Risky business of AIDS

ABC's ''Primetime'' last week ran a special report: ''Out of Control � AIDS in Black America.'' After watching the special for about a half-hour I had to turn the channel. It was so out of control, I couldn't take any more.

After reflecting on what I saw, I came to some conclusions. You see I know neither my wife nor I will ever contract or transmit this very ugly disease. How do I know? Simple. We have been in a monogamous relationship for 29 years and we have never used intravenous drugs or had homosexual sex (and we have no intention of doing so in the future).

Terry Moran (the host) made it clear most cases of HIV/ AIDS are spread through those types of behaviors. Moran, however, failed to send an important message to the viewers. Black people in America are dying from this deadly disease not because they are black but because they practice bad behavior.

The statistics are alarming. ''Black Americans make up 13 percent of the U.S. population but account for more than 50 percent of all new cases of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. That infection rate is eight times the rate of whites. Among women, the numbers are even more shocking � almost 70 percent of all newly diagnosed HIV-positive women in the United States are black women. Black women are 23 times more likely to be diagnosed with AIDS than white women, with heterosexual contact being the overwhelming method of infection in black America.'' This is right off the ABC news website and cited many times during the broadcast.

NPR recently cited a government report from 40 years ago that warned one in four black children would be born out of wedlock. They were wrong! Today 70% of all black children are born to unmarried mothers. Do you see a pattern here?

The fact is, it really doesn't matter whether you are black, white, Hispanic, Asian etc.; poor behavioral choices have consequences. We don't like to talk about it in those terms but that is the reality. If you have sex outside of marriage without birth control; you run the risk of adding to the fatherless child statistics. If you have unprotected sex or use intravenous drugs (the two most prevalent means of transmission); you run the risk of becoming one of the HIV/AIDS statistics.

Yet in the 30 minutes I watched, never once did I hear the host even suggest that personal responsibility plays a vital role in fighting and defeating this horrible disease. Quite the opposite. I was told it is the fault of the prisons and the federal, state and local governments.

The program stressed that prisoners contract HIV/AIDS in prison because the prisons do not provide condoms. Then the prisoners leave prison and have sex with multiple partners, causing the rampant spread of the disease throughout the community, as well as unwanted pregnancies, many of which result in AIDS babies. ABC acted as if black men are mere animals and have no ability to control themselves when they leave prison and some how or another that is the fault of you and me. Talk about racism!

The time has come for us to deal with the root cause of the diseases and social problems that are very treatable. Personal responsibility. If you don't break the law you don't go to prison. Thus, you don't have sex with men and get AIDS. If you don't have sexual partners outside of marriage you will not sire children out of wedlock. If you don't use intravenous drugs you won't die of an overdose or get HIV/AIDS. What is so hard to understand about this? If you do these things, then whose fault is it? Why the government's fault of course. Or perhaps the taxpayer. Thinking like this is what is out of control, not the spread of AIDS.

I made a decision last night to stop feeling responsible for everyone who chooses to do things that get them in trouble. Do I have sympathy for the results of their poor choices? Sure, we all do. But it is neither my responsibility nor my obligation to try and fix their world when the only ones who can fix it on a permanent basis are the individuals themselves through the choices they make.

You want to know whom I do feel responsible for and obligated to help? The poor innocent children who did not ask to be brought into this world to face a fatherless future or worse, the plague of AIDS. I would like to see the Children's Defense Fund and their fearless leader come to the rescue of children by challenging would be sperm donors and egg bearers to stop hurting children. To think before they just follow their ''if it feels good do it'' impulses. Or the garbage of, ''It is my body and I will do what I want.'' These children deserve more and so do the taxpayers who pay for all of this irresponsible behavior.

There is no way to completely eliminate one's risk of cancer or heart disease, if he or she is genetically predisposed to a condition, no matter what steps are taken to engage in a healthy lifestyle. But HIV/AIDS is one of the most preventable and stoppable diseases of our time. It's all a matter of choice. The number of new AIDS cases could drop drastically within a few short years if people would make a conscious effort to stop their harmful behavior. This pattern of destruction will continue until each and every citizen takes responsibility for their own actions. To do any less is out of control.

Source World Net Daily