Egyptian Interval
Vito, E.B, de
Egyptian Interval "Kiss," said the camel driver, and the camel, from its lordly height, bent its head, and briefly nuzzled that grizzled proffered cheek. I thought of a royal gesture long...
...He demonstrated that illness could Commonweal | 4 October 9, 1998...
...Even if it were diverted, it would more likely follow greater influence than greater need...
...But then one need not be a Catholic to recognize how mortally and morally perverse this political virus really is...
...In context, it translates: We spend more on AIDS than on some other deadly diseases...
...What is at issue is the cynicism of those who campaign for it by creating resentment against special programs for PWAs...
...I may die of metastasizing cancer...
...It simply becomes a politically advantageous "cut in spending...
...This identifies the sinner with the sin...
...Ninety percent were under fifty...
...Viral plagues require focused attention because viruses have a way of circumventing the defenses we erect against them...
...therefore, spend less on AIDS...
...Whether or not such a system is feasible or desirable is not at issue here...
...And as the camel that he knew as he knew his wife, bent down to oblige, I turned away to screen a shared moment between man and beast from an unwanted, and even what might seem to them, a "vulgar gaze...
...8:16...
...de Vito the land...
...But anyone familiar with welfare programs knows that things don't work that way...
...Besides, a triage system of funding would not seem to be a salutary approach to conquering deadly diseases...
...Also to be distinguished from the envious are those who advocate a national health-care system that would fairly and adequately encompass all diseases...
...9 Third: Families and friends typically rally around people with conventional diseases...
...Even my disease is a bigger killer than AIDS...
...Currently, these deaths exceed deaths from AIDS by more than a third...
...I thought of a royal gesture long ago, when the King of Spain sent the English King a gift of five camels, and with them, a note of instruction: they were to graze in the park each day, but must be returned by evening so as to protect them from the "vulgar gaze...
...And AIDS is particularly complex...
...In 1995, two-thirds of those who died of AIDs-related infections were under forty years of age...
...E.B...
...The subverted self-esteem, isolation, and depression of many PWAs may be as much a part of AIDS as the lymphomas that kill so many of them...
...Those whom it infects teach that because some people have advantages that the rest don't, no one should have them...
...they die of one or more of the twenty-six opportunistic diseases--ranging from cancer to pneumonia to multidrugresistant TB--that take advantage of damaged immune systems...
...Some genuinely believe that the money may better be spent elsewhere for what they perceive to be a greater need...
...PWAs do not die of AIDS...
...According to the bishops: "[Jesus] relieved suffering and 'cured all who were afflicted' (Matt...
...They may not be among the envious, but they feed the envy of others...
...Kiss," said the driver once again...
...I thought too of an Arab who had said a man knows his camel as he knows his wife-can recognize these contours at a distance, even when no more than a dark shape silhouetted by the setting sun...
...They often abandon PWAs...
...AIDS infections kill more African-Americans between the ages of twenty-five and forty-four than any other disease...
...9 Second: If, as some say, AIDS is not "exceptional," it is at least different...
...Money cut from a program typically is not diverted elsewhere...
...Prostate cancer kills forty thousand men every year in the United States...
...But here the bishops of the United States, in their 1981 statement on health and health care, and Pope John Paul II, in his 1995 encyclical Evangelium vitae, make relevant observations...
...And those who die are young...
...These patients, together with the homeless for whom AIDS is a particular problem, require special support services...
...Many in society stigmatize AIDS patients, a number of whom react with feelings of guilt...
...Were I to do so, then according to the principles of traditional Roman Catholicism to which I subscribe, I would be guilty of the capital sin of envy, which "wishes grave harm to a neighbor [on account of] displeasure caused by his prosperity" (see the Catechism of the Catholic Church...
...AIDS is a virus, an infectious plague...
...Of course, it is possible to argue that PWAs do not deserve support because all but a small percentage of them have become infected through immoral conduct, usually by sharing a contaminated needle to inject an illegal drug or by engaging in illicit sexual activity with someone who is already infected...
...I did not "catch" prostate cancer...
...Should I now lobby for less money for AIDS...
...Of course, not everyone who argues for reductions in AIDS funding and programs is ill-motivated...
Vol. 125 • October 1998 • No. 17
