When presidential candidates and their supporters at both conventions failed to dwell on the HIV/AIDS epidemic their negligence seemed negligible, because in most Americans’ minds, that problem lies a sea away, on the continent of Africa, which, let’s face it, isn’t here, doesn’t collect nuclear weapons, monopolize the world fossil fuel supply, or openly train terrorists, so: so what.
We all like to think better of ourselves than that, so lets not argue the finer points of where the outcry was on the audience floor those nights and on editorial pages the next day, in response to the scant lip service paid to a preventable epidemic that wastes millions of lives each year around the globe, seizes thousands each year in this country, and claims billions of tax dollars.
Let’s instead look at the numbers as broken down in the August Left Behind report from the Black AIDS Institute, showing that if black America was a nation of its own, it would have more people living with HIV than seven of the 15 countries receiving the most money to fight the epidemic.
But those countries are required to have a plan to fight the epidemic.
Now, reminiscent of the civil rights struggle the fight against HIV and AIDS in this country must increasingly look to, a march will begin Saturday in Jackson, Miss., and end Sept. 23 in Oxford, Miss. will draw attention to the need for a national strategy to deal with the epidemic.
History should not be kind to the candidates who stayed silent while people took their struggle to the streets once again.
