gerri@watson.ibm.com (Gerri Oppedisano) (06/28/91)
Jack.. I don't post my reactions in this newgroup to impress people. I'm just stating my feelings/reactions in the same way that you did. I don't think I've "made a fool out of myself" even if I had misinterpretted your real message. You refer to the Innocent Victim disease a number of times in your posting implying that Ms Bergalis is no more Innocent than the two 23 year olds you can point to who are suffering from the same disease, and also implying that she should be just as prepared for death and what comes with dying as these other people. I reacted to that. I wasn't trying to say that she was in fact More Innocent but that her situation is Less Common which is why it is harder to accept. So the feelings of hostility and anger and self pity are under- standable to me. Her condition while dying may not be special by comparison to the condition of anyone else who is dying of AIDS, but her situation for being in this condition is and this intensifies her/Newsweek's reaction to her condition. I agreed with you in that perhaps all the over dramatization may not be necessary but it's there to put a point across strongly. It's done all the time. You also, I feel, contradict yourself by saying, on the one hand, that Ms Bergalis and the rest of the American public should be very aware of the details regarding AIDS (had they a TV set at least or had they been at all conscious in the last 10 years), yet, on the other hand, you feel the dramatiz- ation of the details of this particular situation will shock and horrify the public as if most people are uninformed and are easily led astry by Newsweek articles. Which is it? Do you think people should know better by now (and therefore, presumably will be well informed enough to interpret a Newsweek article without becoming hysterical) or do you think the general public doesn't know enough (in which case, what is your problem with Ms. Bergalis' elevated self pity?)? I don't think I got details of Dr. Benson garbled. I merely went by what you'd stated. People have expressed that he had examined people without protective gloves.. I explicitely stated in my posting that IF he was doing this and IS active with ANY infectious disease, my opinion is that he is in the wrong. You had mentioned that all this concentration on his "oozing sores" etc.. was the biggest dramatization to get the public hysterical and it seemed that this angered you which is why I made mention of it at all. I think you reacted emotionally to the Newsweek article as well as many others will. It doesn't seem that the subject is an easy one to speak "purely intellectually" about. Who is being self righteous? It's a touchy subject and you don't seem any more calm, cool and collected about it than the people who may be terrified by this article. gerri@watson.ibm.com