Statement:: National AIDS Plan
By Phill Wilson
Sen. Barack Obama last week became the second presidential contender to show bold leadership by calling for a national AIDS plan to guide America's response to the domestic epidemic. Obama released his AIDS platform on his Web site on Oct. 16 and listed as the top priority the development of a national strategy to target resources, a call that echoes John Edwards' platform, released last month.
The Black AIDS Institute urges every candidate in both parties to join Obama and Edwards in both publishing an AIDS platform and committing to the development of a national AIDS plan if elected president. The United States wisely insists that any country seeking foreign assistance for its AIDS effort first develop an overall plan for directing those resources. More than 26 years into the epidemic, however, the U.S. still does not have its own blueprint for ending AIDS domestically-an epidemic that is larger today than ever, with nearly 1.2 million Americans living with HIV/AIDS, according to federal health monitors. "In the first year of his presidency, [Obama] will develop and begin to implement a comprehensive national HIV/AIDS strategy that includes all federal agencies," Obama's platform vows. "The strategy will be designed to reduce HIV infections, increase access to care, and reduce HIV-related health disparities. His strategy will include measurable goals, timelines, and accountability mechanisms." We couldn't have said it better. As Obama's platform emphasizes, America's AIDS epidemic is uniquely Black. Nearly half of all people living with HIV/AIDS in America and over half of those newly infected every year are African American, though we represent just 13 percent of the U.S. population. And despite an annual AIDS budget of more than $2 billion, America continues to log an estimated 40,000 new infections a year. Thousands of people -- disproportionately African Americans -- continue to die from AIDS every year. Local safety net programs all over the country have collapsed, forced to turn away poor people in search of treatment and care -- at least four people died in South Carolina in 2006 while awaiting access to the publicly-financed AIDS drug insurance program. Meanwhile, racial disparities continue to widen in every corner of the epidemic. Whether you measure infections by gay men, heterosexual women, youth or any other population, African Americans are vastly overrepresented. Clearly, our resources need to better planned and targeted. As a result of all of this, a coalition of traditional African American institutions, ranging from civil rights groups like the NAACP to faith leaders like Bishop T.D. Jakes, have banded together to develop our own community-wide plan of action. Each organization is now crafting a strategic plan for folding the fight against AIDS into its broader work. In the end, Black America realizes it can't afford to wait for others to save us; we're finally working on saving ourselves. But we're also demanding that government support that effort. The first step in doing so is having the same sort of strategic plan that our community is developing for itself. We can't say it enough: If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Obama and Edwards have gone on record acknowledging that reality and vowing to do something about it. It's long past time that every candidate in every party do the same. Learn More at BlackAIDS.org