1、【著名演讲】A Whisper of AIDS 低语艾滋 Mary Fisher 玛丽费舍尔Less than three months agoat platform hearings in Salt Lake CityI asked the Republican Party to lift the shroud of silence which has been draped over the issue of HIV and AIDSI have come tonight to bring our silence to an end.I bear a message of challeng
2、e not self-congratulation.I want your attention not your applause.I would never have asked to be HIV-positive.But I believe that in all things there is a purpose,and I stand before you and before the nation,gladly.The reality of AIDS is brutally clear.Two hundred thousand Americans are dead or dying
3、 a million more are infected.Worldwide,40 million,60 million or a hundred million infections will be counted in the coming few years.But despite science and research White House meetings,and congressional hearings,despite good intentions and bold initiativescampaign slogans,and hopeful promisesit is
4、,despite it all,the epidemicwhich is winning tonight.In the context of an election year,I ask youhere,in this great hall,or listening in the quiet of your home to recognize that the AIDS virus is not a political creature.It does not care whether you are Democrat or Republican.It does not ask whether
5、 you are black or white,male or female,gay or straightyoung or old.Tonight I represent an AIDS community whose members have been reluctantly drafted from every segment of American society.Though I am white and a mother,I am one with a black infant struggling with tubes in a Philadelphia hospital.Tho
6、ugh I am female and contracted this disease in marriage,and enjoy the warm support of my family,I am one with the lonely gay man sheltering a flickering candle from the cold wind of his familys rejection.This is not a distant threat;it is a present danger.The rate of infection is increasing fastest
7、among women and children.Largely unknown a decade ago AIDS is the third leading killer of young adult Americans today but it wont be third for long.Because,unlike other diseases,this one travels.Adolescents dont give each other cancer or heart disease because they believe they are in love.But HIV is
8、 different.And we have helped it along we have killed each other with our ignorance,our prejudice,and our silence.We may take refuge in our stereotypes,but we cannot hide there long.Because HIV asks only one thing of those it attacksAre you human?And this is the right questionAre you human?Because p
9、eople with HIV have not entered some alien state of being.They are human.They have not earned cruelty and they do not deserve meanness.They dont benefit from being isolated or treated as outcasts.Each of them is exactly what God made,a person.Not evil,deserving of our judgment;not victims,longing fo
10、r our pity.People,ready for support and worthy of compassion.My call to you,my Party,is to take a public stand,no less compassionate than that of the President and Mrs.Bush.They have embraced me and my family in memorable ways.In the place of judgment,they have shown affection.In difficult moments,t
11、hey have raised our spirits.In the darkest hours,I have seen them reaching not only to me,but also to my parents,armed with that stunning grief and special grace that comes only to parents who have themselves leaned too long over the bedside of a dying child.With the Presidents leadership,much good
12、has been done.Much of the good has gone unheralded,and as the President has insisted,much remains to be done.But we do the Presidents cause no good if we praise the American family but ignore a virus that destroys it.We must be consistent if we are to be believed.We cannot love justiceand ignore pre
13、judice,love our children and fear to teach them.Whatever our role as parent or policymaker,we must act as eloquently as we speak else we have no integrity.My call to the nation is a plea for awareness.If you believe you are safe,you are in danger.Because I was not hemophiliac,I was not at risk.Becau
14、se I was not gay,I was not at risk.Because I did not inject drugs,I was not at risk.My father has devoted much of his lifetime guarding against another holocaust.He is part of the generation who heard Pastor Nemoellor come out of the Nazi death camps to say,They came after the Jews,and I was not a J
15、ew,so,I did not protest.They came after the trade unionists,and I was not a trade unionist,so,I did not protest.Then they came after the Roman Catholics,and I was not a Roman Catholic,so,I did not protest.Then they came after me,and there was no one left to protest.The lesson history teaches is this
16、If you believe you are safe,you are at risk.If you do not see this killer stalking your children,look again.There is no family or community,no race or religion,no place left in America that is safe.Until we genuinely embrace this message,we are a nation at risk.Tonight,HIV marches firmly towards AID
17、S in more than a million American homes,littering its pathway with the bodies of the young young men,young women,young parents,and young children.One of the families is mine.If it is true that HIV inevitably turns to AIDS,then my children will inevitably turn to orphans.My family has been a rock of
18、support.My 84-year-old father,who has pursued the healing of the nations,will not accept the premise that he cannot heal his daughter.My mother refuses to be brokenshe still calls at midnight to tell wonderful jokes that make me laugh.Sisters and friends,and my brother Philip(whose birthday is today
19、)all have helped carry me over the hardest places.I am blessed,richly and deeply blessed,to have such a family.But not all of you But not all of you have been so blessed.You are HIV-positive but dare not say it.You have lost loved ones,but you dared not whisper the word AIDS.You weep silently;you gr
20、ieve alone.I have a message for youIt is not you who should feel shame;it is we.We who tolerate ignorance and practice prejudice,we who have taught you to fear.We must lift our shroud of silence,making it safe for you to reach out for compassion.It is our task to seek safety for our children,not in
21、quiet denial but in effective action.Someday our children will be grown.My son Max,now four,will take the measure of his mother.My son Zachary,now two,will sort through his memories.I may not be here to hear their judgments,but I know already what I hope they are.I want my children to know that thei
22、r mother was not a victim.She was a messenger.I do not want them to think,as I once did,that courage is the absence of fear.I want them to know that courage is the strength to act wisely when most we are afraid.I want them to have the courage to step forward when called by their nation or their Part
23、y and give leadership,no matter what the personal cost.I ask no more of you than I ask of myself or of my children.To the millions of you who are grieving,who are frightened,who have suffered the ravages of AIDS firsthand Have courage and you will find support.To the millions who are strongI issue t
24、his pleaSet aside prejudice and politics to make room for compassion and sound policy.To my children,I make this pledgeI will not give in,Zachary,because I draw my courage from you.Your silly giggle gives me hopeyour gentle prayers give me strengthand you,my child,give me the reason to say to Americ
25、aYou are at risk And I will not rest,Maxuntil I have done all I can to make your world safe.I will seek a place where intimacy is not the prelude to suffering.I will not hurry to leave you,my children,but when I go,I pray that you will not suffer shame on my account.To all within the sound of my voiceI appealLearn with me the lessons of history and of graceso my children will not be afraidto saythe word AIDS when I am goneThen their children,and yoursmay not need to whisper it at allGod bless the childrenand God bless us all.Good night.
