Every December 1st, World AIDS Day brings a chance to remember those who have fallen to the disease and those who are currently fighting for their lives. This year, however, it seems that World AIDS Day is not as much about remembering as it's about not forgetting.

With a chaotic world economy, it might be easy to overlook AIDS in favor of more "pressing" matters. Catholic Relief Services' Ken Hackett says this would be a mistake for three reasons: 1. "If the current structure built to fight HIV and AIDS is not strengthened and extended but instead allowed to crumble, rebuilding it will cost much more." 2. Engaging AIDS "makes good foreign-policy sense," giving the U.S. a positive presence in unstable regions. Finally:

This horrible pandemic is affecting the poorest people in the world, those least able to address the ravaging effects of this disease. If we do not help them, we will cede the moral authority that the United States needs to lead the world in the 21st century.

Fuel for forgetting also comes from health experts who claim we're in a "post-AIDS era." These thoughts, though, ignore the unsteady nature of any progress made in the fight against AIDS.

Ultimately, to forget the world AIDS crisis would be to ignore the tremendous amount of goodwill and want-to that people of faith have built. Many young evangelicals, including myself, were introduced to social justice through the AIDS pandemic. We saw the horrors of Darfur because our eyes were already trained on Africa; we first engaged poverty because we saw it as the root cause to the global spread of AIDS.

To forget about AIDS now would be to turn our backs on the cause that opened a broader agenda that is changing the face of faith in the public square. We must send the message that we are mobilized and motivated; we can't let the world forget.