WORLD
THE BATTALION
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Craig Litten • KRT CAMPUS
ident Kelsey Fowler fills in
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asgow, Scotland
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JRCE: Associated Press
Opinion
The Battalion
Page 11 • Monday, February 17, 2003
Overcoming AIDS in Africa
Bush administration’s AIDS relief package to Africa is money well spent
P resident George W. Bush
outlined the “Emergency
Plan for AIDS Relief’ in
his State of the Union Address
on Jan. 28. The plan was
applauded by nearly all, though
some argued that it does too lit
tle; others, that it is misdirected
insofar as the money, some $ 15
billion during the next fi,ve
years, should be used for pro
grams within the United States. While
ihe former argument is best left to inter
national AIDS experts and organiza
tions, the latter argument suggests either
ignorance of or disdain for the values,
privileges and responsibilities on which
America was founded and from which it
has matured.
In 2001, Elton Mungate was an 11-
year-old orphan featured in a Time
Magazine photo essay on the deadly dis
ease. Living in Zimbabwe, his grand
mother cared for him as he suffered from
an illness he knew nothing about. Though
il is not known what happened to
Mungate, if the statistics reflect reality, he
should be dead now, perhaps by coughing
up blood caused by tuberculosis, which
his weakened immune system could not
fight, or maybe sjmply by wasting away
like many other AIDS victims — their
bodies too frail to battle both chronic
food deprivation and the virus.
Mungate is not alone. He is like three
million other children under the age of
15, and 30 million Africans total, who
writhe and die silently, most often in
Iheir homes or on the streets, and rarely
inhospitals. In his speech. Bush recalled
aSouth African doctor who said, “We
have no medicines ... many hospitals tell
(people), ‘You've got AIDS. We can't
help you. Go home and die.’” And, as
k] die by the millions, the United
Jfc must act.
The nations of Africa plagued with
HIV cannot help themselves. Medicine
and hospital care are astronomically
expensive and their economies, like their
leadership, is infantile at best. The con-
linent is rife with famine and war and
out of this stems fear and ignorance of
the disease.
Family and friends ostracize the
afflicted. Few are educated about pre
vention. Children such as Mungate, born
to mothers with HIV, suffer the
most. Not only do they have a 30
percent chance of becoming
infected, according to the United
Nations, but they will likely be
orphaned by their parents' death
from the very illness they carry
but do not understand.
While many would argue to
the contrary, the United States
has tried to accept the role of
protecting the world. America is peer
less with respect to influence, power and
prosperity; it is precisely because of this
that the country must act now to help
the poor and destitute in the world.
No crisis poses such a threat to
human dignity as the crisis of
AIDS in Africa. America cannot
turn its head to the silent screams
of the dying.
“Our Founders,” Bush reminded
Americans in his address, “dedi
cated this country to the cause of
human dignity — the rights of every
person and the possibilities of every
life. This conviction leads us into the
world to help the afflicted, and defend
the peace, and confound the designs of
evil men.”
u
Mungate is not alone.
He is like three million
other children under
the age of 15, and 30
million Africans total,
who writhe and die
silently...
America's richness and prosperity is
both a blessing and an imperative. That
the United States has both a right and an
obligation, for instance, to remove
regimes whose continuance of power is a
threat to Americans is necessarily coupled
with the responsibility and duty to help
those who are weak and void of hope.
Does America have domestic issues it
must deal with? Yes. America, too, has
people inside its borders who are weak
and impoverished. However, the domes
tic problems that America faces cannot
be solved with money; instead they
must be solved by the joint action of
individuals. The weak and impover
ished of America are not lying naked
on the streets dying in agony.
America's poor are rich compared to
every third-world nation. Everyone in
this country is protected by rights and
bestowed with freedoms. Elton
Mungate, and millions like him,
died without rights, without free
doms, without dignity and with
AIDS.
Bush's aid package reflects a
great leap forward for his
administration. This effort, the
president said, can prevent seven mil
lion new AIDS infections and provide
adequate care to millions more. While
these funds alone may not turn the tide
in Africa, it is at least a practical and
symbolic gesture by the United States to
aid humanity. President Bush is a con
servative, but he knows the history of
this country and, therefore, the
responsibility of this great nation.
Michael Ward is a senior
history major.
FRANK CHANCE • THE BATTALION
Military academies need affirmative action
fcM
ts
History of military discrimination and need to
boost morale encourages diversity
I n a time when affirmative action programs are under
fire from the public and the Bush administration, there
is one group of schools that admits to proactive minor
ity recruitment and has not become a target of public
scrutiny. The United States Military Academy at West
Point Va., the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., and the
Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo, admit to
actively targeting minority students for recruitment into
the academies and West Point openly says that it wants
black students to make up 10-12 percent of the class,
according to The New York Times.
