Fear, Ignorance & Myths=Epidemic Proportions
A deadly disease spread faster than the science to treat and explain it, but years would go by before the American people would demand to know why, thereby creating a perfect storm. Fear and ignorance such as the idea that HIV was a gay person’s disease and contracting it was God’s punishment would fuel the power vacuum that allowed HIV rates to rise to epidemic proportions. Ultimately, because the American public believed this myth, these factors contribute to the rising body count.
In 1987, I fell off the roof of a house and broke 9 vertebrae and 3 ribs. After three days, doctors realized they had missed my broken back entirely, leaving my spinal cord in a precarious position. Sharp bone fragments …show more content…
Email has not always been readily available and technology comes with a price. For me, the price was the forward key and the day my grandmother learned how to use it. In the late 1990’s emails were being forwarded just as fast as they could dial up and get through. Urban legends have more credibility when the legend involves someone associated with law enforcement or a governmental agency. In the example of the “The authoritative figure, writes the email to serve as a warning and to get the word out about a dangerous practice occurring across state lines. It would read something like the following:
I am Captain Important of the 1st Division Police Department of ABC, America. Some unknown person was attaching hypodermic needles to the underside of gas pumps. These needles were infected with HIV positive blood. At least half of all the people stuck tested positive for HIV. ****PLEASE HELP US BY FORWARDING THIS EMAIL TO ANYONE WHO DRIVES (Brunvand p. 244-245) Interestingly, I was sharing the content of this paper with my 14 year old son, before I could get to the urban legend, he told me the gas pump story. Here we are in 2017, and he is
A deadly disease spread faster than the science to treat and explain it, but years would go by before the American people would demand to know why, thereby creating a perfect storm. Fear and ignorance such as the idea that HIV was a gay person’s disease and contracting it was God’s punishment would fuel the power vacuum that allowed HIV rates to rise to epidemic proportions. Ultimately, because the American public believed this myth, these factors contribute to the rising body count.
In 1987, I fell off the roof of a house and broke 9 vertebrae and 3 ribs. After three days, doctors realized they had missed my broken back entirely, leaving my spinal cord in a precarious position. Sharp bone fragments …show more content…
Email has not always been readily available and technology comes with a price. For me, the price was the forward key and the day my grandmother learned how to use it. In the late 1990’s emails were being forwarded just as fast as they could dial up and get through. Urban legends have more credibility when the legend involves someone associated with law enforcement or a governmental agency. In the example of the “The authoritative figure, writes the email to serve as a warning and to get the word out about a dangerous practice occurring across state lines. It would read something like the following:
I am Captain Important of the 1st Division Police Department of ABC, America. Some unknown person was attaching hypodermic needles to the underside of gas pumps. These needles were infected with HIV positive blood. At least half of all the people stuck tested positive for HIV. ****PLEASE HELP US BY FORWARDING THIS EMAIL TO ANYONE WHO DRIVES (Brunvand p. 244-245) Interestingly, I was sharing the content of this paper with my 14 year old son, before I could get to the urban legend, he told me the gas pump story. Here we are in 2017, and he is