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World Aids Day Address
December 1, 2000
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
By Norm Kent
We Find Ourselves, On This Balmy Nite In South Florida's December, Here In The Elegant
Riverwalk Esplanade, Talking And Walking, Marching And Speaking, On Behalf Of Those Who
Could No Longer Be With Us, Memorializing The Lives Of Friends And Lovers, Children And
Brothers, Mothers And Fathers, Who Left Us All Too Soon.
And We Commit With All Our Energy, All Our Soul, And All Our Heart, That While We May
Stand Here Solemnly And Silently Tonite, To Shed A Tear, And Say A Prayer For Those Who
Have Died, We Are Also Here To Dedicate Our Lives, Our Soul, And Our Sweat To Fight Like
Hell For The Living.
The Battle Today May Be Harder Than Ever.
After This Past Election, There Is A Fear That The Years Ahead Promise To Require Still
More Sacrifices And Yet More Setbacks. We Soon May Be Fighting A New Epidemic- Apathy In
The Highest Corridors Of Congress And Closed Doors In Schools And Research Centers.
Elected Representatives May In Deed, And In Word, Inflict Wounds That Hurt Greater Than
The Virus Itself.
It Will Fall Upon Us To Reject The Counsel Of Retreat And The Call To Reaction.
It Will Fall Upon Us To Meet The Challenge Of Religious Or Political Leaders Who Might Be
Encouraged To Say That Aids Is The Result Of Divine Retribution.
It Will Fall Upon Us To Respond To Deep Pools Of Prejudice And Broad Pockets Of Cruelty.
It Will Fall Upon Us To Remind Our Radio Commentators And Educators And Researchers And
Political Leaders That There Is No Shame In Being A Person With Aids, But That There Is
Only Shame In:
---- Being In A Position To Help And Doing Nothing;
---- Being In A Position To Educate And Not Teaching;
---- Being In A Position To Lead And Not Leading, Give And Not Giving, Care And Not
Caring;
There Has Been No Shame In Living The Life Of A Ryan White Or Leonard Matlovich; An Arthur
Ashe Or Tom Waddell; A Rudolph Nureyev, Freddy Mercury, Or Randy Shilts. And How Many
Names Of How Many Friends Can You Fill In? I Will Tell You This. However Many, It Is Too
Many. That's Why We Must Still Care And Bother To Matter.
Four years Ago, Many Of Us Journeyed To Miami Beach To Say Goodbye To Pedro Zamora, The
Activist And Educator Whose Kind And Decent Message Was Always "That I Am Not A Young
Man Dying From Aids. Aids Is My Reality. I Am A Young Man Living With It."
Fate Is What Life Gives To Us, But Destiny Is What We Do With What's Given. Pedro Refused
To Go Quietly Into The Night. He Raised A Banner Of Hope. And That Is Our Calling Today.
Because We Do Not Stand Alone.
We Are Accompanied By The Tall And Brave Spirits Who Have Stood Where We Now Stand, And
Who, When Torn Between Life And Death, Hope And Despair, Said Yes To Hope And Yes To Life.
And We Owe It To Those Who Once Stood By Our Side, Individuals And Friends We Tonite
Commemorate And Remember- We Owe It To Them To Say Yes To Life And Yes To Hope-And To All
Its Infinite Possibilities- So There Will Come A Day When We Gather Together To Celebrate
A Cure And Not Commemorate A Loss. That's Why We Bother.
But If We Cannot Grasp A Cure, We Can Seize The Suffering Which Is Within Our Power To
Relieve. We Can Oppose Injustice And Encourage Compassion. We Can Embrace Those Who
Needlessly Suffer And Selflessly Defend Their Cause.
We Can Still Do Better Individually, And Act More Responsibly Collectively. We Can Be
Sexually More Responsible, And Demand Of Ourselves Self-Discipline. We Can Make A
Difference Because While The Future May Lie Beyond Our Vision, It Is Not Beyond Our
Control.
We Can Be Drum Majors For Justice, Nourishing Involvement, Generating Concern. If There Is
A Struggle, Join It; If There Is A Battle, Enter It. If Standing Beside Goodness And Right
Means Being An Outcast, Let Us Be Outcasts Together. Let Us Bother To Matter.
We Can Be The Buddy For A Patient Alone In His Home.
We Can Be The Parent That Hugs A Child With Aids.
We Can Be The Students Delivering Meals On Wheels.
We Can Be The Grandparents That Tends To The Children Who Have Lost Their Parents.
We Can Be The Readers In The Hospital Room For The Patients Who Can No Longer See.
We Can Be The Nurses And The Surgeons And Immunologists Who Work Day After Day And Nite
After Nite At Healing The Sick.
We Can Be The Psychotherapists Offering Counseling Against Fear And The Attorneys
Providing Legal Aid Against Discrimination.
We Can Be The Nightclubs And Bar Owners Holding One More Party, Yes Another Fund Raiser
And Committing Proceeds And Space And Time And Energy.
We Can Be Radio Hosts And Reporters That Disseminate Eternal Truths Instead Of Expedient
Lies.
We Can Be Political Forces That Act Up At Once To Fight Voices Of Hate Anywhere And
Everywhere.
We Can Fight For Life By Innovative Treatments, Needle Exchanges, And Demanding That The
Dea And Fda And Usa Find Newer Drugs And Better Drugs Faster And Cheaper.
We Can Be Like Michelangelo, Who Saw His Masterpieces As Prisoners Released From Enormous
Blocks Of Marble.
We Can Sculpt A New Era Of Education And Awareness, And Give Meaning Not Only To Those Who
Are With Us In Spirit Tonite, But To Ourselves, Because As We Go Beyond Ourselves To
Something Bigger Than Ourselves We Become Bigger In The Process And Provide A Strength Our
Craving Hearts Demand. As We Give, So We Receive.
The Nearest Thing To The Hand Of God In This Life Is Touching The Hand Of Someone Who
Loves You. If A Callous World Will Not Reach Out To Us With Love, We Can Reach Out To Each
Other. And If Love Is Unfashionable, Let Us Live Unfashionably.
We Have Already Given Much, I Know, But Today I Beseech You And Demand That We Give Still
More, Because Long After This Rally, May It Be Said Of Our Campaign For Justice, That We
Kept The Faith, That We Continued To Strive, To Seek, To Find, And Not To Yield; That Like
Rudyard Kipling : "We Have Given The Unforgiving Minute Sixty Seconds Worth Of
Distance Run;" And That's Why We Bother.
You Don't Have To Be A Senator To Make Things Change. You Don't Have To Make Headlines.
You Just Have To Bother. You Just Have To Care. You Just Have To Gather. To Find Yourself
As A Certain Anchor In Stormy Waters.
And With Our Energy, With Laughter Instead Of Tears, With Smiles Instead Of Epithets, With
Love Instead Of Anger, We Shall Succeed, Not Recede; We Shall Be Visible, Not Invisible;
We Shall Fight For What Is Right In Day Or Night, Not Take Flight; We Shall Prevail, Not
Fail. One Day, We Shall Indeed Overcome,
Because Our Cause Is Just,
Because There Are Skirmishes To Be Fought, And Battles Yet To Be Won,
Because No Matter How Far We Have Come There Are Still Miles To Go.
And That's Why We Bother.
Thank You And God Bless You.