Today is “A Day (with)Out Weblogs,” in observance of World AIDS day. The silence is deafening, defeating, and absurd. While some of the originators of this movement certainly have their hearts in the correct place (a place that seeks to emulate the popular “A Day (with)Out Art”), i think limiting the blogging world to silence is completely the opposite of what this day requires from us as intelligent human beings. Our art is the art of gabbing and linking and wasting time; today perhaps we should donate a little of our time to gabbing about AIDS/HIV, linking to information about it, and spending our time educating ourselves.
I am a thrice certified AIDS/HIV Peer Educator (Red Cross twice, Planned ParentHood once) and have served four years as a Peer Educator as well as conducted coursework in AIDS related topics. Silence on my part would be a waste. If you can claim any actual knowledge of AIDS/HIV, your wasting a day of your life on the behalf of other lives that are wasting away. If you can’t claim to be properly educated in AIDS/HIV your silence is a waste as well unless you’re spending the time learning something about this disease that has cast a pall over the entire world.
If today needs to be a day of your silence, please don’t let that silence go wasted. Please.