PERCEPTIONS VERSUS REALITY:

MY VISION OF AIDS IN FAIRFIELD COUNTY

 

             Located a quick hour’s drive from New York City, Wilton, Connecticut is the perfect contrast to the bustling metropolis. In 2000, 95.2% of Wilton’s 17,795 (Table 1.1) citizens were white; the town is not only minuscule when compared to New York, but extremely homogeneous. Moreover, households in Wilton tend to be quite affluent; the median income in Wilton in 1999 ($141,428) (Table 1.1) was a full $87,493 greater than the median of Fairfield County towns totaled together and an equally incredible $137,234 more than the median income for households in the U.S. (Table 1.3) that same year. Primarily due to my impressions of wealth and homogeneity, I estimated that the AIDS rate in my hometown was extremely low- 10 cumulative cases since 1980 (Table 1.1). In reality, there have been 11 cases in the past 27 years.

 

  (Image, right, taken from: http://www.wiltonct.org/info_history.htm)

 

                                          

                                                    

 

 

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MEDIA INFLUENCES

 

             This view of AIDS was not solely impacted by my observations of life around me. My first “encounter” with AIDS quite literally set the stage for my education concerning the disease.  On December 20th of 1999, my cousin Maggie Benjamin made her Broadway debut joining the cast of RENT, a show that follows the lives of a group of struggling artists and friends in New York City. Logically, one of the prevalent themes of the play is the fight against AIDS. After seeing the play multiple times over the next few years, I came to the conclusion that, while AIDS was a tragic and serious disease, it was primarily one that afflicted gays and minorities and therefore was not really an issue in the pristine community in which I lived.

 

            Local media only enforced my thoughts concerning AIDS. Hersam Acorn is a newspaper company that publishes one community newspaper (The Wilton Bulletin) along with seven other weekly newspapers from towns in Fairfield county and bordering Westchester County (in New York State). In searching through their archives, I found a total of 2,607 articles from 2005 to 2007 relating to AIDS and/ or HIV across the eight papers. Of these 353, or 17%, were located in the Wilton Bulletin (Table 3.1) (5).

 

http://www.wiltonct.org/info_history.htm

 

 

             The stories covered by the Wilton Bulletin simply supported my thoughts that AIDS was a problem that existed outside of my hometown. While many articles could be found in the first section of the newspaper, only one found a spot on the front page. This article, published on September 8th of 2005, focused in part on the voyage of two volunteers on a missionary trip to Africa (1). Similarly, many other articles (such as “Photos by Kenyan AIDS Orphans Will be On Display” [3 February 2005] (10) and “Friends School Takes Global Perspective” [9 November 2006] (3)) were inspired by stories of AIDS cases that existed thousands of miles away. Additional articles focused on the generosity and philanthropy of various groups or citizens throughout the community. Stories including “Cider Mill Students Give A Gift of ‘Hearts and Hands’” [26 May 2005] (2) and the obituary for Philip Gethin-Jones (a businessman who fought against AIDS in Africa)  [18 August 2005] (9) provide examples of such compassion for AIDS victims and further indicate that the AIDS problem is elsewhere- certainly not in Wilton.

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            Articles from Time Magazine (my favorite news publication) also directed my attention concerning AIDS away from Fairfield County. In 1996, Time named David Ho its Person of the Year and published a lengthy article highlighting his advances in the battle to counter AIDS (4). Over the ensuing years (1999 and onward), Time Magazine followed the story out of America and into Asia. In September of 2002, the report “Stalking a Killer” traced AIDS’s development in provincial China (8). Just a over a year later, Time checked back in with Dr. Ho who, by that time had “…largely quelled the AIDS epidemic in the U.S. and Europe” (6) and had moved on to address the issue in China, which is, according to Time in 2002, “…predicted to become the next hot spot[s] of the disease.” (12) This talk of the AIDS issue occurring overseas again bolstered my opinion that it was not one that afflicted Wilton, Connecticut.

 

The New York Times is also widely read across Fairfield County, as many workers commute to the City each day. I sampled several articles spanning in publication date from 1999 to 2007 and again noticed that they did not apply to any categories I (or, for that matter, any of my neighbors) might belong to. Two articles, published on January 1st and 2nd of 1999 covered the story of the Gay Men’s Health Crisis’ (G.M.H.C) cancellation of their annual fundraising party on Fire Island (11 and 14). Articles such as these established that AIDS was a disease that affected homosexuals. Moreover, the articles noted that the party was halted due to “...illegal drug use and unsafe sex” (14), neither of which are known to plague Wilton, Connecticut, but might affect lower income areas such as Bridgeport, Stamford and parts of Norwalk. Another particularly informative article, published in 2001, mentioned Bridgeport in its story quite extensively. “Addict’s Suit Claims Police Ignore Needle-Swap Laws” highlighted the troubles of running needle-swap exchange programs (which attempt to head off AIDS by eliminating transmission through shared needles) in the face of police who wish to crack down on drug use (7). Additionally, several articles (such as “Alone in a City’s AIDS Battle, Hoping for Backup”, which made the front page of the New York Times in 2007 (13)) noted that AIDS is a problem found predominantly in the black community.

 

            In sum, the media fully supported my assertions that AIDS was not a problem in Wilton. Consequently, it made sense to wager that some surrounding towns (such as Bridgeport, Stamford and/or Norwalk) would have higher rates of AIDS, as they had, I assume, higher concentrations of minorities and drug users.  However, my prediction of 200 cumulative cases in Norwalk (a city abutting my town) was quite inaccurate. An unexpected 507 cumulative cases arose in the past twenty years in the city (Table 1.1).

 

 The media can be blamed partly for this phenomenon. In the New York Times, while many articles made the front section of the paper, hardly any could be found on the front page. Time Magazine articles covering AIDS tend to end on a positive and uplifting note. For example: “…the worst fear—the one that seeded a decade with despair, the foreboding sensing that the AIDS virus might be invincible- has finally been subdued.” (4) Finally, The Wilton Bulletin can be accused of printing “warm and fuzzy” versions of AIDS, insofar as they focused on volunteer and philanthropic efforts, thereby distancing the problem from my neighborhood.

 

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