Week
of
07/10/98:		 Between January 1994 and June 1997, 57% of all new infections with the human immunodeficiency virus which causes AIDS were African-Americans. African-Americans only make-up 13% of the population. Should mandatory AIDS testing for all citizens be initiated to stem this epidemic?



Submit Date: 2 NOV 1998
Name: Karen De Vaughn
Email: "brownstonepub@earthlink.net
Response: I think mandatory testing of all citizens is the onlnly wasy to get a handle on this pandemic. The debate on this health issue has been guided by politics instead of in the intrest of humanity. For the most part, I fault the gay community for using this issue to further their agendas' as opposed to helping tackle this dreaded virus.


Name:
Email: lettsifo@aol.com
Response: Anything that seems to threaten our individual freedoms is looked on as a plan by people elsewhere to keep track of our personal selves. The idea of testing everyone for AIDS falls into this category. AIDS is a deadly, vile, dreadful and prolific killer. For those of us who are parents, we rarely object to having our new-born child tested for an assortment of potential live threatening diseases. How many of us objected to letting a hospital staff footprinting our 2-minute old baby? Yes, I support the idea of testing every citizen in the U.S. My reason for such a stance--I can give you more than 1,000,000 pages--it is a much needed health tool.


Name: simone
Email:
Response: I think there should be mandatory AIDS testing. In this world where so many people, not only African Americans, are infected with this disease, and a lot of people don't even know they have it, mandatory testing would be very helpful. Some people infect other individuals with out knowing it, which is why the epidemic is spreading. I am not an expert on the subject, but I think that if the disease and it's transmission was more closely followed, it's pattern could be more closly monitored and maybe a cure would be closer to being discovered.


Name: Terry Moten
Email: tertramoten@msn.com
Response: Any "reasonable" person would agree that AIDS, by definition is an epidemic. An epidemic that we know to have an absolute and ultimate result in death. It seems to me, that it is beyond reason not to take whatever measures that are "reasonable" and "prudent" to impede if not exterminate this disease. Whether you believe the the statistics or not, I believe that we can all agree that this disease is "absolutely" deadly, and has no discriminatory inhibitor when it comes to race, class, sex, age or any other codifying criteria. As a result, the reported statistics, be they true or false, are irrelevant to that fact that this disease poses a significant threat to the existence of "all" mankind. Given what we do know about AIDS at this time, and that is that it is an absolute deadly epidemic that does not discriminate. Do we believe that mandatory testing is a reasonable and prudent measure in attempting to inhibit or exteriminate such a disease. Least I remind you, as you read this response to this inquiry, and we argue over mandated AIDS testing, there exists a great probability at this very moment someone is unknowingly passing along their virus to another. And in this day and age with the technology we have, this does not have to be.


Name: Rodney K. Giles
Email: Dajoun@hotmail.com
Response: Testing should be Mandatory to stop this spread of aids. If not no one knows what the future holds for all of us.


Name:
Email: lmaddox@worc.mass.edu
Response: If we were to comtemplate making aids testing mandatory for all citizens then we have to look at the possible implications or impact it may have on the African-American community. Although we live in "modern times", we still have people who blame societal ills on African-Americans. Who is to say that the percentages concerning African-Americans infected with HIV or AIDS wouldn't be inflated to perpetuate a new wave of backlash against our community. Also who is to say that this so-called testing wouldn't be a repeat of the Tuskegee experiment. We as a community have to be careful when dealing with delicate matters concerning African-Americans. Whether the situations plaguing our community is our doing or someone elses, there will always be someone in power who will use our plight against us.


