Friday, December 01, 2006
World AIDS Day
Only two people I've personally known died of AIDS. So I'm blessed that so many people I know who were not sexually prudent in the 70s & 80s, or struggled with drugs, escaped the plague. It is dismaying that the distribution of condoms & clean needles - the two easiest & least expensive HIV prevention methods - is even a matter of debate. The idea that it is more evil to use a condom (married or unmarried, gay or straight) than to permit millions worldwide to suffer & die is the epitome of a terrible absurdity costumed as moral reasoning. Or to claim that giving addicts sterile needles only encourages them in their drug use. National governments still deny the scope of the growing tragedy within their own borders. Religions hold on to beliefs that date back to the neolithic era. Is HIV transmitted by microscopic viruses or is it fundamentally caused by satanic energies overcoming human willpower?
One simple thing anyone can do today is become familiar with the African Health Capacity Investment Act of 2006 Bill # S.3775, a modest committment of federal money that could have a very good impact on health care in sub-Saharan Africa. It's not enough, but we still have a President who appoints idiots like Eric Keroack as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Population Affairs (the family-planning program at the Department of Health and Human Services).
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
One simple thing anyone can do today is become familiar with the African Health Capacity Investment Act of 2006 Bill # S.3775, a modest committment of federal money that could have a very good impact on health care in sub-Saharan Africa. It's not enough, but we still have a President who appoints idiots like Eric Keroack as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Population Affairs (the family-planning program at the Department of Health and Human Services).
