Frist must continue AIDS fight

In response to Professor John Fleming's editorial ("Questions for the AIDS Campaign," March 3, 2003), we would like to explain why the Princeton chapter of Student Global AIDS Campaign — a nationwide student organization with over eighty participating chapters — decided to protest outside Sen. Bill Frist's acceptance speech of a Woodrow Wilson School award during Alumni Weekend. First, it is important to note that there were three different groups protesting: Another World is Possible, the Queer Radicals and Student Global AIDS Campaign (SGAC). While these groups decided to join in the protest for various reasons, the SGAC, to whom Professor Fleming specifically directed his remarks, was there for one central reason: since becoming majority leader, Sen. Frist has backed down from his stronger, earlier stances on AIDS. While we admire Sen. Frist's leadership on the issue — and his role as a spokesman in Congress on this issue — we are disappointed by his recent decisions to backtrack from his earlier position.

The members of the SGAC are fully aware that Sen. Frist is a medical practitioner who has witnessed the devastation of AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, and it is recognized and appreciated that he has been crucial in putting AIDS funding on the current political agenda. While acknowledging his apparent dedication to the issue, it is for this reason that we expect more from Sen. Frist. Contrary to what was implied by Prof. Fleming, members of the SGAC contingent on campus were present for Sen. Frist's speech and indeed supported many of his statements regarding the gravity of the current AIDS crisis. However, in light of Sen. Frist's changing position on the direction of AIDS funding, we nevertheless found that the talk masked many underlying issues dealing with the implementation of an effective AIDS program. We understand that in the wake of his recent change in leadership position, Sen. Frist has many new political concerns; yet the SGAC does not see these changes as being enough to justify such contradictions within his policies. The protest was intended to educate people about the inconsistencies in Sen. Frist's position, which are severe and potentially incredibly detrimental.

For example, Sen. Frist has withdrawn support from his own bill (S. 2525) — a bill he cosponsored with Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) last May during the last Congressional session. Recently, Newsweek and the Washington Post have highlighted how Frist's new demands on AIDS are very different from the ones he made in his bill last year. For instance, while Frist originally called for $2.5 billion to combat global AIDS in 2004, he now seems to be moving towards supporting a decrease in this amount to Bush's proposed $2 billion. Perhaps most importantly, though, Frist has wavered in his support for the UN Global Fund for HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and TB, an international fund created to streamline global resources intended to combat these diseases. And while Frist's initial legislation stipulated that no less than half of U.S. funds should go to the Global Fund, he now appears to be supporting the president's initiative in which only $1 billion out of $15 billion is presently earmarked for the Global Fund over the next five years, a change which will emphasize the use of bilateral agreements that minimize the leverage of local governments and NGOs in directing policy in their regions. As Paul Zeitz, Director of the Global AIDS Alliance in Washington, DC, recently stated in The Daily Tenneseean, a prominent periodical in Frist's home state: "We're seeing him compromise his policy position to get in line with the president. It's very disturbing that he's shown such leadership but doesn't defend his own policy".

At our protest, we were actively passing out flyers with information explaining our stance and held signs requesting that Sen. Frist hold his ground in the face of White House pressure and continue supporting the Global Fund. The purpose of these flyers was not only to raise awareness about the issue of global AIDS but also to resolve any questions of passers by surrounding the nature and legitimacy of our protest. As an organization comprised of students who care very passionately about this issue, we fully recognize the confusion that those who are less informed on this issue might experience in seeing us protest a man who addressed a large part of his talk to the global AIDS crisis. We do not doubt Sen. Frist's personal commitment to this issue — we want him to advocate publicly what we believe he is dedicated to privately.

Sen. Frist asked his audience at the closing of his speech to "lift [their] eyes to the horizon", and that is what we as members of the SGAC are trying to do. We are concerned about the future implications of ineffective policies today; although this issue is mired in politics, it is essential to recognize that AIDS is too important to be confounded by constituent politics. We must realize that this is one of the most profound and devastating events in human history and our efforts — as a country and world — must not be compromised by political concerns. AIDS is the defining crisis of our generation. We are asking Sen. Frist to substantiate his claim that he is a "civilian legislator" and move past the politics that have always convoluted congressional views on AIDS funding. At the most basic level, we are asking Frist to do what he has always said is right — but which he now says is wrong.