We live. We hope. We remember.

I just got back from the World AIDS Day service for San Antonio. I'm excited because this is the first time that San Antonio's faith community as well as other business and organizations have come together for one service. The mayor even made today an offical city holiday (yay, Mayor Castro!). How fucking awesome is that?

We got to hear from 8 different faith leaders in the community including a Muslim congregation, Unitarian Universalist Church, Temple Beth El (Yay, Rabbi Bergmann-Van), The Mennonite Church, The Pagan community, The Catholic Church, and The Metropolitan Community Church.

I held a candle for Jose and placed it with everyone else's candle. At the end, it made a red ribbon on the floor. The theme of the event was hope. One of the speakers said that hope is personified in each of us. I believe that. I think that, even in the face of this disease that we've been helpless to stop so far, we can refuse to forget and fight to keep hoping. We can assert our humanity even as it's threatened.

Last year, I wrote an article for the citizen journal project at WOAI about my friend Jose. I wrote toward the end of the article that AIDS killed Jose, but it never took his life. In the article I called him Nate...but I want to use his real name today. I want to remember Jose. Because he lived, I refuse to forget. Because he lived, I insist on hoping.