This is from January 2015.
It is a difficult read, I haven’t read all of it yet.
Ruth Coker Burks, the cemetery angel.
This is where I’m supposed to say something like “Faith in Humanity Restored!”, but being me, I can’t help feeling angry that Ruth had to do so much because others, who should have, refused to do anything.
Why is it some, like Ruth, used her religious beliefs to help people, while so many others were using it to hate and to condemn people with AIDS. Stupid question, I know.
Isn’t that a bit like asking why do some true communists slave people in camps to die whilst other true communists live like saints ?
The creed doesn’t define the man.
Well, I did say it was a stupid question.
Bolding mine.
I applaud Ruth and her efforts but I gotta ask, what are you doing for people with AIDS?
Today? Nothing.
In the early 80’s I was at one of the first Candle Light Marches in L.A., I attended several more over the years. I donated money when I could, which wasn’t very often. I volunteer with STOP AIDS L.A. several times. In '86 I marched with STOP AIDS L.A. in the Gay Pride Parade. I also put up with a lot of crap from family, friends, and coworkers about being gay. (Lots of gay people had to deal with a lot worst.)
In '95 I moved to San Francisco, I did a number of 1day/ short term volunteer events for different AIDS groups.
I could have/should have done more. My mental heath issues have FUBAR ever aspect of my life for decades. Poor excuse, I know.
Do I pass? Did I do enough to be able to bitch about families who abandon children/siblings because they were gay, because they were sick? What about the clergy who refused to have anything to do people who died from AIDS?
This was a bad idea. I’ll just shut up now.
No, Foggy, it wasn’t a bad idea, it was a wonderful idea. Don’t let one poster get you down.
Bless you too, really!
This. It’s a bit like hearing the stories of Oscar Schindler or Harriet Tubman; unlike rescuing someone from a “shit happens” plane crash or something, the actions of these people were required because other people - a great many other people, it seems- were cruel monsters.
From looking at your other posts, you just like antagonizing people.
Foggy, it’s a good thread that asks some tough questions. Don’t go away.
Foggy, it’s good to see you on here. You’d been on my mind.
Thanks for starting the thread. I’d never heard of Ruth Coker Burks. I’m pleased to have learned about her today.
Oh, boo hoo. You know what would have been a good, even great, OP? “Ruth Coker was a great person. My faith in humanity is restored! *” Instead he then condemed the rest of the world *for not doing what he thought they should have.
15 years ago I lost a close friend to suicide. Since then I have been manning crisis help lines weekly. I also give a lot of time, money and effort to a grass roots organization to stop climate change. There is nothing inherently special about helping AIDS victims to the exclusion of other charities.
Good for the OP that he has put in his time. It’s a worthy endeavor. I heartily applaud his sacrifice. But there are literally hundreds of thousands of worthy causes that need good souls help with. Sorry my humanitarian efforts don’t meet the OP’s expectations.
Suicide isn’t contagious. Thankfully, neither is stupidity, because if you’re thin-skinned enough to think that “why was so many people whose JOBS was to help people with AIDS not doing it?” was a personal attack on you, you’re as self-centered as a black hole.
Unless you happen to be one of those medics or cementery workers who refused to even touch someone who had AIDS or who had died of it, of course. If you are, whine away.
Well then, there’s your problem.
He never at any point said that everyone should have helped. He simply said that those who should have helped didn’t. And, if you actually know anything about the AIDS situation in the time period in question, what he said is not remotely untrue.
This is a woman who had to voluntarily take care of these people only because the institutions that normally handle medical crises refused to touch it. It was a punishment from God for those horrible gays.
There’s nothing at all wrong with him being upset that the institutions failed. In fact, it’s good that he’s not glossing over that and being all rosy about it. What this woman did was great, but we can’t lose sight of the fact that she shouldn’t have had to do it.
nvm. Not sure how to ask without getting in trouble myself.
I changed my Facebook profile pic. I’ve done my part in saving the world.
Reading about this woman brought back so many memories from that heartbreaking era. My brother was one of the ones who lost so many friends during those years before coming down with the virus himself somewhere around 1990. My father never abandoned him and took him back in when he could no longer manage on his own.
I did what I could to hold him together but, unfortunately, his story ended with suicide 9 years ago.