AIDS, HIV

I almost never watch network TV anymore. There's only a couple of shows I watch on cable and that's it. So it came as a surprise my opportunity to watch ABC News: 'Out of Control: AIDS in Black America'

Black Americans make up 13 percent of the U.S. population but account for over 50 percent of all new cases of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. That infection rate is eight times the rate of whites. Among women, the numbers are even more shocking%u2014- almost 70 percent of all newly diagnosed HIV-positive women in the United States are black women. Black women are 23 times more likely to be diagnosed with AIDS than white women, with heterosexual contact being the overwhelming method of infection in black America.

I urge you to watch all 6 parts over at You Tube. I have included above part 5, "Failure to Lead". You will be disgusted by the Reverend Jakes. Who shocked me with his cluelessness was Jesse Jackson. He got owned by Terry Moran when he called him on his focus on AIDS in Africa but not in the United States.

A Tisket, A Tasket

A Condom or A Casket

This all came back to me last night, while watching the second part of the PBS Frontline special, "The Age of AIDS."

Shame kills. And watching the four hours of excellent television, I was reminded of that fact over and over again. If only someone in the Bush administration was willing to learn that lesson.
As part of the series, Frontline interviewed Noerine Kaleeba, whose husband, a Ugandan, died of AIDS. Mobilized by his death, and by the disaster that AIDS was creating in Uganda, Kaleeba founded TASO, an organization that seeks to educate and bring hope to those afflicted.

Uganda created an "ABC" program: Abstain, Be faithful, or Wear a Condom. As Kaleeba explains:

A Song I Wrote i don't know if i'm gonna finish it, it's a song/ rap
by Mariah Occhi

After all my pain my gain my aches my ways my days. After all my stress I’m still blessed still striving to impress struggling in my happiness. My power to exist is to be someone else living life through others and not myself. To the sky through lies i swear i deny it wasn’t me is that why i’m still alive? X2

When I was born I lost my mom don’t really know about my dad alls i know is the mom i have now is the best one i’ve ever had and you know it’s really sad for someone to keep givin and givin but they ain’t getting nothin back five kids under one roof with one parental unit honestly she’s exhausted i have no clue how she does it. I wrote a letter to Oprah but it just got passed up just like any other sad story or homeless guy askin for money to tell the truth i am upset it really meant a lot and plus that shit was just way to important to be forgotten I’ve been worryin for so many years feels like I lost it but that’s not the end of my story i’m just getting started. My ****** hasn’t she suffered enough blood work needles and followups every month? This shouldn’t be somethin she has to handle sometimes wish it was my stomach she came outta. Even though she has it her brother didn’t seem to catch it, now tell me, would you pop pills, take drugs, or drink booze if you knew that you was pregnant, nope i didn’t think so but now because of those wrong decisions she in special ed and she thank that everything is hilarious. Laughin it up it’s all a joke but what happens when she runs into the wrong person and they don’t know now i gotta have this up on my brain i just cant stop thinkin even though it’s driving me insane to know one day she could get hurt and i swear i’d just kill myself if one more person i loved got buried under the dirt