Phill's Blog: Tuesday, Aug. 26,
THE WORLD AS IT IS, THE WORLD AS IT SHOULD BE
This week all eyes are on Denver as the Democratic National Convention makes history by becoming the first major party to nominate a Black American to be their candidate for the President of the United States. Among those eyes will be people infected with and affected by HIV/AIDS. I am here in Denver to look at this convention thru those eyes. I will try to report to you what I see every day.
My first event of the week was a luncheon sponsored by the Global AIDS alliance with Danny Glover, David Munar, Marjorie Hill, Sandra Thurman, and Barbara Lee. Danny Glover opened the event by saying, "The theme of this week and this election season is change. But in order to really bring about change, we have to understand where we are. We have to understand what it is we want to change from and what it is we want to change to." He went on to call for a "Domestic PEPFAR or National AIDS Strategy, expanded funding for the Minority AIDS Initiative and an annual domestic investment of $1.2 billion in HIV prevention. He ended his talk by saying, "If this season is about change, let that change include a world without AIDS. And let it begin today!" Overlapping the Global AIDS Alliance luncheon was a panel discussion hosted by the Trinity United Methodist Church. Sheryl Lee Ralph was one of the speakers. She urged participants to "do something different". The highlight of this first day came late into the night from the floor of the convention. First there was a tribute to Senator Edward Kennedy from Massachusetts who is recovering from brain cancer. All day there was a buzz around town speculator if Teddy would make a surprise appearance. The hall went crazy when he appeared on the stage. While he didn’t talk about HIV/AIDS, he made the case for change. He inspired us to keep fighting and his very presence, reminded us that the "change we can believe in" will have to include, health and healthcare reform. The evening ended with Michelle Obama telling the world why she things her husband should be the next president of the United States. She talked about how they met, and how their family and backgrounds are much like many of ours. But the most important thing she talked about came about half way thru the speech when she remembered Senator Obama talking about "the world as it is and the world as it should be." "All too often," she said (referring to her husband), "we accept the distance between the two, and settle for the world as it is — even when it doesn’t reflect our values and aspirations. But he reminded us that we know what our world should look like. We know what fairness and justice and opportunity look like." That’s what this election is all about. We know what the world should look like for people with HIV/AIDS or at risk for infection. We know what fairness and justice and opportunity look like for Black people who are disproportionately impacted by HIV/AIDS. And, like Barack and Michelle, we that the world as it is just won’t do, and we have an obligation to fight for a world without AIDS because "that's as it should be".
Phill Wilson is the CEO of the Black AIDS Institute and regular contributor to AOL/Black Voices. He can be reached at