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- <text id=90TT1003>
- <title>
- Apr. 23, 1990: American Notes:Voices
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1990
- Apr. 23, 1990 Dan Quayle:No Joke
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- NATION, Page 39
- American Notes
- VOICES
- The "Miracle" Of Ryan White
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p> In 1985, at 13, Ryan White became a symbol of the
- intolerance that is inflicted on AIDS victims. Once it became
- known that White, a hemophiliac, had contracted the disease from
- a tainted blood transfusion, school officials banned him from
- classes in Kokomo, Ind. His family moved to Cicero, Ind., where
- he lived until his death on April 8. Last week the Rev. Ray
- Probasco, a family friend, delivered the eulogy at White's
- funeral. Said he: "Not much was known about the disease back
- then. So very quickly a great deal of fear permeated Ryan's
- community. At first, Ryan and the disease were perceived as one
- and the same. In time, we saw the boy and the disease, and they
- were not the same. It was Ryan who first humanized the disease
- called AIDS. He allowed us to see the boy who just wanted, more
- than anything else, to be like other children and to be able to
- go to school.
- </p>
- <p> "And children began asking Ryan, `Are you afraid to die?'
- And Ryan responded, `Everyone's going to die. If I die, I know
- I'm going to a better place.' I believe that God gave us [a]
- miracle in Ryan. He healed a wounded spirit in the world and
- made it whole."
- </p>
-
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
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