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Recently, while having a lengthy conversation on Liberian politics with some good friends, we managed by happenstance, to stumble upon the dicey and often controversial subject regarding the well documented spread of HIV/AIDS in the Liberian-Minnesota community. Just amongst ourselves, we were able to discuss a plethora of reasons for this malady-One of the overwhelming assumptions was the notion that some folks in our community who have been given confirmed diagnoses, are callously having unprotected sex with other unsuspecting residents of the Liberian-Minnesota community.
If this observation holds any water, then it’s not only a vexation to the spirit of community building, but it also runs unparallel to the Judeo-Christian worldview of being our brother’s and sister’s keeper. I had to rub the Judeo-Christian line in because on the surface, we could pass as a community devoid of perversion, and awaiting Jesus‘resurrection. In fact, I have stopped counting the amount of churches in Minnesota. My friend just opened a new one in his living room last week.
Well, let me not get too tangential-I promise to stick to the script and keep it an HIV/AIDS related topic.
While I understand the potential danger of acting on this rather speculative position of folks deliberately infecting others, I am not unaware of the wave of freelance sex amongst and between married and unmarried persons in our community. How many of us do not know someone who’s sleeping with this person, who’s sleeping with that person, who’s sleeping with the other person? By the time you are done reading this paper, more than sixty Liberians residing in Minnesota would have had unprotected sex or plan to have unprotected sex with someone who’s having an established sexual relationship with another person. That the shameful way we roll……
Since it seems like most of us cannot maintain monogamous relationships, then we must do our damnest to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS in our community. This is no attempt at piety on my part; in fact, I have been a big time share holder in this culture of relentless promiscuity, and can only thank the God of Chance for protecting me from HIV/AIDS. Just looking at my little boys on a daily basis is now enough incentive for not trying to layaway their future because of a selfish two-second desire. Yes! I said two seconds………
My aim here is not to preach abstinence or celibacy; I will leave that to the religious talking-heads in our community. I am mainly concerned with putting forth practical solutions to help mitigate the spread of the virus in our community. There is a bucket load of evidence to suggest that the religious community, with all of its affectation and unwillingness to flirt with practical solutions, could do more to ease this problem than just preaching “faith” and abstinence.I am not advocating the public hanging of perpetrators, or the distribution of condoms in the churches, but the church, because of its strong influence in the community could embrace the reality of extreme promiscuity in our community and encourage its members and other folks in the community about condom use as an alternative response to hasty and twisted sexual urges.
If you have been diagnosed with the HIV virus and must get your “groove on”, you have a manifest obligation to use condoms and other protective measures to insure the safety of your sexual partner. I don’t believe it is too outlandish to ask that you come clean and tell the other person you are sleeping with, that you are infected. In Minnesota, You are not only morally, but also legally culpable for knowingly infecting another person with the HIV/AIDS. No one is asking that you walk around with a banner proclaiming that you are HIV positive, but just remember there are serious personal and collateral consequences when you start having unprotected sex with others after you have been diagnosed: You could spend a loooong time incarcerated, you leave a lot of kids parentless, you deplete the woman/man power in the community, and the list goes on…
Unprotected sex is a serious issue in our midst; if you cannot help, but to have multiple sexual partners, then you must practice safe sex. Like I was just telling a friend who boasts that she’s taking care of another person’s husband: if you must dip, make sure you have a rubber on your hip.
The idea of preaching abstinence is not working as effectively as our folks in the church have been led to believe, we must co-construct this notion with other practical approaches. The church and other religious and social institutions benefit a lot more when they embrace other unorthodox approaches outside religion to dealing with HIV/AIDS instead of waiting for some metaphysical or cosmic intervention.
If you are in the Liberia-Minnesota community and living with HIV/AIDS, avoid putting others at risk; If there is a guy or girl who’s pushing you into getting rid of your inhibition and have unprotected sex with him/her, tell that person that you have a communicable disease that is potentially life threatening, if that person insists, well, then use good judgment, put your rubber on …………
I am not going to end this piece with an ALTAR CALL-Praying alone just doesn’t cut it; I want to remind you of the moral implications of leaving a teenage or three-year old boy or girl to fend for himself or herself, or at the mercy of some busy relative who just might not be able to provide the necessary environment to raise that teenager or three-year old you put on this Earth. Before you can “drop it like it’s hot”, just ask yourself, is this really worth it, should I put others and the people I love at risk because of my penchant for one minute of ecstasy?
As we say in the helping profession, prevention is better than intervention.
Editor’s Note: Paul Jackson can be reached at elpaulay@yahoo.com
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