Name:
Email: ABOLITIONIST@webtv.net
Response: With over 11 Million Dead from the AIDS epidemic and more than 30 Million Infected with HIV, the fight against AIDS Shifts to the Developing Nations. The epidemic continues to ravage Third World Nations. Figures indicate that 90% of New HIV Infections Occur in "Third World Nations" where basic medical care and costly new drugs are essentially nonexistent. The question asked of us gives no facts of the other races involved. Also the actual "number" of people infected are important to this overall picture!!! In the absence of this knowledge, I personally feel we've been "HAD"...!!! I believe we have been "Baited" to perform for the judgment of the Questioner. We were not given the full truth of the matter. If 90% of New Infections are in the Third World Nations, the 57% African-American "scare" being thrown our way sounds like a sick "JOKE" to me. Don't misunderstand, just one peron with AIDS is a hopeless situation. The information I found, and the Question Put To Us Don't "JIBE"...


Name: Gensvc
Email: Gensvc@aol.com
Response: Mandatory AIDs testing for all? No!!!! We have given too much control of our personal and private lives in the so called battle against drugs. Testing for drugs has gives more information about other things that should only be known between patient and doctor. You allow mandatory testing for AIDs and very soon enough there will a mandatory test for something else.


Name: kaden
Email: kaden@blackmail.net
Response: I don't think that mandatory testing is the answer. It is an infringe on personal privacy and it takes away the responsibility of the individual. I think we should all care enough about ourselves and others to voluntarily get screened for aids. But, alas this is not a perfect world. We have people out here who are spreading aids out of spite because they have it. This not fair is not fair, nor is it ethically or morally right. But it does happen. So realistically speaking, yes every one should be tested on a regular and continual basis. I feel that people should held more accountable for their actions, previous and present. I think that we as a people should do whatever it takes to help stem the tide of this epidemic. I know that we don't come together as a race on ANYTHING


Name: Calvero
Email: gmann@cwo.com
Response: I don't think mandatory testing will fix the problem. Abolitionist - I would agree with you on the topic of statistics. To answer your questions on why, I think it goes like this. We don't give a #$%#@ about ourselves. I'm speaking collectively as a race. It's not that we've given up on ourselves - the fact is the majority of us never cared in the first place. How else could I explain it. We live in ghettos but drive $100,000 cars and wear gaudy designer clothes because rappers tell us to. (who by the way aren't being paid by the designer) We love to think of ourselves well before others and will not sacrifice for the next generation. Our origniality has been stripped and in its place we have a cloudy figure leading us astray. Our "leaders" only show up when it benefits them. Never once with the exception of the Farakan, has one bucked the system to bring us together. I'm not saying we went there for him. Most of us went there for each other. The few that care are cast away as being "uncle toms" when we speak out. By telling another of my race to stop asking and start demanding, to prepare BEFORE you commit, to own up and have intergrity, I was given this name. For those of us that care I applaud you. For those of us that take offense to what I've written - ask yourself why. (be honest with yourself) I wish we could be black owned and self supportive but until the majority of us get our acts together and priorites straight - That part of the book will never be revealed.. Outty... I welcome feedback


Name: Heidi
Email: hydeeho48@aol.com
Response: God has given us free will, which separates us from other animals. Our choice to be tested or not tested for aids should be our responsablity to ourselves and not mandated by society.


Name:
Email: ABOLITIONIST@webtv.net
Response: Please correct the mistake that was made in my article. The "last two" percentages are suppose to read, "African-American 57% White Race 60%" Thank you for Repairing this error...


Name: Aaron Walker
Email: r_133@hotmail.com
Response: The system seems to want more and more control over our lives . Hell no.


Name:
Email: ABOLITIONIST@webtv.net
Response: I believe this 57% to be a Pseudo-Intelligence! What are the percentages of other races? How much of a spread between the percentages are there? Is it 57% African-American, and 56% White Race? How does the whole picture read? Numbers mean nothing in Isolation!! You did not say 57% higher than other races. Those numbers could read "Collectively" African-American 57%, and White Race 60%!!! Are we playing a Deceptive-Game? If those numbers mean what they represent, then, we have had an abundance of help from every other race. We could not have done this alone! African-Americans must stay within its own Race. We cannot continue to compound this "Monster-Killer" on ourselves... It's been reported that this virus was invented to Kill African Descendants. Why, then, do we participate in our destruction? Why do we "Search" other races for Satisfaction, when Satisfaction is at Home??? Why do we "Freely" Allow ourselves to be Receptacles for the Garbage of Others...??


