Tim Barrus: New York Times: All Politics is Local
Tim Barrus: New York Times
I sit in in silence at HIV clinics with people who cling to their oxygen tanks. AIDS is far from over. Americans pay $2K for Truvada which costs $8 in Australia. The depression and hopelessness you write about is real. I thank you for your voice.
Local AIDS orgs and charities look like they are doing something. But when you get inside these local groups you see a lot of effort is spent on the status quo. People clinging to their jobs. This is where the money really goes. We are still having runs and AIDS walks. Nothing new. All the old paradigms win out over any innovation regarding fundraising.
The media covers one tiny, tiny, tiny tip of the melting ice berg.
No eyeballs. It is not in vogue to cover desperation.
I know you see hope. I just can’t find any. I teach adolescent boys with HIV. We call them the At-Risk. Their suicide rates are sky high. The term “teaching” is disingenuous. What we really do is explore ways to stay alive.
There are very few.
Journalism burned out on us a long time ago. Today, it’s indifference that has its hands around our throats. Public Health prescribes drugs no one can afford, and at times, the shelves are bare. The drugs are not available.
This is not a cure.
This is a revenge by a power structure of old white men bent on profit. This is control over bodies who broke the rules in a culture war journalism perpetuates by the pretense it is a passing symptom. The problems in any culture war are systematic. Local groups are ephemeral.