AIDS, Katrina and Bush

It's World AIDS Day, a time to reflect and act on this disease that's ravaged our planet and loved ones. I support all the efforts to promote prevention, cures, awareness, sympathy. One campaign that's well-intentioned and provocative but I think misses the mark is the AIDS is DC's Katrina campaign, sponsored by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. The campaign notes the incredibly high rates of infection in the District of Columbia and likens it to the Bush administration's neglect of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It chides Obama and calls on him to do more. The analogy to Katrina would be more precise if Bush had not increased HIV funding so dramatically. His record is not umblemished and was bound by the politics of family planning and condoms. But he did hike funding, a fact which Bono and others note often. AIDS may be DC's Katrina. But AIDS isn't Bush's Katrina.