艾滋病者私语
Mary Fisher/玛丽·费雪
In the context of an election year，I ask you，here in this great hall，or listening in the quiet of your home，to recognize that AIDS virus is not a political creature. It does not care whether you are Democrat or Republican；it does not ask whether you are black or white，male or female，gay or straight，young or old.
Tonight，I represent an AIDS community whose members have been reluctantly drafted from every segment of American society. Though I am white and a mother，I am one with a black infant struggling with tubes in a Philadelphia hospital. Though I am female and contracted this disease in marriage and enjoy the warm support of my family，I am one with the lonely gay man sheltering a flickering candle from the cold wind of his family’s rejection.
This is not a distant threat. It is a present danger. The rate of infection is increasing fastest among women and children. Largely unknown a decade ago，AIDS is the third leading killer of young adult Americans today. But it won’t be third for long，because unlike other diseases，this one travels. Adolescents don’t give each other cancer or heart disease because they believe they are in love，but HIV is different；and we have helped it along. We have killed each other with our ignorance，our prejudice，and our silence.
We may take refuge in our stereotypes，but we cannot hide there long，because HIV asks only one thing of those it attacks. Are you human? And this is the right question. Are you human? Because people with HIV have not entered some alien state of being. They are human. They have not earned cruelty，and they do not deserve meanness. They don’t benefit from being isolated or treated as outcasts. Each of them is exactly what God made：a person；not evil，deserving of our judgment；not victims，longing for our pity—people，ready for support and worthy of compassion.
My father has devoted much of his lifetime guarding against another holocaust. He is part of the generation who heard Pastor Nemoellor come out of the Nazi death camps to say，“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 unionist，so，I did not protest. Then they came after the Roman Catholics，and I was not a Roman Catholic，so，I did not protest. Then they came after me，and there was no one left to protest.”
The lesson history teaches is this：If you believe you are safe，you are at risk. If you do not see this killer stalking your children，look again. There is no family or community，no race or religion，no place left in America that is safe. Until we genuinely embrace this message，we are a nation at risk.
