Iowa City-based AIDS activists say all nine Democrats running for their party’s nomination for President have signed the group’s pledge to take action to stop the global AIDS epidemic. Mara Vanderslice is spokeswoman for the group “Iowans For AIDS Action” and she details what’s in the pledge. The pledge commits the candidates to double the amount of funding President Bush has promised to put up to help people with AIDS, pledges deeper debt relief for countries trying to fight AIDS and to make sure those nations have access to cheaper, generic AIDS-fighting drugs. Given the nature of politics, Vanderslice says she was rather astounded that all nine Democrats could agree on the pledge.Vanderslice says AIDS is killing eight-thousand people a day and killed three-million people globally last year. 42-million worldwide are now infected, about 11-hundred in Iowa. Vanderslice says she was surprised all nine candidates signed the pledge but adds “It’s just a real testament to show that there’s leadership on this issue and that people in Iowa genuinely care about the AIDS crisis.” She says the AIDS issue is on a par with the war in Iraq.Vanderslice says “The power to end AIDS starts in Iowa because if we can get these candidates to make a strong commitment here, we believe that will be an investment and a downpayment to what’s needed to end the AIDS crisis.” She says AIDS is considered by many Iowans to be “the most pressing international moral concern of our time.”
