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NNPA Commentary

By Bev Smit

New Story on How AIDS Traveled to America.

There was a day I will never forget. I was sitting on my deck in beautiful Rockville, Md., drinking vodka gimlet with one of my best friends and we were discussing all of the AIDS work I had done on my nationally syndicated talk show.

He said, “Oh Bev, you don’t know how this work is going to change lives.” He had always been interested in my show, but this was different. We got quiet and were just enjoying living in suburbia and as I was thinking how blessed I was, he looked at me and said, “I have AIDS.”

I broke down and cried. This was the moment I made up my mind I would make a difference in the lives of not only him, but anybody touched by this disease. I lost Ricky, Jack from New York and Flynn from Washington, D.C. They were people who had beautiful hearts, souls and spirits whose families had abandoned them. There was also Gregory, who I worked with in Washington, D.C.

We thought he was going to beat the disease, but he died too. This disease is always living with me because there is not a day that goes by that I do not miss and wish I had Ricky in my life. As long as I live, I will do whatever I can to stop this disease from ruining lives.

As the only female African-American nationally syndicated talk show host for the American Urban Radio Networks, I have always been involved with issues regarding HIV/AIDS.

I have been in the business for more than 40 years and the theme for my talk show is “Get Involved.” I push this phrase and even put it onto T-shirts: “Stand up, Be Counted, Get Involved.”

Why? First of all, I am not just your average talk show host. I am an activist. Therefore, my talk show is not about sitting around and talking, but about making changes in peoples’ lives. This is what I’m all about.

However, my awareness on AIDS/HIV was heightened after reading Randy Shilts’ book, “And The Band Played On.”

As the first black in Miami with a talk show, I began to get involved because I could not believe that the Centers for Disease Control could put out a theory that said a green monkey bit a man who went to San Francisco and had sex, and went from San Francisco back to New York and that is how it spread. [For a full explanation of U.S. government-funded research on the origin of AIDS. Visit [http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/news/newsreleases/1999/hivorigin.htm.]

It just sounded like I ought to be singing ''dooda, dooda.'' I thought that was asinine. I believe the origins of HIV/AIDS is man-made. According to “QUEER BLOOD: The Secret AIDS Genocide Plot,” by Dr. Allen Cantwell Jr., M.D. the smallpox eradication vaccine program sponsored by the World Health Organization was responsible for unleashing AIDS in Africa.

Cantwell also debunks the African green monkey theory of AIDS and explains how AIDS started as a covered-up genocide experiment, using blacks and gays as guinea pigs. I also think the Black community is ignorant about AIDS. According to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, in 2004 African-Americans represented 61 percent of HIV/AIDS cases among 13-to-24 year olds.

This alarming statistic tells me there is a hidden silence that says: “Don’t talk about it and it will go away” and “Don’t mention you have a gay friend.” “Don’t mention that there are gay people in the pulpit, gay people in the White House.” “Don’t talk about it and it will go away.”