Democrats, Republicans Should Address HIV/AIDS at Party Conventions, Bono Writes in Opinion Piece
At their upcoming national conventions, both Democrats and Republicans should address the "biggest global challenge" -- "AIDS and the extreme poverty in which it thrives" -- because "like it or not, our future in the West is eerily bound up" with that of HIV-positive people in Africa, Irish rock star Bono writes in a Boston Globe opinion piece. By the end of the decade, Africa will have 18 million AIDS orphans, Bono, founder of AIDS, debt relief and trade advocacy group DATA, writes. Providing antiretroviral drugs to Africa not only would be "great advertisements for American ingenuity and technology" but also "an opportunity to show what America stands for" at a time when "[b]rand USA could use some polishing," Bono writes. "Whispering extremists attract recruits when hope has broken down. Surely, in nervous, dangerous times, it is smarter for America to make friends now of potential enemies than defend itself against them later," Bono writes (Bono, Boston Globe, 7/25).
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