[Vision2020] AIDS disaster

[Ralph Nielsen]

Beverly from the Internet writes:
"Much is in the news of late about the AIDS epidemic in Africa. In  
the past, the focus has been on condom distribution that has helped  
Uganda in particular to reduce AIDS infection. But now, with the  
influence of Pope Benedict, the Bush administration and ultra  
conservative religious groups, the BBC and MSNBC and other news  
agencies report that abstinence is now being promoted as the only  
workable solution. This had resulted in a shortage of condoms and an  
increase in HIV infection.

BBC reported that Stephen Lewis, U.N. Secretary General's special  
envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa has said that fundamental Christian  
ideology is driving Washington's AIDS assistance program known as  
PEPFAR with disastrous results, including condom shortages in Uganda.  
Uganda has previously cut HIV infection rates to about 6% from 30% in  
the early 1990s. Now U.S. legislation requires 1/3 of AIDS prevention  
funding be spent to promote abstinence.

I see the promotion of abstinence as an unrealistic solution in  
countries where literacy and knowledge of modern science is often  
very limited. Do the Pope, President Bush and the ultra conservatives  
have their heads in the sand on this? I would be interested in your  
opinion on this. "

Dear Beverly,

I share with you a sense of horror about the misplaced priorities of  
both Benedict XVI and the Bush administration. They seem to place  
opposition to birth control methods above the issues of life and  
death. I find that narrow religious passions operating in the  
political arena are always destructive. I watch values being lived  
out by the President of the United States. They are almost beyond  
credibility. Here is our nation in a time of a war gone wrong in  
Iraq, with the safety of this nation badly compromised by hurricane  
Katrina, facing a scandal involving the crime of identifying a CIA  
operative that is eroding the confidence of the people in this  
government and yet the biggest issue of debate in Washington is over  
where Supreme Court nominee, Sam Alito, stands on abortion. I do not  
minimize the abortion issue, but this nation is not going to reverse  
Roe V. Wade. Politicians like to be re-elected and opposition to Roe  
V. Wade is not a pathway to national election for anyone. This means  
that Washington's politicians are engaged today in an act of  
political posturing that is quite irrelevant and grossly dishonest.  
This debate also gives them moral cover so that they do not have to  
face the fact that they have voted to go to war on trumped up and  
dishonest intelligence in order to make the oil industry happy, while  
at the same time voting to give tax breaks to the top ten percent of  
this nation's income group. Now they want to cut Medicare, the school  
lunch program and the job training programs in order to cover the  
deficit created by this ill-conceived war and their tax cuts for the  
rich. On top of that we now discover that the press in the persons of  
Judith Miller and Bob Woodward are working hand in glove with this  
administration to keep honesty from appearing in their reporting!  
When will the electorate of this nation reorder our national  
priorities? Too many of our young citizens have died already. Too  
many of our nation's poor have lost hope. Too many of the people of  
the world have stopped looking to America for any shred of moral  
leadership. I do not care whether the necessary re-ordering of our  
national priorities comes in a rebellion within the Republican Party  
or from the opposition Democrats but this nation cannot drift in this  
present quagmire for three more years.
-- John Shelby Spong