ACT UP

I hear that it's the twenty-fifth anniversary of the founding of ACT UP this week, and a time to take note of the effectiveness of civil disobedience at times when government refuses to respond to the clear needs of the citizens it is supposed to serve.

The year was 1987.  Ronald Reagan was still President of the United States.  Americans were dying in their thousands--mostly, but not exclusively gay men.  AIDS was by this time indisputably an epidemic.  And still the President had not seen fit to mention the word AIDS in public.  And still the government had refused to address the issue.

ACT UP changed all that.  Those who participated in its unruly actions--mostly, but not exclusively gay men--refused to abide by the "rules" of conventional behavior.  They rejected the proper channels, which had already proven unresponsive to this national health crisis.  They chose, instead, to "act up."  For this they were vilified by some and ridiculed by others--in part for their sexuality, in part for their bad behavior.  But they persisted.

It is their persistence that has resulted in medical advances that make it possible to control the disease.  It is a human disgrace that, though controllable, the disease continues to ravage victims in many parts of the world.  It is allowed to do so because governments cannot, or choose not to find the money to control it, and because corporations look first to their bottom line and only secondarily to the health of those who buy their products.

Still, ACT UP provides us with an important lesson: that keeping quiet and following the rules of civilized behavior is not necessarily the best way to get results, especially when the cause, though just, is not a popular one.  Sometimes it becomes necessary to scream and yell and, yes, behave badly, if that is what it takes.

I fear that, in America today, the majority of us have been cowed into submissive behavior.  We have allowed ourselves to be herded like sheep by monied interests into acting--and voting--as they want us to. The "Occupy Wall Street" folks had the right idea.  They, too, were swiftly vilified and ridiculed by those whose will they sought to oppose.  My hope is that their message was heard, and that the results run deeper than they appear to at the surface.  May that message surface once again, and powerfully, in this fall's elections.

It's time for a return to sanity, even if that involves some bad behavior.