[2114] in peace2
AIDS ACTION: Call president bush today!
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (stephanie wei Wang)
Thu Dec 5 00:20:14 2002
Message-Id: <200212050520.AAA04781@w20-575-67.mit.edu>
To: utr-announce@MIT.EDU, peace-announce@MIT.EDU, greens-coords@MIT.EDU,
mitai-exec@MIT.EDU, mit-cds-request@MIT.EDU, wleague@MIT.EDU,
amsa-exec@MIT.EDU
Date: Thu, 05 Dec 2002 00:20:02 -0500
From: stephanie wei Wang <sweiwang@MIT.EDU>
please forward if appropriate
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Tell Bush: FIGHT GLOBAL AIDS
This past Sunday, December 1, another World AIDS Day came and went
with demonstrations, funerals, marches and prayers. We want to demand
that the message of World AIDS Day be translated into REAL ACTION by
the Bush Administration.
_On Thursday, December 5, 2002 from 11-2pm call the White House
comment line: (202) 456-1111
_What to say when you call:
Hello, my name is ________ and I am calling to tell President Bush
that I believe that he should launch a comprehensive Presidential AIDS
Initiative to fight global AIDS when he travels to Africa in January.
This plan should include a minimum of a $2.5 billion U.S.contribution
to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria; and should create
U.S. policies that protect access to AIDS treatment.
Your call will not go unnoticed! When 20 people call the White House
comment line on the same day about the same issue, the President
receives a written report of it on his desk.
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What: Campuses and students from all over the country will be calling
the White House at the same time in an effort to log-jam their phone
lines.
Why: President Bush, in his two years in office, has done NOTHING to
fight the biggest health crisis in history. Bush has offered only
miniscule increases in funding to fight global AIDS, his
administration pursues policies that will deny access to generic
medications for persons living with AIDS, and Bush has even undercut
bipartisan efforts in Congress to increase spending on global AIDS!
Our President is content to stand by as millions die from a disease
that is both preventable and treatable. We must show Bush that his
neglect equals death for people living with AIDS, and that this is
unacceptable to the U.S. public. President Bush has become the man
with no plan for fighting a pandemic that his own Secretary of State
Colin Powell has called the biggest threat faced by the world today.
President Bush should now confront the AIDS crisis head on, and create
a Presidential AIDS Initiative that includes a minimum of $2.5 billion
for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria, and policies that
ensure access to AIDS drugs, when he travels to Africa in January.
Together, we will send this demand to President Bush.
Background: This year President Bush requested from Congress a paltry
$883 million to fight global AIDSa disease that is poised to infect
100 million individuals by the year 2010. The U.N. General Assembly on
AIDS advised that a minimum of $7-10 billion per year would be needed
for prevention and care for HIV/AIDS in developing countries. The
U.S.s fair portion of this is approximately $2.5-3 billion per year,
as the U.S. comprises 35-30 percent of the global economy.
Unfortunately the U.S., led by President Bush, refuses to provide the
international leadership necessary to win the fight against AIDS,
allowing millions to die.
Activists in the U.S. have been pressuring President Bush to develop a
comprehensive Presidential AIDS Initiative to combat global AIDS when
he travels to Africa in January. Activists are demanding that the plan
consist of three essential elements: access to affordable medication
for people infected with HIV/AIDS, access to prevention and support
services for affected communities, and substantial new monies from the
U.S. to fight global AIDS (a minimum of $2.5 billion with at least
half of that going towards the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and
Malaria).
On November 26, 2002, over 500 activists protested in Washington, D.C.
to demand action from Bush on global and domestic AIDS. 31 of these
activists were arrested while participating in an act of civil
disobedience protesting in front of the White House.
peace.
Wang, stephanie wei
