Aids Mary Fisher Speech On Aids Summary

The first case of HIV was diagnosed in 1968. Within the next three decades it became the leading cause of death for adults 25 to 44 years old. AIDS is the final stage of HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) , a virus that ravages the immune system leaving the body susceptible to multiple infections. In the public’s mind HIV/AIDS was a disease that belonged to intravenous drug users, homosexuals, and others in an unfortunate and stigmatized group. On August 19th 1992, Mary Fisher, a young, white, wed, mother of two, addressed the Republican National Convention using repetition, argument of fact, and emotional appeal to open the conversation of AIDs and end the shame faced by those that find themselves infected. “ It does not care whether you
They are human.” “ Are you human?”, a leading question inviting people of a shared party, with shared values, to address their stance on AIDS; to evaluate the AIDS epidemic not as a foreign struggle but as a universal threat and view people infected not only as abhorrences and victims but instead as people. To further this point she utilizes repetition to
Defying the assumptions of the physicality she addresses the similarities shared by all AIDS/HIV victims saying “Though I am white and a mother, I am one with a black infant struggling with tubes in a Philadelphia hospital. Though 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 family’s rejection.” She like the hypothetical baby in Philadelphia are one of hundreds of those infected not of their own accord. She like the gay man harbored by a lone flickering candle face the alienation of their prognosis, which motivates her to stand for those that can’t to end the reproach of the millions worldwide that are infected with AIDS/HIV. “To all within the sound of my voice, I appeal: Learn with me the lessons of history and of grace, so my children will not be afraid to say the word "AIDS" when I am gone. Then, their children and yours may not need to whisper it at all.” Fear of the disease came second to the fear of addressing it openly, in this remark she describes the need for increased education on the matter so that future generations can address the problem of AIDS/HIV without fear but dignity; ending the