Less Visibility and More Action, Please
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As a member of the AIDS community, it is with barely controlled anger and disgust that I read about Orange County Visibility League’s planned “commemoration” of 1,000 AIDS deaths in Orange County (Newswatch, Sept. 17).
A spokeswoman was quoted in the piece saying, “It takes three to five months to get into a hospital for any kind of AIDS treatment.” Really? That’s news to me and several hundred other people with AIDS who get AIDS treatment in this county every day! With organizations such as AIDS Services Foundation and Laguna Shanti, our needs are met.
“AIDS activists”? What has this group done to fight AIDS in our county? The answer is nothing! Aside from two vigils last year, the group has remained silent on the issue.
When I attended the recent showing of the Quilt, members of the local ACT UP chapter were handing out flyers about reintroducing an AIDS anti-discrimination bill. Where was the Orange County Visibility League?
And now yet another vigil. How original! Another chance for its leadership to get its picture taken.
People weep, rhetoric is bandied about and nothing changes. It is important to remind people that the lives lost are not candles to be burned and then thrown away, nor a chance for gay politicos to read their name in the paper.
ROBERT SUMACK
La Habra
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