{"id":577,"date":"2011-12-01T08:18:22","date_gmt":"2011-12-01T14:18:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/growthlines.wordpress.com\/?p=577"},"modified":"2011-12-01T08:18:22","modified_gmt":"2011-12-01T14:18:22","slug":"our-universal-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/growthlines.net\/wp\/2011\/12\/01\/our-universal-loss\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Universal Loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The first time I saw a portion of the AIDS Memorial Quilt was in 1991, in Wichita, KS. \u00a0It was a small part of the entire quilt, and it filled the floor of the convention center. \u00a0I had read about the quilt from the beginning. \u00a0I had seen photographs of the display on the mall in Washington, D.C. \u00a0None of that prepared me for the flood of emotion I felt as I walked among the quilt blocks on display that day. \u00a0Looking at the first block, I knew I had stepped into sacred space, as though I had been allowed to witness thousands of private moments of loss and remembrance.<\/span><\/p>\n

Each quilt block held the remnants of a life. \u00a0Stories told piece by piece through pictures, pieces of clothing, belongings that identified each person as unique, known, loved. \u00a0The fabric blocks were tangible evidence that this person participated with family and friends in this life, and was now gone, but never forgotten.<\/span><\/p>\n

Harold Marcuse, is a professor of German history at University of California, Santa Barbara. \u00a0His research on the view of different groups looking back on the Nazi period since 1945 is presented in his book, Legacies of Dachau, 1933-2001<\/span>. \u00a0One of the stories is of German pastor, Martin Niem\u00f6ller’s visit to Dachau concentration camp in November 1945. \u00a0Noem\u00f6ller had been imprisoned at Dachau from 1941 to April 1945. \u00a0Marcuse notes that Niem\u00f6ller’s November diary entry and subsequent speeches suggest returning to Dachau prompted thoughts that by the early 1950s had become this familiar poem.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

First they came for the
\n<\/span><\/em>socialists, and I did not speak out
\nbecause I was not a socialist.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Then they came for the<\/em><\/span>
\n trade unionists,<\/em><\/span>
\n And I did not speak out<\/em><\/span>
\n because I was not<\/em><\/span>
\n a trade unionist.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Then they came for the Jews<\/em><\/span>
\n and I did not speak out,<\/em><\/span>
\n because I was not a Jew.
\n<\/em><\/span>
\n Then they came for me,<\/em><\/span>
\n and there was no one left<\/em><\/span>
\n to speak for me.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Pastor Martin Niem\u00f6ller\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Today, December 1, 2011, is World AIDS Day. \u00a0A day that will be just another day for many. \u00a0A day when many will not speak out, because they believe AIDS is someone else’s loss. \u00a0But today is a day that belongs to us all. \u00a0It is symbolic of our universal loss, whether we recognize or acknowledge it. \u00a0We believed AIDS belonged only to the indiscriminate, the addict, the transfused, the gay, and have said nothing. \u00a0Can we hear that 1000 babies are born with HIV every day and say this loss is not ours.<\/span><\/p>\n

I recently watched Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story<\/em>\u00a0with a group of middle school students. \u00a0Liz lost both of her parents to AIDS over a ten year span. \u00a0In the discussion following the film, a student ask “What is AIDS?” \u00a0In that moment I was reminded that the advances in treating AIDS leaves us at risk of forgetting that the disease exists, and there is still no cure. \u00a0That people’s lives are still being forever changed, and lost. \u00a0Take time today to acknowledge that AIDS is a loss that belongs to us all, and decide how you will speak out.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first time I saw a portion of the AIDS Memorial Quilt was in 1991, in Wichita, KS. \u00a0It was a small part of the entire quilt, and it filled the floor of the convention center. \u00a0I had read about … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,8],"tags":[10,17,22,26,51,64,73],"class_list":["post-577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grief","category-mindfulness","tag-aids","tag-child","tag-connection","tag-death","tag-loss","tag-relationship","tag-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/growthlines.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/growthlines.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/growthlines.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/growthlines.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/growthlines.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/growthlines.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/growthlines.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/growthlines.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/growthlines.net\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}