The following letter was written before the Sept. 23 Stand Against AIDS event in Oxford, Miss. In Stand Against AIDS, eight separate caravans traveled from all parts of the country to Mississippi to demand that the next U.S. president take major steps toward creating a national AIDS strategy within 100 days of taking office.
On Sunday, I'm boarding a Greyhound bus with four other Chicagoans to travel to Oxford, Miss., for a national grassroots movement called Stand Against AIDS.
In truth, we'll be doing a lot more than just 'standing.' As we travel across the heartland of America, I expect we'll engage in plenty of chanting, singing, sign-waving, educating, noise-making as well as standing, walking, and sitting to raise awareness of the ongoing AIDS crisis in America. People are traveling from all corners of the country to Oxford—site of the first presidential debate—to call for a National AIDS Strategy as a signature initiative of the next U.S. president.
As a recent college graduate and HIV prevention educator, I know that too few people in my age group are getting the help and support they need to stay HIV-free. My work takes me to gay clubs and hangouts on the West Side of Chicago where few people—almost all low-income and African-American—have ready access to condoms and HIV education and testing services.
The guys I counsel all too often say that finding a decent-paying job, dealing with school and family issues, and just avoid random street violence concern them more than HIV, which 'is easily managed with a few pills, anyway, right?' Having run-ins with the law and family members behind bars is not uncommon.
My messages to Sens. Obama and McCain—and, really, anyone who will listen—are simple: Ending poverty and mass incarcerations, expanding educational opportunities and providing better healthcare and HIV prevention are all critical parts of a coordinated strategy needed to end HIV/AIDS in America.
The rallies I will join in Oxford will demand serious political action on AIDS, globally and right here in our own country. You can take a stand, too: Support the caravans to Mississippi at www.c2ea.org and endorse creation of a National AIDS Strategy at www.nationalaidsstrategy.org .
—Richard Wallace, Chicago