And Still The Band Plays On

This was a very long and wild week at my job. So Saturday night tired, exhausted, and wanting to hibernate in my room, I slipped the DVD "And The Band Played On" into my DVD player. I have seen this film before but not in the past 3 something years since I was diagnosed with AIDS.

This film is still realivent today, as it was when it was first filmed. The bickering of buerocratic politics and government red tape which continue today in the battle against HIV/AIDS. How the government is complacment about HIV/AIDS now as it was back at the start of the AIDS epidemic in the Regan years. I loved how the showed Regan wouldn't even say the word AIDS till many had died from the virus. Now the republicans think he is a god in this political season since his passing.

Another major poignant part of the film is how the government and health field treated peoples deaths as not cost effective with major corporation attitudes. That lawsuits are more cost effective then saving the lives of people with any disease.

At the end of the film, there is a tribute to people living with and or who died from HIV/AIDS. They showed the role models of that day such as people like Ryan White and his mother Jeanne. Where are the role models for this generation? Where are the celebrities and long time survivors living with HIV/AIDS to keep AIDS in fore front of the public consciousness? In my opinion, they have all faded away only stepping up to the plate on World AIDS Day. Here we are in 2008 and still the band plays on.