thought from "A Closer Walk"

A while back, I caught a screening of a film called A Closer Walk (ACW). I was part of a year-long event called "Ann Arbor/Ypsi Reads" where a topic is chosen, and throughout the year, various events are planned around that book/theme. This movie goes around the world, showing how HIV/AIDS is affecting the world on different levels - the lives and various struggles and accomplishments of those living with the disease, the families/communities/orphans left behind by those that succumb, and those that are working to effect change.

So with that introduction, I bring you the reactions/responses I had during the movie. (Yes, I take notes sometimes while watching movies) To wit...

----------------
Sorrow/sympathy for the children affected by the disease?

I don't particularly care about the children.

I DO feel sorrow/sympathy for anyone that suffers so. Their age is irrelevant.

----------------
I despise people who use children as weapons and resent that one might think it an effective rhetorical tool.

Not talking about child soldiers here, or even loading up a catapult and using them as projectiles. Talking about the ubiquitous "it's for the children" pulling on the heart strings, as if that gives free reign to say/do whatever outrageous thing you want as long as it's "for the children". (increasing the nuclear stockpile to protect our children's freedom, for example)

On the TV news, you can hear it in the description of the escaped fugitive being brought in, and how he is cooperating with authorities now that he got caught again because "he just wants to see his children before going back to jail". Well, if his children are so important to him, maybe he should have avoided jail in the first place... and even if he was wrongfully convicted and is a victim of the system, maybe he should have thought of his children before his escape attempt guaranteed his ineligibility for early release.

In ACW we meet a woman living with HIV/AIDS, her husband having died a year ago, and along the way you hear about crushing poverty and famine on top of the disease, and how her story is especially tragic because she'll leave her 4 children orphaned. She has this symptom... she has that symptom... she has 4 children. Maybe along the way, in a perpetually drought/famine-ridden area, when you have 3 children, a 4th might be a BAD IDEA. Or when you have 2, a 3rd might be a bad idea. And for stupid honkies in rich countries... when you have 5 children, having a 6th or 7th is a bad idea too. Don't complain about being strapped for cash constantly when you had all the fun breeding but couldn't be bothered to use a condom.

Why do people just ignore this and fail to connect this notion of over-population with strain on resources to feed that population? There are 6 billion people in the world. If you can't feed your kids, STOP HAVING MORE OF THEM. Yes, this will interfere with your god-given right to breed like bunnies, but if you exercise that god-given right recklessly, then you are assured of the god-given privilege of watching them starve and die if a drought comes.

----------------
I get choked up/teared up by the tragedy of suffering of so many who are often powerless to protect themselves. But what have I done about it? Did I just go to a movie, have a weepy moment, and that's it? What's the point if that's all...

What's the point of all the little red ribbons that are such fashionable accessories? "Oh, I think I'll put on my Compassion Accessory to go out to the club tonight..."

Awareness is a start. Knowledge is the next step. Talk follows. But it's Action that's the place where it becomes real instead of just a warm feeling. I'm not an HIV/AIDS activist and don't plan to become one just because I saw a movie, but I think the progression applies to anything that you think you care about.

What-you-do carries more weight than what-you-think.