While many would see this as a direct contradiction to the Bush
administration’s stance on affirmative action policies, this is not
the case. The military academies need to have affirmative action
policies for reasons that differ from other admissions policies.
One of the first reasons the military academies need these pro
grams is the history of discrimination in the military. For most of
American military history, there were no minority officers unless
they were part of segregated units. Once the military integrated,
there were still numerous problems with continued discrimination
for the promotion of minority officers. According to an article in
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Secretary of State Colin Powell
was overlooked for a promotion to brigadier general. Clifford
Alexander, then secretary of the Army, held up the promotions list
and ordered the General Officer Board to take a second look for
black officers unfairly passed over. The list included Powell’s
name the second time, as well as other black colonels. Without
Alexander’s affirmative effort, Powell’s career may have stalled.
It is this type of history that the military academies have
to actively work to correct. While the military has come a
long way in correcting past discrimination, the problem is
still visible in the service academies.
Another goal of the service academies is to create an
integrated officers corps. According to a New York Times
article, the military argument is that with racial minorities
making up from 28 percent of the enlisted personnel in
the Air Force to 44 percent in the Army, mostly all-white
ranks of officers would hurt morale. The difference
between universities and colleges having affirmative
action programs and the service academies having the programs is
a matter of national security. Morale and strong leadership are
important in the military, especially as we edge closer to war with
Iraq. A disgruntled military personnel member is a dangerous
proposition when it comes to the safety of the nation. These men
and women are putting their lives on the line to protect the nation
and if there is antagonism between them and the officer corps
because of racial differences, it could be disastrous. According to
The Boston Globe, military leaders have long stressed the impor
tance of having the armed services reflect the diversity of the
country they protect.
Service academies don’t accept anyone who does not meet
strenuous physical and academic standards. If an applicant doesn’t
meet the standards, the academy has the option to send them to a
one-year prep school to give the student an opportunity to meet the
requirements. Naval Academy Dean of Admissions Dave Vetter
told The New York Times, “everybody that receives an offer to the
academy has to be fully qualified, but beyond that, we want a
brigade that reflects our country, geographically diverse, we want
it to be diverse in other regards, too.” The academies do not lessen
their standards for minority students. Instead, the academies
actively recruit minorities to get them to come.
According to The Boston Globe, director of admissions at West
Point Col. Michael L. Jones said, “admissions officials rely on
aggressive, targeted recruiting that would increase the number of
minority applicants who meet the school’s rigorous academic and
physical standards.” It is not a matter of setting aside a certain
number of spots for minority students, but instead it is a goal of
increasing the total amount of minority applicants in the admission
pool. The academies acknowledge that most of the minority stu
dents they seek could usually win full scholarships at private insti
tutions that did not wake them up before dawn or expect them to
serve five years of active duty after graduation, according to The
New York Times.
While many people are against affirmative action policies for
colleges and universities, they need to support the programs at the
military service academies. The military’s programs are not ones
of lower standards, but instead are ones of active and specifically-
targeted recruitment to encourage minority students to apply to the
academies. It is in the best interest of the military and the nation
that the officer corps reflect the diversity of the nation.
Brieanne Porter is a senior
political science major.
BRIEANNE
PORTER
War on drugs claims the
lives of innocent
The recent death of 14-year-old Ashley
Villarreal in San Antonio at the hands of
the DEA is indeed a tragedy. It marks a
disturbing trend that is but one of the
many unfortunate side effects of our gov
ernment's failed War on Drugs.
Too often, overzealous state and federal
agents sidestep the Fourth Amendment
and conduct drug raids based on second
hand, unsubstantiated information and
without a proper search warrant. Many
times these raids end not only with a fail
ure to find any drugs, but also with the
commission of gross Constitutional viola-
MAIL CALL
tions and, worst of all, the injury or death
of innocent civilians.
Tony Martinez, 19 and unarmed, was
killed by drug taskforce officers during a
raid on a mobile home in Del Valle, Texas,
in December of 2001. He was sleeping on
the couch and wasn't even the target of
the raid. In Milwaukee, based on an
anonymous tip about "possible drug activ
ity" in a house on her block, police officers
burst into the home of Jacqueline Paasch
and shot her, causing permanent debilitat
ing injuries. Again, no drugs were found.
And Clayton Helriggle, 23, was shot dead
as he came down his stairs after police in
riot gear raided his Ohio home. They
recovered less than an ounce of marijuana
- hardly a reason to shoot and kill an
American citizen in his own home.
Our government tells us that buying
drugs causes the death of innocent men,
women, and children at the hands of ter
rorists and drug dealers. Lately, however,
DEA agents and narcotics officers seem to
be the ones doing all the killing. So while
the government claims that buying drugs
funds terrorism, I guess I can claim that
paying federal income taxes funds
Constitutional violations and senseless
killing by the DEA.
Jon Apgar
Class of 1999