AIDS kills 600 people a day in a single country.
I don’t think I can do anything about this. But this BBC article kind of puts it into perspective. If a plane crashed and killed 600 people, we’d care, right? It’d be on the evening news. What’s the difference?
I write this a day after finding out that mom’s cousin’s husband died of cancer yesterday. The C word hitting my family again. I feel so weak.
May 19th, 2004 at 10:31 am
I wonder about this all the time. Whether it’s AIDS or car accidents or cancer. Two people getting shot is front page news, two thousand dying from AIDS is just another day in the life. When I think about it, it makes me ill. AIDS isn’t even the most efficient cause of death out there – cancer and car accidents far outpace it. Each of them kills more people every day than terrorist attacks have in the last ten years. We’re fighting the wrong battles, because we only fight the ones that make the news, that can be won spectacularly.
I’m sorry about your loss, hon. *hug*
May 19th, 2004 at 8:57 pm
people, in general aren’t scared enough by non-explosive/violent deaths, but the fact remains that people we love are at risk every day, and spending billions to blow things up isn’t a long term solution. Hopefully one day the fear-mongers will realize this, though I bet they’ll “stick to their guns” and keep fighting anyway. My Uncle died last year of cancer, and my grandmother has had it also. I just try not to think about it.
May 19th, 2004 at 10:57 pm
What people notice is indeed strange. The death fact I found most startling is that, in general, suicide rates are higher, sometimes several times so, than homicide rates. Somehow, that is rarely mentioned.
Are people afraid of pondering on the fact that
it might happen to them or of the thoughts and
circumstances that might lead to it?
I’m sorry to hear about your situation. I’ve witnessed someone close go through the whole cycle of shock, hope, hope dashed, more hope until the bitter end… Not a lot one can say, is there?