There they are. John, with that kind of timing, I think you have a future in politics. That was well done. Now, let me say something very serious. The second thing we have to do is to remember that AIDS everywhere is still 100 percent preventable.
Prevention is the most effective tool in our arsenal.
No matter the cultural or religious factors to be overcome, families must talk about the facts of life before too many more learn the facts of death. In our tradition it has been said that AIDS is an epidemic of biblical proportions. Maybe that refers to the sheer geographic scope, or perhaps the numbers of people, or the enormous scale of suffering. But I think it also is an apt phrase because it implies that there is a required moral response. In the New Testament of the Christian Bible, it says that when we bear one another's burdens, we fulfill the law of God.