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I went to a training this week for those of us volunteering to be docents when a display of the AIDS Quilt comes to Springfield starting on World AIDS Day, December 1. The display runs through December 5th, and Wade Shelton, who works for AIDS Project of the Ozarks, is the organizer and also on The Downtown Church Board. He began our training by showing a five minute video to remind us of the history of AIDS. It took me back to the 80s and 90s as the disease was unfolding, fear was mounting, stigmatizing of a particular demographic was growing, and research was just beginning. The panels of the quilt that will be on display at National Avenue Christian Church will contain some made in honor of people from the Ozarks who died of AIDS.
I remember hearing during those years “it’s only a gay disease” then “it’s only a drug addict’s disease” then “it’s only a disease if you have hemophilia.” Working as a nurse, and then later as a chaplain, in a hospital during this time it seemed it took forever for us to understand just how much this disease affected the health and wellbeing of all humans—brothers, sisters, children, adults, celebrities, athletes, and our neighbors.
Remembering the pandemic of AIDS, I am once again grateful for scientists and researchers who persevere and work on testing, treatment, and vaccines for our current pandemic. I am grateful for healthcare workers who suit up and walk into hospital rooms to care for others while risking themselves. And I am holding in prayer the families of the millions who have lost their loved ones, both to COVID 19 and to AIDS. Sometimes we just need to stop and remember.
See you Sunday online or in person,
Lori
PS Please remember to submit your pledge for 2022 so we can most accurately set the budget for the coming year. You can do so by going to thedowntown.church/give.
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