Happy World AIDS Day?

In the past week the campus has become covered with chalk, flyers, ribbons and rallys announcing a multitude of depressing statistics related to AIDS, violence against women and genocide. As I was walking down one of the campus paths I passed two girls discussing the information surrounding them. One of them asked 'why do we have to hear about all this awful stuff?' I mentally responded in several ways, and I can't figure out which one I really would say out loud. 'because the world is awful.' 'because knowledge is power.' 'because it shows us that people on campus care and are doing something.' My final thought though? We should just name a world happiness day, and no one is allowed to ruin it with reminders of all the people who aren't happy. Sometimes we need to step back and regain some perspective- right now we're okay. There's a lot wrong with the world but we can't fix it all by being angry and depressed. I will now retreat into my warm and fuzzy bubble...