Name: LINDA JOSHUA
Email: WALKS-FAR
Response: MANDATORY TESTING SHOULD ONLY BE PERFORMED ON PERSONS WHO HAVE BEEN CONVICTED OF RAPE.


Name: DRR
Email: drrich@USA.net
Response: Mandatory testing would be like locking the barn door after the horse has escaped. We don't need anymore Big Brother government dictating our lives. We as a proud people should educate, train, and inform our own as we did when we were all of the same mind in the civil rights struggle of the sixties and early seventies. Common sense and decency should rule our Black Communities. Black people all over this land already know that unprotected sex is dangerous these days. The church and Black community leaders should wake up again and guide our people back to the path of caring and hope , which somehow was lost during the past 25 or 30 years. A lot of our people have given up hope for life and it is heartbreaking to see it happen , but it is understandable considering the day to day life of a lot of us in America. Fighting for this country in Viet Nam for almost a year , doing unGodly deeds supposedly for a good cause and on the way home for leave , I was refused to be served at a bus stop counter , my hope was extinguished also for a perios of time . But since I have regained my hope for Life through God and other Black people who held on to their hope , I was guided back on to the right track. I know that it can be done and this is what we have to do as a people.


Name: checkers
Email:
Response: MANDATORY?! NO!! What would be the next step? Quarantine? With the percentages being what they are, it would be majority blacks... another way to remove more of our people from "society."


Name: Cecilia
Email: Cmpmad@aol.com
Response: I do not believe that it is anyone's business who has AIDS and who does not. A problem our country is plauged by is should people, like a dentist, have to the right to deny you a check up or surgery based on the fact that you have AIDS. We should not create another way for society to discriminate a group of people. Also there are other problems like who should have access to the results. Insurance? Doctors? who? Maybe if all the bugs were worked out we could allow it but I don't think it should be done. But that is just my opinion.


Name: tiff
Email: jbw2550
Response: how are statements like that going to affect our youth, knowing that is another steryotype placed on them?


Name: Brian Cosgrove
Email: bchow398@juno.com
Response: You can test everybody in the U.S.A. for A.I.D.S. all you want but the only thing that's going to stop aids is to quit doing the stuff that causes it. If you sleep with everyone you meet you run the risk of getting aids. Sure condoms could reduce the chance but who really wears them?. And why would you want to rely on a piece of latex to protect yourself from a disease. You still have to remove it and handle it and no one is going to be that carefull. Especially when they just got that endorphine rush. Same thing with needles you run the risk of getting the diease when you share needles. Heres an idea. Don't do any of that stuff at all. Wait until you are married to have sex and rise above drugs and stay away from them. As for the black population making up 57% of the new cases. AIDS does not discriminate and this is one thing that you will suffer the consequences from Regardless of color.


Name:
Email: MAADDOG@webtv.net
Response: Testing will only prove that you "Have" Aids, or you "Don't" Have Aids, "Period"!! If you have it, Your destiny is the "Grave"...If you don't have it, you live to get it! I care more for "My-Life" than I do for the "BOX"! I'm Man enough to tell the World that I don't need "IT" to be a Man! For 18-years I have been in total ABSTINENCE (this works for me). God gave us Sex for Procreation, not for the Sick Pastime Some Humans have made it to be!!! Testing will do "Nothing For You"...It is what the Individual will do for Himself. Everyone waits for someone else to Protect them from the Rigors of life. There are no "Roaming Saviors" on earth!! Wake-up people. Get your heads out of the seat of your pants, "And Live".....(There's a bit of leadership for you)!!!!!


