September 11, 2001 will mark a new low point in the history of atrocious, cruel murder of US civilians. It also will mark a new self-consciousness for the people of the US. The September 11 events hurl us into a fearful situation that the rest of the world has had to live with for many years. We no longer get to live our lives without looking over our shoulders all the time for potential attack. We are horrified at our losses and confused about how to respond, how to take care of ourselves. I offer this reprint of a 1991 Being Alive Newsletter article and some afterthoughts to engage readers in some thinking about how people with HIV/AIDS might bring our experience to bear on the tragic events of September 11 and the continuing aftermath.

Why We Should Oppose the War
People with AIDS have good reasons to oppose the war in the Persian Gulf.

First, we know what a life and death struggle is about: 100,000 of us have died, and we don't want to see this government waste any more lives. Anyone concerned about human life will oppose this war.

Second, just like the AIDS epidemic, this war will kill a disproportionate number of people of color -- for the same economic and social reasons. Our fight to save lives has taught us that racial inequalities must be opposed, and therefore we oppose this war.

Third, we know that this government will waste $10 billion a month on the war and will steal that money from the already-under funded programs for health care and education and social services. War is good for Wall Street, but is death for the men and women who must live or die on government economic support.

In the ten years of the AIDS epidemic we have watched the US invade Grenada and Panama and fund its contra proxies to destroy Nicaragua. The US also supported Iraq and Kuwait during this period, despite the fact that we know these countries were not democratic. We know this is not a war to preserve democracy. If the US were a defender of democracy, we would have led the worldwide fight against apartheid. If this country were a democracy, President Bush would have listened to our cries for adequate health care. Instead he rushed into the Gulf War and is destroying the lives of both American men and women and people in the Persian Gulf.

Yes, People with AIDS oppose this war and we call on the Congress and the Administration to end it now. Money for health care, not for war! Fight AIDS, not Iraq!

I am dragging this article out of the dustbin of history to remind myself and others that we have faced tragedy before and had the clarity to respond with compassion and to insist on real justice and mercy. The nationalist patriotism we might feel now, because we are scared, has not always been our feeling about the government. We were angry with the US government in 1991, because thousands were dying of AIDS. Ten years later, in 2001, more than 500,000 women and men have died of AIDS complications in this country alone.

In the year 2000, the United Nations said that AIDS was the greatest threat to world security. Al Gore, dogged by AIDS activists, told the assembled nations that the US would fight AIDS. But Americans historically have little interest in international affairs. We have been shocked and dismayed at the idea that people in other places, of other religions or political beliefs, dislike us. I believe the truth is more complicated. Through a lot of traveling in underdeveloped countries, I have learned that most people like Americans, but they are really angry at our government. They see our government, our military, our trade and debt regulations, as oppressive and selfish.

People with AIDS in this country should know what that is like. We were ignored by Reagan and Bush, and we fought the government for what we needed, against prejudice and neglect. ACT UP was the target of FBI anti-terrorist wiretapping and surveillance then.

But, many will say, this is different. Now barbaric, deranged individuals and shadowy networks of terrorists don't just hate, they kill. It's true in most ways that the terrorist networks are fighting for a hateful illusion of a fundamentalist religious world government. But terrorism is a long-term strategy -- an ugly one, but a conscious strategy -- to create fear and hatred. It is used by weak opponents of powerful institutions. Terrorism has been denounced as the main enemy by every president since Carter: the TV recently reminded me of Libya, the Pan Am hijacking, the embassy bombings. Our experience of terror is not unique. Terror attacks occur every day in scores of countries around the world.

The US is the only superpower left, made even more super by the deluge of American goods that the terrorists think are ungodly. Much of the conflict is really a result of globalization of the marketplace and US efforts to keep "stability" through military interventions. Immediately after the Gulf War, President George Bush angered the Muslim world by leaving intact the "temporary" military bases in Saudi Arabian places sacred to Islam. (We were already funding the Taliban by then, as we did again, just a few months ago, to stop the growth of opium poppies.) The US government has supported many organizations that are seen as terrorists by the people who are victimized in the Middle East, in Central America, in Africa.

In the last 10 years, the US has staged splashy interventions in Somalia, Bosnia and Kosovo. Will big military strikes even hurt the terrorist networks? Who will die if the US and other armies attack places in Afghanistan or other Central Asian countries? The answer is American soldiers and Asian women and children, who are already being killed for "irreligious acts." Death from the skies is what we have suffered. Why would we want to retaliate in a way that is not going to stop clandestine networks and will only cause more suffering and hatred?

I am sad to think we have finally been made to live with terrorism, just like the rest of the world. We have to learn to live with the consequences of US government actions and our own inability to see other people, other countries as they really are. Recovering from the terror attacks for me means renewed demands for health care and justice, here and everywhere.

People who live with AIDS and the stigma of AIDS realize that our enemies are hatred and greed. Hatred and greed are also the real enemies of ordinary people in the US and every other place around the world. We have fought with the US government to obtain decent health care and simple justice. Why can't we use this horrible, shocking attack as motivation to declare war on hatred and greed, not on the people of Central Asia who have suffered longer than we have? Money for healthcare, for peace and justice, not for war! Fight AIDS, not Afghanistan!

Ferd Eggan was Executive Director of Being Alive from 1990 to 1992, and has just retired on disability from his post as Los Angeles City AIDS Coordinator. He can be reached at ferdeggan@aol.com

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