Society needs to face real cure to AIDS

BY John Brannon

Thanksgiving has come and gone. Christmas season is in the air. And just in the nick of time, World AIDS Week is here. Campuses across America held Candlelight vigils to remember those who have lost their lives to the AIDS disease. The AIDS Quilt is in full circulation around the United States. People all across America are talking about AIDS education. But the truth stays silent.

“ We need better AIDS and HIV medication in America,” I heard on the radio last week. “We need to provide affordable medication for the treatment of AIDS in Africa,” immediately followed. Voices are screaming that people need to know AIDS prevention techniques. And in the corner of the room, quietly waiting, the truth sits alone.

Everyone wants to talk about how to prevent AIDS. People, papers, Web sites and signs all speak in volumes about AIDS prevention. So if AIDS prevention is so important, why don’t we get serious about it? The theme of AIDS week 2001 was “I care…Do You?”

Well I certainly do, but I don’t think anyone wants to hear what I have to say. The only thing that is going to prevent the spread of AIDS in the United States and throughout the world is (quietly now, we don’t want to offend anybody) a new set of moral standards.

I can already hear the backlash. “Don’t throw your morality in my face,” or the ever popular “I have a right to my own body,” so please, don’t bother. You and I have two choices. We can continue to treat AIDS, or we can start to get rid of it. I care…do you?

Do you realize that (as of the end of 2002) of 875,436 estimated adults over the age of 14 diagnosed with AIDS, 480,509 (55 percent) of those were men who have contracted the disease from “male-male contact.” Another 240,268 (27 percent) were infected through drug use. And 135,628 (16 percent) contracted AIDS while having heterosexual sex. That’s 98% of AIDS victims in the United States I care…do you?

Lets look at the most obvious cases in those statistics—sexual transmission. Why do we refuse to talk about sexual fidelity in this country? Why is it that while people are dying every day because of this terrible disease, all we want to do for people is tell them how they can “almost” be sure they won’t get AIDS? I guarantee you that monogamous married couples don’t worry about getting AIDS. Those who aren’t sexually active don’t worry about getting AIDS.

The fact is that while we can talk and talk about preventing the disease, the surest way to help put an end to it is to revert our society’s sexual mores back to where they used to be.

It’s interesting to note that the outbreak of AIDS didn’t begin until after the ‘60s and ‘70s, when a hot-aired lie saying, “all you need is love” filled people’s vocal chords. I can’t imagine that the rampant sexual infidelity that was seen then and the AIDS outbreak that followed might have had something to do with each other. But here we are, refusing to look at the truth because it’s too hard and doesn’t fit into the moral relativism that has become a staple for our society.

If we had a way to put an end to cancer, we would. If we could put an end to Alzheimer’s, we would. Yet we stand by and watch the most terrible disease ever known to man continue to kill people, while giving them advice that fits their own moral standards. Well this cure can’t be found in moral relativism. This cure is going to offend some people. So we can suck it up, speak the truth, and begin to change our way of living, or we can quietly watch others die while we carry the cure. I care…do you?

— This columnist can be reached at collegian@csufresno.edu