Politics: Africa in Our Future
I know SARS is the darling of the media and everything (naturally, SARS has been giving better video than anything else lately, since our war ended and all), but a distressing report about another disease got me going earlier today.
Riddle me this. Where can you find
40% of people with AIDS, and
46% of new AIDS cases, and
18 of the top 25 metropolitan areas hit hardest by AIDS, and
the only region with growing (as opposed to declining or steady) AIDS rates?
Think it's Africa? You're dead wrong.
The American south has 40% of America's AIDS cases, 46% of the nation's new diagnoses, and hosts 18 of the United States' 25 metropolitan areas hit hardest by AIDS.
I couldn't help but wonder, as the AIDS epidemic thrives here and abroad, if the new American moralism didn't somehow play a role in this. The report cited in the Atlanta J-C piece above shows that the African-American population is a high-risk group with more than half of the AIDS infections, even though they represent only 20% of the population of the American South. Isn't it possible, I mused, that all of the little defeats progessivism has suffered on the question of morality (sex ed, condoms, needles) were now coming home to roost?
Talk about a Southern Strategy. Consider this: It seems that the Radical Right/Republican strategy to continually block any progressive legislation that views the world in 21st century terms has been a huge success. The poorest people are suffering (and in this case, dying), and they are generally African Americans (who don't usually vote for the GOP). But the people who love the idea of not giving condoms to people having sex, and not teaching future adults about what sex is, and not teaching ways to prevent transmission of deadly diseases, are not dying, of course. They are showing up at the polls, healthy and happy.
So what's the moral? Is abstinence only education going to continue to grow in popularity, and will the kids with the lowest income, even in this, the most developed country in the world keep getting AIDS or pregnant? Wouldn't a crazy person (not yours truly) draw some frightening conclusions from the fact that a mostly-white folks led movement (the abstinence only education movement) would be contributing to a frightening increase in the mortality rate of black Americans?
I'm just asking.
I know SARS is the darling of the media and everything (naturally, SARS has been giving better video than anything else lately, since our war ended and all), but a distressing report about another disease got me going earlier today.
Riddle me this. Where can you find
Think it's Africa? You're dead wrong.
The American south has 40% of America's AIDS cases, 46% of the nation's new diagnoses, and hosts 18 of the United States' 25 metropolitan areas hit hardest by AIDS.
I couldn't help but wonder, as the AIDS epidemic thrives here and abroad, if the new American moralism didn't somehow play a role in this. The report cited in the Atlanta J-C piece above shows that the African-American population is a high-risk group with more than half of the AIDS infections, even though they represent only 20% of the population of the American South. Isn't it possible, I mused, that all of the little defeats progessivism has suffered on the question of morality (sex ed, condoms, needles) were now coming home to roost?
Talk about a Southern Strategy. Consider this: It seems that the Radical Right/Republican strategy to continually block any progressive legislation that views the world in 21st century terms has been a huge success. The poorest people are suffering (and in this case, dying), and they are generally African Americans (who don't usually vote for the GOP). But the people who love the idea of not giving condoms to people having sex, and not teaching future adults about what sex is, and not teaching ways to prevent transmission of deadly diseases, are not dying, of course. They are showing up at the polls, healthy and happy.
So what's the moral? Is abstinence only education going to continue to grow in popularity, and will the kids with the lowest income, even in this, the most developed country in the world keep getting AIDS or pregnant? Wouldn't a crazy person (not yours truly) draw some frightening conclusions from the fact that a mostly-white folks led movement (the abstinence only education movement) would be contributing to a frightening increase in the mortality rate of black Americans?
I'm just asking.
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