Myths Dispelled: Rae Lewis Thornton comes to Butler University

I had no idea someone could be as strong as Rae Lewis-Thornton. To me, she was the symbol of pride, knowledge, adn caring prevention. While many members of the church were in attendance at her talk on Friday, March 9th in the Reilly Room at Butler, her talk was not what an orthodox individual would call "holy." Luckily for most people there, we weren't orthodox@ In her speech, I felt that she was putting every aspect of her life on display. While she mainly talked about the social and physical aspects of living with first HIV, and then 7 years later AIDS, I felt I knew more about her whole being than I had ever experienced at any convocation. This is exactly what is needed. Rae Lewis-Thornton is more than a poster-person or speaker for HIV/AIDS awareness; it has become her mission in life to spread the truth in a manner that hits straight to the heart like an arrow.

 As a young person, I could not fully picture HIV/AIDS through the statistics that were presented at the beginning of the presentation on behalf of the Ryan White Planning Council because it made me feel small: just a statistic of probability. Yet when Rae Lewis-Thornton took the stage, she drew the whole audience in. When she incorporated those statistics, they became much more meaningful to everyone: more comprehensible. Also, topics that had never even crossed my mind became relevant and clear, through her wonderfully guided discussion.

The most important point Ms. Thornton spoke on was the fact that young people these days are either unaware that AIDS can be deadly (because we now have so many drugs that help treat HIV/AIDS), or do not care about possibly contracting HIV because there are drugs to help treat it. This is a shocking and sad truth. The youth of our nation is becoming infected at a high rate that is entirely preventable. Ms. Thornton's stories about many of the physically painful and emotionally humbling experiences through which she has lived illuminated my hope to help young people understand the dangers of HIV/AIDS and any other STI. She assured us that attempting the "do as I say, but not as I do" method is seriously ineffective and is not doing our children any favors. If we truly want to aim for prevention, we have to be real with our youth and explain to them exactly the prevention efforts they can take, and we must do so in a style they understand. Infection is NOT inevitable.

Abby
Teen Damien Youth Advisory Council Member
Butler University