Columbus day is federal holiday that comes around on October 12 every year. I’m happy that I live in America. I know someone had to discover it and set up shop for me to be here, but I don’t like how it was done. I don’t like that on October 12, 1492, Christopher Columbus stopped sailing the ocean blue, landed on the East Coast, and began the longest-running, most deadly genocide history has seen. The number of those killed during the Native American holocaust far exceeds the number of Jews that were killed in World War II. Not only were Native American’s murdered but the millions, but they were exposed to European diseases that their bodies had no prior immunity to. Along with being slaughtered by Europeans for their land, they were dying off in massive numbers from diseases like Smallpox and Measles. It’s true. Can’t be refuted.
I know that Columbus’s discovery of the New World gave way to Western society as we know it and for that I am thankful, but I can’t help but feel sorry at the same time. His discovery of the New World will always trump the genocide that Columbus incited in stories ans school lesson, but I believe it is also important for people to know what that discovery cost the indigenous populations that lived peacefully in the Americas long before we did. If it were up to me we would have Native American History month in October. This would work the same as Black History Month. We would learn about, and perpetuate programs to help Native American cultures regrow.

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The good news is that even though Lubbock County has seen the diagnosed cases of HIV triple this year, worldwide, there has been new HIV infections have dropped 17 percent. More good news is that people living with HIV has increased and AIDS deaths have decreased due to antiretroviral drug therapy. This means that we are getting better a fighting the devastating effects of the disease and our prevention efforts are working. Lubbock is another story. If Lubbock would stop looking the other way and actually teach kids to use condoms rather than abstain, we might actually be moving in a positive direction like the rest of the world. With all of the sex on TV and other media that kids are exposed to, it’s a pipe dream to think that most of them will wait for marriage. Our society is becoming more open and accepting toward sex whether Lubbock likes it or not. Until a cure for AIDS is discovered it is crucial to do all we can to educate people into doing what they can to prevent the spread of the disease. HIV is a highly virulent pathogen. The main reason it is so dangerous is because the virus allows it’s host to live for a very long time and without even knowing that he or she has become infected. Infections like Hantavirus and Ebola on the other hand, produce symptoms and kill their hosts very rapidly. It is easier to stop these disease via quarantines and treatments since they are so easy to spot. If we can continue to to drag down the numbers of people becoming infected with HIV each year there is hope that we can stop this disease as well.

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In Lubbock on the news for the past few days they have been talking about the increase in cases of HIV coming out. Last year, there were 11 confirmed new cases of HIV in Lubbock county total, and already this year there have been over 29 cases. So right now we’re sitting at around three times as many as last year. They’re blaming it on a lack of education, which I can see as being true. I just wish people understood that these are their lives. Not just, oh no I have to get some pills to fix this, but LIVES are at stake. I don’t understand why public schools refuse to educate kids before they get into these situations. We can turn a blind eye only so long, these new cases being evidence for that. I hope me writing this right now is at least getting to someone, if only one person. Simple education can help this. Wear a condom. Go get tested. Limit your partners. I’d rather you didn’t, but if you’re going to do it, be as safe as you can. Parents, talk to your kids. I understand it’s an uncomfortable thing to discuss but it’s on you to protect your children and educate them to keep them safe. If you never told them not to touch the stove, why wouldn’t they try it if they really wanted to? Warn them. Protect them. Educate them. TALK to them and let them know you’re there and not going to just punish them for being curious. This is something you just can’t pretend isn’t going on to make yourself feel better.

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