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by Mags, 15 January 2007
AND THE BAND PLAYED ON (1993) tells a chilling story of how people don’t always do what is right, and that when we don’t do what is right, inevitably, we all suffer the consequences.
Call it what you will - “karmic cause & effect”, “you reap what you sow”, “what goes around comes around” - it’s all about the same thing, and maybe, just maybe, this is what life is all about: learning to do the right thing, even, when no one is looking.
Sounds preachy huh? … but you’ll understand when you see this truly eye-opening film.
Here’s the story in a nutshell:
In the late 1970’s scientists became aware that there was a strange new disease that had a 100% mortality rate, and at that point in time, they named it “GRID”. Decisive action needed to be taken to halt the spread of this highly contagious DEADLY disease - for which the means of transmission was unknown. MONEY needed to be allocated 1. to research HOW this disease spreads, and 2. to find a CURE.
But the disease seemed to be affecting only gay men, it came to be known as the “homosexual disease”. And because homosexuality was frowned upon by most everyone in the world, perhaps moreso in the 1970’s than it is today, NO ACTION WAS TAKEN AT ALL TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE NEW DISEASE.
THE REASON?
People thought gay men DESERVED to die because they were abhorrent. Phrases like “GOD made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve” which while chuckle-worthy, are a very very fine line away from labeling the speaker as an ignorant bigot. And surely in any “civilised” society it is beyond cruel - it is inhuman - to think any group of people “deserve” to die. Yet, this happened. This is the true story of the start and spread of HIV-AIDS.
By conservative estimates AIDS now kills 3 million men, women and children every year, it is no longer “just” killing gay men.
World Health Organization estimates that AIDS has killed over 25 million people since 1981.
We have now spent many billions of dollars trying to find a cure for AIDS, and because it has now spread to third-world countries with huge populations living in poverty, it is now impossible to stop the spread of AIDS across the planet.
I saw this film in Feburary 1994, and it changed the way I saw the world.
ALARM BELLS went off in my head. I’d always suspected that folks can be pretty uncaring, but this really confirmed it for me. It’s sad now to see that because action wasn’t taken earlier (AND THE CLIMATE CHANGE CRISIS COMES TO MIND HERE, I DON’T KNOW WHY) - to learn that AIDS is spread via blood, and to get that message out, millions of straight men, women and children - untainted by the “sin” of homosexuality - have died or …… are dying of AIDS from something as innocent as donating blood, in America, Europe, Africa, China, and the list goes on… and on… and on… We had a chance to nip this disease in the bud by taking decisive action to find out how it was being spread and thus to stop its spread into the general population, into blood banks … but we didn’t heed scientist’s warnings drawn from the early evidence, that this deadly disease would likely spread like wildfire around the world.
I urge you all to see this film, and I hope you won’t walk away cynical about life because to be cynical is to close the door to life and living life.
At least in small part life is about having a chance to learn from our mistakes and do better - well, at least it is to me.
by Mags, 15 Jan 2007. . . .
Why Anti-Gay Bullying is a Theological Issue
Anglican and Episcopal Churches accept homosexuality and bi-sexuality and consider them to be "morally neutral"
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