AIDS Awareness Month: The War on AIDS

By: AnnaLiese Burich ‘17

As college students, we were not alive during the original HIV/AIDS epidemic, so we might have a hard time taking it seriously. I know we are all well-educated, bright young college students who do our homework, so we know the logistics: in the late 80s, a good portion of society—a good amount in the gay community—were wiped out because of the horrible, incurable virus called “human immunodeficiency virus” that caused “acquired immunodeficiency syndrome” that interferes with one’s ability to fight infection. We may have listened to or seen RENT, and we may have read or seen Angels In America (and if you haven’t experienced these two works of art, I highly encourage you to check them out) that deal with the grave emotional stakes behind HIV/AIDS. We may think we understand.