14,000

That's how many people --- men, women and children --- will be infected with HIV/AIDS today, which happens to be World AIDS Day. 25 years ago, AIDS was considered a "gay disease", that would never effect those outside of that community. In the intervening years, we have learned the disastrous consequences of that kind of thinking, and the bigotry and callousness that permitted it. Governments and health organizations took no action as the epidemic spread across the country and the world, infecting millions, all with no chance of survival. AIDS remains, with the exception of a wealthy few, a certain death sentence. 40,000,000 people are currently infected with AIDS, all destined to meet their death at its ruthless hands. AIDS reaches across race, gender, nationality, religion and socio-economic status; it doesn't matter who you are.

For the 25 million people who have died from AIDS, and the 40 million currently infected with the virus, not to mention their friends and families, take a moment of slence today. Lives have been taken and irrevokably shattered by HIV/AIDS and its consequences. If you have any money to spare during this holiday season, please think about the lives that have been ruined and families torn apart and consider donating to an HIV/AIDS related cause, either for a cure, education, or support. This epidemic will not, contrary to earlier thinking, go away on its own.