Filed under: Sustainable Living & Social Issues | Tags: AIDS, compassion, cost benefit, drugs, family, healing, health, HIV, love, prevention, self control, sex, social responsibility
Prevention:
There is much talk of microbicides, of condoms (raise your hand if you are thoroughly tired of hearing about condoms), of male circumcision, of antivirual drugs but there is one weapon in the war against AIDS that you will not hear mentioned.
“Self Control”
I know… It sounds totally foreign to the discussion of AIDS doesn’t it?
I’ve heard it said, “We like our freedom, don’t tell me how to live my life, don’t be so judgemental, how can you be so condemning, have compassion for people with AIDS, don’t tell them they are at fault, this isn’t about blame, this is about love.” Or you can imagine dozens of other replies. But the fact is there is a huge “blind spot” when it comes to solving this AIDS crisis. Promiscuous behaviour spreads AIDS. If a man or woman has sex with more than one other person (lets drop the crap about calling every person that has sex a “partner”) they could potentially be transmitting or receiving AIDS (condoms break, no microbicide is 100% effective etc). If a man or woman rapes a person, they could potentially be transmitting or receiving AIDS. If a man or woman uses illegal intravenous drugs they could potentially be transmitting or receiving AIDS.
If we really wanted to stop AIDS, we could, by committing ourselves to;
- Having only 1 lifelong sexual relationship, and encouraging those around us to do the same
- Avoiding injection of illegal drugs, and working to help addicts detox, rather than supporting their addition through our ignorance.
Naturally there are exceptions, health care workers who are exposed to blood, infants who contract AIDS from their mothers but we are told again and again that these instances are exceptions, not the predominant cause of the spread of AIDS.
In North America there is very little lack of AIDS education in schools, from doctors, from TV, from books, from the Internet. We do however lack in many ways the morality that this North America had only a short while ago. To put it bluntly, we are consciously spreading AIDS because we care more about our “freedom” than we care about stopping this horrible disease. To put it more bluntly, there are people who would rather risk another’s life, than exercise self control.
Our government and our society and our health care providers are not a moral authority, so we can’t expect them to do this work. As evidenced by 2 decades of condom promotion and largely ineffective education, they have not solved the problem. Instead they seem determined to spend millions to develop treatments to treat the symptoms, while allowing the root causes to remain. (promiscuous sex and a cycle of chemical addiction, both of which ruin lives in more ways than AIDS). Whether you are a person of faith (and therefore adhering to a unambiguous moral code), or not, you have a responsibility not to kill other people or through your actions allow other people to be killed.
One bright light. This is the only bright light I see in the current AIDS crisis, so watch carefully. In Uganda there are people testifying that they are being healed of AIDS by the power of Jesus Christ. From the reports I have seen, hundreds and hundreds of people can present the medical certificates showing they were HIV positive and now showing that there is no evidence of the virus in their bodies. I’m not an HIV expert, but this sounds really really hopeful!
For the rest of us, and some who may not want to ask God to heal their AIDS in the context of Christian community, I suggest this pledge:
- I will engage in sexual relations with only one lifetime partner.
- If I have HIV AIDS and understand that there is the chance of having a baby who would be HIV infected, I will not have a baby, because I will stop having sex so I don’t cause the needless death of a baby.
- I will not use intravenous drugs that are not administered under the supervision of a doctor.
- If I am HIV positive I will tell my partner and will stop having sex so that I don’t cause their death.
- If there is any chance that I have contracted AIDS (I have had sex with more than one person, or a person who is not a virgin / I have taken drugs intravenously without a doctor’s supervision) I will take an HIV/AIDS test to confirm if I carry the virus.
- If I am HIV positive I will tell my doctor and will cancel any organ-donation agreement I have established, so that my doctor is informed of the risk and a person receiving my organs will not needlessly die.
- If I am HIV positive I will refuse to donate blood to protect whoever might be receiving my blood.
Sex is such a tiny part of life, why would you allow your desire for it to kill someone. Isn’t thathatred in the extreme, to consider your need for pleasure so much higher than another’s need to live? Love is when you sacrifice something of yourself for someone else so that they can benefit.
Show love, Stop AIDS, Have the guts to say no to all promiscuous sex.
If you are still reading, then perhaps there is hope that you haven’t found these ideas totally offensive. I offer one more idea which carrys the weight of most of the world’s moral codes. 1 man, 1 woman, 1 marriage for life, 0 compromise. In addition to protecting against AIDS, it brings many advantages including relational stability, someone you can always trust, the opportunity for intimacy (I don’t mean sex), good support for raising healthy well balanced children, protection, nurture and more. Canadian society has been throwing out the idea of the traditional family since the 1960s and we are increasingly paying the price in our society. Every major faith in the world espouses what I know as a biblical model of marriage and family. There is protection in this God ordained model that we forego when we choose to live a different way.
Note: Have compassion for the people who have AIDS, don’t have any compassion at all for the behaviour that spreads AIDS. Separate the two. Love the people, hate the behaviour that hurts so many. Now, go and be the change you want to see.
Thanks for helping me change the world.
Filed under: Sustainable Living & Social Issues | Tags: CFL, compact flourescent lightbulb, conservation, cost benefit, electricity, energy, environmental, incremental improvement, planning, quality, social responsibility, sustainable living, walmart
Over at FastCompany.com Charles Fishman wrote an insightful article about Compact Flourescent Lightbulbs and their growing acceptance.
“For years, compact fluorescent bulbs have promised dramatic energy savings–yet they remain a mere curiosity. That’s about to change… For two decades, CFLs lacked precisely what we expect from lightbulbs: strong, unwavering light; quiet; not to mention shapes that actually fit in the places we use bulbs. Now every one of those problems has been conquered. The bulbs come on quickly; their light is bright, white, steady, and silent; and the old U-shaped tubes–they looked like bulbs from a World War II submarine–have mostly been replaced by the swirl. Since 1985, CFLs have changed as much as cell phones and portable music players.”
Quality In Life - Living Smarter... 