what's the deal with aids?

i had a great conversation with a buddy this morning about an Oprah episode he watched recently. apparently the topic was hiv/aids and the fact tha we need to raise awareness that it is killing so many people. ironically, the panel of guest included magic johnson and a handful of other people who were hiv+ but were still living fine and apparently pretty healthy. it makes me wonder why, if one wants to raise awareness that a disease is killing many people, would one parade a bunch of healthy-looking people across the stage. wouldn't you want to bring people face to face with the atrocity that's happening?

my friend's contention is that the situation is thus because aids is a primarily political issue, not a health issue. he believes that because of its ties to the homosexual community, it is taboo to show the ugly side of aids. i wonder. i would love to meet and talk to some people who have aids and are dying. i want to know why i never see them on the news or "special interest" exposes. i want to know why, if it's really such a big problem, are we so insulated from it.

i wonder if the people who are dying from aids would be better taken care of if aids were a health issue instead of a political issue? i wonder if we'd continue to talk out both sides of our mouth as a society (one side: sex is okay as long as it feels right; promiscuity is only bad if you get caught. second side: aids is a huge problem; we need to do whatever we can to stop it) if we were living with people who were experiencing it, not just shown the beautiful people who are surviving so bravely because of the new antiretrovirals that merck is pushing this month.

these are questions i intend to research. these thoughts are only my preliminary ideas and have no basis in research or fact, necessarily. they're just what i think. as i find out more, i';ll post it and hopefully get some feedback.