From: jtn@ADS.COM (John T. Nelson)
Subject: Let's get real about AIDS shall we?
Organization: Guest of Booz, Allen & Hamilton, Inc./Advanced Decision Systems
Date: Sun, 16 Aug 1992 04:29:22 GMT



This too did not make it out of my site some time ago, so I'm
attempting a repost....


I am ceaslessly amazed at the contradictions in the Bush administration.
George has expended enourmous political effort and a modest (by federal
standards) to conduct a (drum roll please) War On Drugs but has done
virtually nothing for a problem that has the potential to decimate the
country in broad, swift, fatal strokes. I am of course speaking of the
totally non-existant War On AIDS.

In reality Bush is conducting a War On The Users Of Drugs, as opposed to a
war on the drugs themselves. Its very simple... instead of funding drug
treatment centers, you eliminate the problem by making drug use illeagal.
Instead of finding ways to curb the importation of drugs, hey you just send
the DEA out to foreign countries and kidnap their leaders or those you
suspect of being drug trafficers. Simple huh? Typical Republican thinking
too. Don't try and cure people of the problem, rather, make the problem
illegal and then hunt down and prosecute those bad people.  Never
mind that it costs the American taxpayer something like $40,000 per year to
house an inmate in a federal penitentary.  Would education and treatment
or maybe funding of some good old fashion community effort cost this much?

How much money, by comparison, has gone towards treatment? Consider his
response to the AIDS epidemic. President Bush treats AIDS as a morality
problem rather than a desease. I guess in his view if you have AIDS you're
either a drug user (hey this is illegal, great we cover two bases), or
you're a homosexual in which case you should be exterminated because you
undermine conservative, "normal", family-oriented values. So Bush basically
ignores AIDS and AIDS research and let's the desease take care of the
problem.  Like the homeless, just ignore them and hope the problem goes
away.

What has Bush done to actually HELP people REGARDLESS of their sexual
orientation or criminal status? Well... his administration does fund warm,
touchy-feely ads that show us "real life people" that have AIDS, hugging
each other as they deal with the problem.

This is AIDS education?

Why the hell can't our PUBLIC SERVANTS, serve our interests by at least
serving the public interest and providing concrete information on combating
AIDS?

Like maybe they could mention CONDOMS in their ads?  Say it George:

"CONDOM"

Come on.. you can do it... CONDOM. "C" "O" "N" "D" "O" "M". But no. Its too
much to ask. Our children are bludgened to death in publically funded
schools about the evils of drugs and aids (at an age where they are too
young to truly grasp the concept of drug abuse or sex) but won't mention
the word CONDOM on television. Some public service.

To be fair, one reason why the ads are so bland is because the Center For
Desease Control (those are the fed folks that fund the ads) doesn't want to
offend middle-class prime-time sensabilities.  That's a lame excuse though
when you're lying in the welfare ward of some hospital dying of AIDS because
you didn't know you were supposed to use a condom.  Better to risk offending
a few middle-age frumps.

AIDS health groups have ridiculed the CDC's advertisement showing a man
putting on a sock with the caption "Putting on a condom is just as simple."
They countered with an ad shoing a sock and the message "Ten years into the
AIDS epidemic, this is the closest our government has come to showing a
condom. It's time to get real about AIDS education." Unfortunately that
won't happen until AIDS affects a much larger percentage of Americans or
the president's family itself.

By the way, these ads have cost the American taxpayer $1.5 million.

Washington doesn't serve the interests of the general public. It serves the
interests of those with either the political clout, or with the money to
make themselves heard. The defense industry and the companies that serve it
are still very much alive, even though their usefulness is waining because
the defense community is entrenched politically and has money. Who is going
to represent AIDS victems? Who is going to represent the homeless? Without
money and lobbying power these groups will all suffer, and its a shame too
because these are the people who represent the PUBLIC interest... not the
monied interests.

If the people were truly in control then these slick "feel good" ads would
INFORM, EDUCATE and justify their cost. They don't which tells me that the
interests of the people, or the seriousness of AIDS, have not truly been
considered.

- Hacker
--
Dark Hacker				hacker@black-silicon.mclean.va.us

"I am the very instantiation of object oriented evil!"