When All the News Was Awful and Spring Felt So Far Away

By Ed Wolf–

It’s dark and it’s cold and spring feels so far away and the news is awful, and we’re wondering what’s gonna happen and how will we get through and why, why isn’t anyone doing anything about it?

I felt this way during many years of the AIDS epidemic and even when groups of us in San Francisco figured out ways to come together and help the living and the dying, when it was dark and cold and spring felt so far away. I’d wonder, where is everyone, why isn’t anyone doing anything about it?

And then, years later, I had the honor of being involved with David Weissman’s film, We Were Here, and I attended over a hundred screenings, at the end of which I’d ask audience members who’d helped people with AIDS to stand up. Everywhere we went, from Utah to New York, to Oklahoma to Florida, to Texas and Washington, D.C., to Canada, to Ukraine, to Russia—everywhere, people stood up.

How could I have known, back in the 1980s, when all the news was awful, and spring felt so far away, that countless people had been quietly finding ways to survive and comfort and support each other? How could I have known?

Educator, writer, and activist Ed Wolf formerly worked in San Francisco General Hospital’s Ward 5A, where patients came when the HIV/AIDS epidemic first hit. Recordings of Wolf are featured at “Storied: San Francisco.” https://bit.ly/3CLrNR9

Published on February 13, 2025