Name: Ahsante' Burroughs
Email: jcdoni@erols.com
Response: HELL NO!!!!! If that happens and we make this type of testing mandatory, there will then be no boundaries to where the government can go. We all need our privacy. I know if I have a regular common head cold, I do not want to have to be tested and have everyone know what the heck is going on in my life. If you going to make some kind of testing mandatory, how about racial discrimination tests. Hmmmm....something to think about! Peace, from the frustrated ni**ah!


Name: Solomon Landers, Uwohilatlitigv
Email: Numberup@worldnet.att.net
Response: Mandatory AIDS testing would merely serve to stigmatize further those who are at risk. It would not solve the problem, there are already well-publicized cases of persons who knowingly, irresponsibly continued to have unprotected sex after testing positive for HIV. What is needed is greater education in the risk factors for contracting HIV, programs that reduce those factors for risk, and persuasion to practice personal responsibility in matters sexual.


Name: Anonymous
Email:
Response: I think that AIDS Testing should be mandatory for all citizens. It should be as routine as a yearly physical.


Name: april crump
Email: acrump@nortel.com
Response: Although this idea seems like the intelligent thing to do, we are all well aware of what type of controversy this will create. When you start calling in for mandatory anything, someone's rights are automatically going to be violated. How do we know that the government will not call for this mandatory testing to become as dogmatic as a creditor calling you at work. Or writing to your employer about you not being tested, and bringing suspicion to yourself. I can see this method causing many minorites to lose their jobs. I am not only talking in the black community, but also the latin, asia, etc.It is sad that many americans rather live with the soft lie that they many not have it rather than the full assurace that they are disease free. Just like many other topics of discussion, we as a people are going to have to take a stand, and decide to free ourselves from the bondages and stereotypes that have been created by others, and sadly often times enforce ourselves. It has to be up to each individual what they are going to do with their lives. I myself get tested regularly. I rather know for sure, than infect others and then find out one day on accident. I think that getting tested for any type of disease has to do with that individual person not being selfish. So many times in this society, we want what we want when we want it. Instead of us caring for the person that we are really with (getting tested to make sure). We rather fulfill our own needs (sexual). So I think that people need to stop telling each other all that jazz about love, caring, creeping, sneaking, whatever, and get down to it. Stop being selfish, and start really caring about someone other than yourself and get tested. Be an encouragement to the little brothers and sisters out there. Let your mistakes be someone else's survival kit. We are always talking about we need a leader in the community. Well, START LEADING!


Name: Keisha
Email:
Response: If this is not a carefully though out program what does it solve? Is it testing for the sake of it? Will there be counseling for those who test positive? While testing is a first step, more steps must follow.


Name: Yaz
Email: chevron47@hotmail.com
Response: Mandatory AIDS testing would violate our civil rights and it would not help to stem this virus. What would happen after infected people would find out? Would they be outcast and exiled to a far off island? Would they be imprisioned for being sick? We can make this country into the America that the writers of the Declaration longed for, but we will first have to stop thinking in narrow terms about those who are sick, or too fat, or too old, or any other trait a person may have because of conditions which are out of their control.


Name: PWhite
Email: pfw68@apex
Response: First I would ask what is the number of black babies born with HIV instead of the precentage. I'm willing to bet the number of white babies born with HIV is far greater than Black babies. Don't get me wrong any baby or adult with this disease my heart is saddened for them. However, I do not believe there should be mandatory testing. I believe we, as a community, should work to educate everyone about this killer. Mandatory testing of HIV will take away the rights of individual freedom to privacy.


Name: Frances Murphy
Email: FrankieLou@aol.com
Response: No!No!No! Let's get off this percentage kick and talk about numbers. How many people are you talking about? No one has the right to force members of families who do not subscribe to the new "sexual revolution" to submit to any kind of tests. You have no right to invade our privacy.


Name: simon
Email: talib@swbell.net
Response: NO!!!