Would the repeal of the ACA bring back literal die-in protests?
Last week, I watched the documentary How to Survive a Plague, about the AIDS protests and direct actions of the 1980′s and early 1990′s. It was equal parts enlivening and grim. It made me think about how powerful people can be when they get together in person; and how desperately and loudly a marginalized group can advocate for itself when circumstances are dire. And worst of all, I thought: this is where we’re heading again.
I think everyone should watch this doc, especially if, like me, you were too young during the AIDS crisis to really follow it or understand its gargantuan impact. It is important for us to remember that recent history, regardless. But now it is vital that we remember the devotion and passion of our forebears, because we’ll need to revive some of their tactics and their grit.
If the ACA is repealed, we may see activists holding die-ins again. Sick people might have to be pulled from protests on stretchers, lifted from where they laid down. We might once again see the dead bodies of activists marched down the streets and deposited at representative’s offices. Ashes of the unfairly killed may once again be forcibly scattered across the White House lawn. All of us, especially those of us who are still healthy or able, will need to organize, chant, fill halls, clamber outside offices, disrupt events, scream difficult questions, and demand, as these AIDS activists did, that healthcare is a right.
These people gave everything to save themselves and the sick people they loved. They quit jobs. They left home and comfort and hospital beds. They screamed outside of offices and filled Catholic churches with throngs of people bearing condoms. They covered a representative’s house in a giant fake condom. They carried the bodies of their fallen down the streets. They mourned. They thrashed with indignation. They filled the halls of federal buildings and hospitals and made the people responsible for their deaths look them in the face. They made out in emergency rooms to fight AIDS stigma. They bought drugs illegally from overseas sources and distributed them. Many of them became self-taught experts in the progression of the disease, and spread their knowledge of medications, side effects, and terminal symptoms far and wide, even educating doctors. They interrupted presidential debates and rallies. They fought until they died. Or until the right drug was found.
This is what we will have to do if we want Americans to get and keep the healthcare that they need. We have more numbers now. We have better tools for organizing and disseminating information. We are, in some ways, a more unified and less prejudiced society, or at least one where the marginalized can find one another and speak their truths more easily. We have the power to fight this repeal with everything we’ve got. We can give them hell until our dying breaths. Thankfully, many of us aren’t actually dying. Yet. We need to fight for those who are.
The doc is on Netflix, by the way. Give it a stream. I guarantee you the parallels between now and then will smack you in the face. And maybe even inspire you to do more.
