I despise politics, and I have no use for public policy discussions that presume to debate ends instead of means. Granted, some situations put people between rocks and hard places, but, all other factors being equal, one must be disturbed not to want beauty, health, comfort, satisfaction, improvement, opportunities for good, and all that.
I hate how I am being so elementary in my posts these days, but I’m going on the defensive to deflect anticipated arguments that I want people to suffer and die from AIDS. This is not a commentary about whether horrible death is good or bad. It is an attempt to mitigate needless misery by questioning our approach to dealing with it.
The following was printed today in the local daily:
“The highest number of new HIV cases in North Carolina is in the 13- to 24-year-old age group,” said Jeff Bachar, executive director of WNCAP. . . . “It may not be your behavior. It maybe the behaviors of someone you are dating or married to, but (the test) is free, and you can maybe save your life or somebody else’s life by coming out (to get tested).”
For those who require thorough explication, if thirteen-year-olds are contracting the AIDS virus through the people they date or marry – or through their friends who swab their Jell-O pudding with the virus, I believe old-fashioned parenting could put a lid on “the highest number of new HIV cases” in that age group.
