My uncle died of complications from AIDS 35 years ago. We lost him when I was 7. My life was shaped by the sadness of this profound loss. It was a time when fear & lack of understanding ruled. He lived w/us until the day he died. We watched him grow weak, grow incontinent, 1/

...grow unable to care for himself, lose his ability to speak, become emaciated...we watched this bright, funny, loving family member waste away until he died. Our government failed to respond to this crisis. Our government failed to listen to medical experts warning of what 2/

...was to come. They laughed. Their inaction made them responsible for the devastation that was the AIDS epidemic. In 2020 we are enduring this same dismissal, this same ignorance, this same political posturing. This time, we have the very man who was responsible for an 3/

...outbreak of AIDS in his own state of Indiana in charge of a response team for a new disease....a global disease. The response to COVID has been an embarrassment. The response....not these diseases...is the joke. We are at the mercy of these governors & "leaders" who play 4/

...politics w/peoples' lives.

We do have things within our control. We can physically distance. We can wear masks. We can remember not to attack each other. We can remember all of the people who have suffered at the hands of politics. Because of our government we are seeing 5/

...record losses of life. Black lives, old lives, young lives, families & friendships obliterated due to death. We are in control of how we treat our fellow Americans. We are also in control of who we vote for this November. Legislators, congress people, senators, & the 6/

...president. We are in control of how long we allow ourselves to be used & exploited & discarded by the greed of a select few. We are the ants. We outnumber those who would intimidate us...who would bully us. Their abuse of power is a sign of their fear...of their weakness. 7/

...We are the many. They know this. It is because of this that they are afraid. We can make them pay for their abuses by taking away those positions that give them the power to abuse. We can vote them out of those offices they take for granted. 8/8