Essay Example on Afraid to Die: HIV/AIDS Reality in South Carolina

The article Afraid to Die by Skerritt Andrew is about a minor community in South Carolina, where it focuses on the study of the HIV/AIDS catastrophe in the South. This research that is conducted there in the South reveals the hard realities of an ongoing and complicated matter. Skerritt opposes that the government of the United States has failed to effectively talk about the threat of HIV and AIDS in the societies of color and that taboos concerning sexuality, race, and love combined with the traditions of the South, oppression of the Black, and privilege of the whites continue to lead to an intolerable death toll. The outcomes of the study are mostly exhibited at the municipality's isolated burial region where masses of young black women and men, whose death was because of HIV and AIDS, have been buried. According to Skerrett, he says that this is not only a tale, but a true story, of how an individual's boundless forgiveness, continuing love, and faith can motivate other people by acting as guides for unfortunate societies that are experiencing a hazard of public health burdened with social resolutions and differing moral (Skerritt, 2011).

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Skerrett narrates how he had attended a church seminar in Rock Hill, and the Reverend Patricia Ann Starr was the guest speaker because she had gained publicity due to her engagement with the people living with HIV and AIDS. According to Skerrett, Reverend Patricia grew up in a very rough neighborhood, and she made through all these harsh conditions, and that is why she is qualified for the redemption and grace mission (Skerritt, 2011). During the Seminar, Reverend Patricia talked about how HIV and AIDS pandemic is killing people in her town.

She addressed the mothers and daughters telling that in her neighborhood, people would have sex in exchange for currency so that they would escape the poverty they were living in. They wanted the quickest way to gain money, and this leads to more pain due to domestic violence, child abuse, poverty, and unemployment. In the article, the art of Final Call, Reverend Patricia talks about a girl known as Carolyn, who is in her final stage of HIV and AIDS, Full-blown Stage (Skerritt, 2011). Carolyn had taken narcotics for a long time, and even this time, it was not her first time to take an overdose because she felt reckless about her life.

Acting as a Journalist for the local newspaper, Skerrett wrote about Carolyn's illness and the ways her sister would help other people from undergoing the same suffering as Carolyn. Carolyn's sister Tricia Ann had kept watch over Carolyn for over a decade, and she was afraid now that her sister's life must be coming to an end because Carolyn kept seeing her brother who died a long time ago due to diabetes complications. Watching her sister lay there dying, Tricia thought that it was God's reason for her to watch people on their death beds, and this made Tricia get scared.

The doctor's examined Carolyn and said that, and he said that her disease had gone too far, and it was getting worse. There was a moment of silence until Carolyn spoke in a hoarse sound, asking if she was going to die. Carolyn asked this as she was looking at her sister with pity eyes, which looked like they were asking for more time to live on earth. This sign showed that Carolyn was afraid to die, and somehow she was regretting having taken an overdose of the narcotics.

The doctor said that he did not want to get very emotional with patients, but here he hugged her and told Carolyn that the best thing is that she got a sister like Tricia, who knows how to pray, and Tricia confirmed that she would pray for her sister. Tricia was happy to see the doctor was compassionate with her sister because it was rare to find such a doctor, and this gave Carolyn some hopes even though Tricia felt that there was some information that the doctor did not tell them. At this time, Tricia remembered other times she was with her mother and sister at the hospital to bid goodbye to a man who also had HIV and AIDS (Skerritt, 2011). She remembered the look on their faces, and this made her worry that her sister was going to die.

The doctor told them that he would assign a nurse who would take care of Carolyn as she was receiving her treatment, and this was good news for both of them. Tricia felt pity for her little sister, although there was nothing much she could no, and she knew that she had done everything possible to save the life of her sister. This is because even when Carolyn was addicted to narcotics, she would sell her sister's clothes so that she would get money to buy the drugs, and despite all the wrongs that Carolyn did to her sister, Tricia was there to help during her full-blown stage.

At South Carolina, on Rock Hill, Reverend Patricia told the people that no matter how hard life becomes, do not engage in unprotected sex because AIDS does not choose a victim, no matter who you are, you are going to be infected. She told them not to believe the rumors that were spreading, stating that HIV and AIDS are only affecting gay people. This is because since the AIDS epidemic occurred in 1981, the disease had infected both men and women, way beyond the gay community and, Carolyn was one of the victims (Skerritt, 2011). Many people of the South who had HIV AND aids were afraid to die, but they were assigned to counselors, who showed them ways to live HIV and how to reduce the rate of it spreading. Many victims got hope from the counselors, and they knew that their life was not over even though they were infected with HIV and AIDS.

Reference

Skerritt, A. J. (2011). Ashamed to Die. Chicago Review Press. Retrieved from https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=dsEbjtW1n9QC&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=Skerritt,+A.+J.+(2011).+Afraid+to+die:+Silence,+denial,+and+the+AIDS+epidemic+in+the+south.+Chicago:+Lawrence+Hill+Books.&ots=5VksPOv9KE&sig=EaRZ12MQdpa4zROjHvjpWYnbPqw