Kay:

Hey, there Questers – new month, new you, and final month of #2020. It’s December 1st, and this is episode 237. And then, in this already very upbeat year we are about to talk about something very NOT upbeat and that is World AIDS Day.

Shi:

Today, December 1st, is World AIDS Day and so your quote comes from Elizabeth Taylor says, “It’s bad enough that people are dying of AIDS, but no one should die of ignorance.”

Shi:

Now, when we were kind of dissecting this quote right before we started here, Kay, you were kind of having a little bit of a hard time getting on board with this because you said people were already dying of ignorance and are still dying of ignorance.

Kay:

Definitely. You know, I’m sure many of you have seen the headlines as of late of people who are passing away from not believing in the Coronavirus and literally holding on until their very last breath to the fact that it’s not real and that it’s not something that they have contracted and, you know, yelling at the nurses and saying, I have lung cancer and you’re lying to me. So, when we initially put this on, I’m like, “Man, but like people are dying of ignorance and so it’s tough.” And Shi had kind of helped me to understand that this is really more about a progress rallying cry.

Shi:

Well, I think Elizabeth Taylor is giving us that rosy picture of what humanity can be. At our greatest potential, we can be a society and a larger organism of beings that doesn’t have people die from things that are preventable. But this is the kind of a rallying cry for humanity’s history as a whole. History is full of deaths from things that are now easily preventable and even when things became obviously preventable. If you heard our hand washing episode, you know, about this, it still takes time and unnecessary deaths for those things to move forward and for society progress in that way. So, I think that this quote is honestly a good reminder that we have to continue to support science and that we have to keep fighting for progress.

Kay:

The thing about ignorance that’s really difficult is that it isn’t necessarily a black and white emotion because somebody who is ignorant, forgive them, father, for, they know not what they do, right? They don’t know that they are in that zone and there are plenty – trust me. Shi and I are not here as like the all-knowing least ignorant people. There is a lot of stuff I’m ignorant on for sure and a lot of things here in 2020, especially in the race category that we’ve had to look right in the face and say, man, I have a lot of ignorance in this area. So, it’s been interesting to see how this comes forward and I’m glad that Elizabeth Taylor in her time was talking about AIDS because really the push for AIDS awareness happened in the eighties, and here, Elizabeth Taylor is talking about this in the seventies and sixties. So, she was on the edge of progress trying to tell people, look, this is deadly, and it is real.

Shi:

Yeah. Depending on your age, you might remember or not remember AIDS really first coming out. If you are on the younger side of things, maybe Kays age or younger, and you don’t quite remember the stigma that was around HIV and AIDS, even for myself born in 1985. So, I kind of caught the end of it as I was five, six, seven, eight, really finally, things becoming normalized. I mean, I remember when Magic Johnson came out and said that he had HIV, it was a huge deal, a huge deal.

Kay:

You know, the story in our family is that our mom actually told our dad that she was pregnant with me on the day that Magic Johnson announced that he had AIDS to the world. So, mom comes home and she’s like, I went to the doctor today and I have news and dad said, “you have AIDS!” And she goes, “No, I’m pregnant.”

Shi:

He said, “Are you sure?” Oh man I’ll never forget that day too. I remember mom telling dad. I was coloring on the hardwood floors of that old house and I will never forget that, but you know, there was so much stigma and so many people died alone from this, and there was so much shame around it and ostracization it. I hope that Elizabeth Taylor is proud to see how far we’ve come in terms of releasing that stigma and helping those in need and understanding that this is just like any other disease or virus or sickness or illness…Not necessarily based on sins or morality, but rather really bringing in awareness and not being ignorant about health and safety practices.

Kay:

Well, oftentimes once we can know what it is that we do, we can change our course of direction. Maybe that is as simple as finding that there is a stigma that you don’t have to buy into. We’ve even seen this with the people in our circles or in our restaurants that get the Coronavirus. There’s a bit of a stigma around the virus right now. If you get it, let Shi and I just be the ones to tell you it’s okay.

Shi:

It’s all right.

Kay:

It’s all right.

Shi:

It’s called a pandemic for a reason. It’s highly contagious.

Kay:

Yes.

Shi:

And we hope that you’re taking all of the actions required to protect yourself. But if you get it, you should not be ashamed unless you haven’t been wearing your mask then we shame you, shame you, shame you. Now to remind you of what your quote was for World AIDS Day. Today, it is from Elizabeth Taylor who tells us, “It’s bad enough that people are dying of AIDS, but no one should die of ignorance.”

Kay:

Alrighty gang – that means today’s quest is a World AIDS day awareness quest! Today, educate yourself by reading at least one article on AIDS awareness today. It helps to just add those drops in the bucket to warrant educating yourself and getting rid of your own ignorance. Are you ready?

Kay & Shi:

Let’s quest!