From kevyn@KSUVM.KSU.EDU Sat Apr 29 22:21:28 1995 Date: Thu, 27 Apr 1995 15:47:30 -0500 (CDT) From: Kevyn Jacobs To: "Kansas Queer News [KQN]" Subject: Hays: University-Leader Editorial on AIDS Quilt FROM THE UNIVERSITY LEADER FORT HAYS STATE UNIVERSITY HAYS, KANSAS EDITORIAL PAGE APRIL 14, 1995 ========================== >From the editor's desk..... Yesterday, a press conference was held to announce the plans for Fort Hays State to host the AIDS Quilt for a couple of days in September (See related stories, p.1 and p.2). The Quilt is usually associated directly with the horrible disease, AIDS. In reality, hosting the Quilt may cause some controversy on campus and in the community of Hays. Despite the facts, AIDS is not a "gay disease." Regardless, people still see AIDS as a "filthy" illness that God created to punish homosexuals. But despite God's reasoning for creating such a horrible disease, the assumptions are still present. The Quilt does not represent the disease itself, but those lives that it claimed. In spite of how the victims contracted AIDS, every person whose name appears on the Quilt was a human who was loved by someone. When we see each name which has been lovingly embroidered into a quilt, the impact of AIDS may hit a little closer to home. We, as students at FHSU, should fell fortunate to host such a megaphone declaring the impact of AIDS. AIDS kills. But when a person sees the number of quilt blocks laid out on the floor of Gross Memorial Coliseum. the number of people that AIDS kills will become apparent. Unfortunately, AIDS is present in Hays and should be present in our minds. The Quilt will give people the opportunity to reflect upon the fact that soon, every one of us may recognize a name on the Quilt. Support the Quilt. -editorial by Connie Ellerman