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Is there any other "we"? |
Posted on 10/08/2006 8:11:58 AM PDT by Mike Bates
A Chicago Roman Catholic priest who has battled drug dealers, big tobacco and alcohol companies during the last 30 years has turned his attention toward AIDS and advocating for sweeping mandatory HIV testing in Illinois.
During a speech Friday at the Union League Club, the Rev. Michael Pfleger, pastor of St. Sabina Roman Catholic Church in Auburn-Gresham, said he intends to rally religious and political leaders to take radical steps to combat AIDS in the black community.
"It's destroying the human family, it's wiping out the African-American family, and it's wiping out future generations, particularly in the communities that I live in and work in, while we sit back and we're dealing with HIV just like we dealt with drugs and breast cancer: We're in denial," Pfleger said.
ACLU sees problems
"Every high school junior should be tested every year in the state of Illinois to find out if they're HIV-positive. And we should also test in all of our prisons every single year. We're not testing, and people are getting HIV in prison and then coming back out and giving this disease to sisters and brothers in the community," he said.
Pfleger also said churches should offer HIV/AIDS screenings at least once a year. "Then if people find out they have it, we give them the medical attention they need," he said.
Ed Yohnka, spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union in Illinois, said government-mandated AIDS testing is problematic.
"We would have no disagreement that we ought to create an environment in which people learn about their [HIV] status. The only disagreement is with the government determining when and where and how the testing should be done," Yohnka said.
cfalsani@suntimes.com
Let me guess. "We" is the government, right?
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Is there any other "we"? |
I would have refused.
Even at that age, no matter the "requirements", I'd have caused a large scene over it, and it would never have happened.
Same here.
Apparently, only in isolated parts of the Nation.
the Church has gotten so bad that I now have to agree with the ACLU here
I'm proud to say that for the past two years I've avoided donating money on Sundays to my local church, when the basket comes by - I just look straight ahead and don't flinch, most of the money was just ending up in the pockets of local defense lawyers, so it's no biggie.
It is self limiting by it's nature, if we allow nature to take it's course. Testing and artificial treatments just prevent nature from taking it's course and allow for the disease to spread.
If people insist on interfering with nature and want to have aids testing, I would say ok under one condition. If the test is paid for with taxpayer money the taxpayers would then have a right to know the result of their test. All test results would be made public. Public money, public answers. Those who have relations with those listed publicly as having aids, would have no one to blame but themselves, if they were to get aids, and they would have no claim on taxpayer funds to interfere with the natural progression of aids in their system.
Why test, if we cannot release or study the results? What good is info that is inaccessible? The first and most important thing is to make this a reportable disease. Nobody gets it off a can of pop! We know it is primarily a sexually transmitted disease of gay men. For heaven's sake act on THAT information. If it is reportable then their sex partners can be traced down and followed.
Women who have sex with an infected partner are also at risk, which of course is one more reason for being able to identify them. Drug users who share needles, likewise.
Infants who are born to infected moms can be identified then even prior to birth and plans for care started.
But Oprah said it was:
"Research studies now project that one in five – listen to me, hard to believe – one in five heterosexuals could be dead from AIDS at the end of the next three years. That's by 1990. One in five. It is no longer just a gay disease. Believe me." – Oprah Winfrey, February 18, 1987
Later pingout.
How is testing them going to keep them from having unprotected sex with someone else?
Yes, the royal "we". As in, "We are not amused."
as long as the "WE" is the catholic church and not the US taxpayer....I couldn't care less....of course...who will enforce this "papal bull?"
It is intended to criminalize people who are not part of the demographic that gets AIDS. He wants the AIDS test to be mandatory, which must mean that he wants criminal penalties for people who will not take the test. My guess is that if you asked him if there should he criminal penalties for people who knowlingly spread AIDS, his answer would be No. But he does want criminal penalties for people who do not have AIDS and are not likely to get it. The leftists always want to punish people who are not part of the problem.
I say that Michael Pfleger should be made to undergo polygraph examination every year to determine whether he has molested any children.
Free needles, free condoms, awareness literature. Nothing new here.
HIV/AIDS test is not 100 percent accurate. It is subjected to false positives or negatives, which can be real burdensome and painful.
Don't think this suggestion can be traced to Pope Benedict.
Please, let's not saddle the Most Reverend with pesky questions that can't be answered.
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