 1992, August 19th in Houston Texas, Mary Fisher, the HIV positive speaker, gave an inspiring outlook on her and countless others lives. Fisher speaks about a prevailing issue in her life, her diagnoses of AIDS. At the Republican National Convention Address, Mary teaches the audience the lesson “If you believe you are safe, you are at risk.”

Leah Turner is a 17-year-old girl who has recently lost her mother due to cancer at Toronto General Hospital this past January. The whole family was devasted by this tragedy and had troubles coping through the pain. During this time, Leah was in University full-time, four hours away from her father and younger sister. It was hard for her to concentrate on

HIV stands for human immunodeficiency virus. It can lead to immunodeficiency syndrome or AIDS. It is caused by the HIV entering the uninfected body and stats to destroy CD4+cells which are there to help the body fight infection and disease (Webmd.com, 2014). Once you have HIV, you have it for life. More than 1.1 million people in United States alone are living with HIV and 1 out of 6 font even know it. About 50,000 people are infected with HIV each year (Cdc.gov, 2014). It is more commonly see in the gay community particularly young black males. In 2011 an estimated that 15,529 people had died. (Aids.gov, 2014)

The film Dallas Buyers Club is a biographical drama whose plot is based around the HIV/AIDS epidemic of the 1980s. Early in the history of the illness, cases of a rare lung infection were found in five previously healthy young men. In addition to that, the young men all suffered from various other infections which indicated that their immune systems were not functioning properly. The new illness was so aggressive that before a report by the CDC could be published, two of the five men had succumbed to the illness. Besides the similar rare cases of lung infection amongst the five, there was one other shared characteristic; they were all gay men. By years’ end, there were 270 reported cases in gay men with the same disease; of that 270 however, 121 of those individuals had passed (Timeline of HIV/AIDS,2011). It was now clear that there was a new threat to gay men besides social ostracizing; HIV/AIDS had made its presence known.

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.

It would only be fair to state that Mary Fisher was biased in her arguments in favor of lifting the "shroud of silence" that the Republican Party had put over the issue of AIDS with as she herself was HIV positive. (Fisher) But her main point in the speech was to get the audience to realize that it did not matter what color, sexual orientation, age, or political affiliation a person was; everyone was threatened by this disease. And to get her point across, she opened her speech with the shocking statement that despite all that the government has done to battle the AIDS epidemic, it is "the epidemic which is winning tonight." (Fisher)

HIV is the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS. A member of a group of viruses called retroviruses, HIV infects human cells and uses the energy and nutrients provided by those cells to grow and reproduce. AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) is a disease in which the body's immune system breaks down and is unable to fight off certain infections, known as "opportunistic infections," and other illnesses that take advantage of a weakened immune system. When a person is infected with HIV, the virus enters the body and lives and multiplies primarily in the white blood cells. These are the immune cells that normally protect us from disease.