WORLD aids day.

I think the most important part of today, World Aids Day, is the WORLD part.

It is a disease that affects everyone. No matter your race, gender, sexuality, intellectual level, class, income... it affects everyone. Granted, it is more rampant in some areas than others, but everyone deals with it.

I am usually not a fan of "awareness days"- there are too many and it diminishes the impact of the important ones- but today is one that I fully support. It is something that brings everyone together. I walked into my office building this morning and saw the huge Starbucks sign, about their donations to the cause today. I shall buy a peppermint mocha later on. So many places are doing their part, little by little. And it adds up, it really does.

It makes me happy that people in faraway lands are supporting this day, raising their voices and concerns. It must make people who unfortunately have this disease feel less alone, that the 6 billion people in the world are coming together to try and fight for every single person that has it.

I feel that sometimes, diseases are "in vogue"- it is trendy to care about the environment, it is trendy to support cancer, etc. See: Lance Armstrong's yellow bracelets, Al Gore's multiple and ongoing attempts to rectify this enivornmental crisis that we are contributing to daily. The public's attention wanes quite easily and diseases and causes are pushed away from the forefront in exchange for others.

But World Aids Day reminds people yearly about the lost voices of AIDS victims- and more importantly, of their cause that is not yet forgotten.