“The Call” Act Three “Defiance”

Written for the 30th Anniversary of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation

September 29, 2012

Tomorrow is World AIDS Day.

“This year, by Royal Decree, the United States will not be acknowledging The Day, The Epidemic or The more than 700,000 Loved Ones lost…killed by The Virus…just in the United States.”

“Given this egregious, aggressive, shameful and eminently heartless cancellation of World AIDS Day recognition, I offer this four minute read of Act Three - Including Keith Boykin’s “Exhortation to a Weary Army,” articulating the inexhaustible energy it took to take on our governing bodies and save lives.

I believe it is critical for fresh and empathetic eyes to absorb this story, and for we who were there to re-ignite the flame lest this be forgotten.

I thank you, again, for reading.

We Must Never Forget.

KO

Act Three - “Defiance”

ACT UP! FIGHT BACK! FIGHT AIDS!

PEOPLE WITH AIDS ARE UNDER ATTACK! WHAT DO WE DO? ACT UP! FIGHT BACK!

GEORGE BUSH, YOU CAN’T HIDE. WE CHARGE YOU WITH GENOCIDE!

<One, Full Minute of shouting and thundering TAIKO drums.>

Voiceover

“Blindsided by HIV, decimated by AIDS, obstructed and blocked by a bureaucracy that could neither comprehend nor respond to what was happening, ignored by our government and dismissed as expendable… We had finally had enough.

After gathering to take care of ourselves and our loved ones, after creating Community out of virulent chaos and from that, creating the San Francisco Model of Care; we looked about us with the realization that our dying by the thousands wasn’t dramatic enough to capture the attention of and elicit action from our own governments.

So, we took to the streets.

Taking a lesson from our own recent history; we gathered in force to get in the face of our inactive leaders and a general population who were choosing to look the other way. From “Die-In’s” at the Centers for Disease Control and in the streets of cities from New York to San Francisco, to closing rush-hour traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge; we got their attention and caused the release of medicines, the focus of resources, the movement of those bureaucracies such that the help our communities needed on myriad fronts began finally to materialize…”

Sixteen years into this war with no end in sight. The Death Toll mounts.

Evolving from bewildered victims to angry and aggressive activists, refusing to simply die and disappear; we became a Voice, a Presence, a Force with which to be Reckoned. By the early ’90’s, over Eighteen Thousand had died in San Francisco, alone; yet even our President had yet to utter a word on AIDS. This nation needed awakening, and awaken it, we did.

Marches, Demonstrations at the Seats of our governments, Die-In’s at the Centers for Disease Control and in the streets of our home Cities… If our nation won’t respond to our perishing, we will force our leaders to pay attention, and to lead: we will make our country pay attention to us, and we will get our medicines released to us.

And we succeeded.

We continue to succeed.

Now, it has been 30 years since the war started, and over 25 million people have perished. Last year, more than 3 million people died of AIDS. That’s three million coffins, three million eulogies, three million families.

And this war is far from over. Every 10 seconds, someone on the planet dies of AIDS. More than 8,000 people will die today from this disease. Nearly 1000 of them will die before we leave this room, tonight.

Many of us here tonight know all too well the toll that AIDS has taken. We have been fighting this war, battle by battle, deep in the trenches, out on the front lines for decades. And many of us are tired. When we go to the AIDS Grove in Golden Gate Park, when we simply remember what we have lost, when we visit the Quilt; we are understandably heartbroken, for we see more than names and patches sewn into a fabric; we see the faces of our friends, lovers, brothers, sisters, parents and children.

We have fought the good fight, but we are a weary army in desperate need of comfort and assurance. So as we gather tonight, we have come to a turning point in this conflict. The poet Essex Hemphill tells us that he conquered his sorrow after the loss of a good friend by taking up the cause of his friend. “When my brother fell, I picked up his weapons,” he said.

As did Hemphill: so we must pick up the weapons left behind by our sisters and brothers in the struggle. To those who have gone before us, we honor them not by erecting new statues on pedestals, but by finishing the work that they began.

Our gathering tonight is not only an acknowledgement, a memorial; but this is our call for a rededication. Tonight we commit ourselves not just to the legacy of the dead, but also to the hopes of the living. We pledge to be vigilant in this fight until victory is won.

As long as 40 million people on this planet are living with AIDS, we cannot give up. As long as 5 million people are infected with HIV every year, we cannot give up. As long as there is one person living with this virus, we cannot give up. Until there is a cure, there must be a fight.

Make no mistake about it, the cavalry will not come to save us. But this is not the time to wave the white flag of surrender. This is the time to fight back. You see, we are the cavalry. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. This is our moment in history. We are closer to victory than we may realize, and we have come too far to turn back now. So let us move forward!

We are morally bound to Answer This Call.

Battle fatigued and war weary, we march on.

Sometimes beaten but never defeated, we march on.

Down but not out, we march on.

In memory of yesterday, we march on.

With courage for today, we march on.

With hope for tomorrow, we march on.

Will you answer…?

“Exhortation to a Weary Army”

Written and Performed by Keith Boykin

First presented at the Opening Ceremonies for Gay Games VII - Chicago’s Soldier Field - June 2006

“The Call” Act Three “Defiance”

“The Call” Act Four “Gravity Defied…?”

“The Call” Act Two “Triage”