Words beyond words

This says better than I could ever say....

"When I confess, my disclosure is offered up to someone who is assumed to be morally superior. When I bear witness, there is a balance of power and vulnerability between us, and that which is personal is also plural.” If bearing witness is to show by one’s existence that something is true, is the New York Patient confessing or bearing witness to the Manhattan high school students, to me in my role as journalist, and to readers of this essay? When it comes to sexual risk and HIV, do we recognize any narrative besides a confession? What choice have we given the New York Patient other than offering an explanation for what we have already framed as his failure? Confession or bearing witness?