After a year of campaigning, the Democratic Party is about to make history by nominating either the first woman or the first African American as their standard bearer for the President of the United States. This week's presidential debate at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles on CNN was a proud moment for America.

Watching Senator Obama and Senator Clinton discuss the important issues of our day sent chills up my spine. It made me proud to be an American-something that has been difficult for many Americans over the last few years with torture, Katrina, and an Attorney General who believed political loyalty was more important than defending the constitution.

The two candidates demonstrated a robust understanding on issues from Immigration and healthcare to national security and the war in Iraq. But for me, what wasn't talked about in their "conversation" rang louder than what was discussed. Through 17 debates in every corner of this country, AIDS has barely been mentioned. And it was not mentioned at all during the final debate between the remaining two Democratic contenders prior to super Tuesday.

Here's why this is important to Black people.

By Phill Wilson, Black AIDS Institute

"An injustice any where is a threat to justice everywhere."
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

I've spent the entire day thinking about Dr. Martin Luther King jr. and wondering if Dr. King were alive today what would he say about the AIDS epidemic in our community. After reading his writings and listening to his speeches I realized I don't have to wonder what Dr. King would have said about AIDS because he said it.

"...sometimes there are battles
That are more than black or white...
Teach every child to raise his voice
And then, my brothers, then
Will justice be demanded
By ten million righteous men.
Make them hear you."

Coalhouse Walker--Ragtime

Can someone explain to me how the political pundits get off writing off the presidential campaigns before most Black folks have a chance to make our voices heard?

Let me break it down for you. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the total population is a little over 300 million. The combined population for Iowa and New Hampshire is 4.5 million. About 38 million Black people live in , of whom only about 90,000 live in Iowa and New Hampshire . So that means that a mere 1.5% of all Americans have had a chance to vote, and less than three tenths of one percent of Black people have had that opportunity.

By Phill Wilson, Black AIDS Institute

Saturday's Los Angeles Times ran a Joel Pett comic strip commenting on Senator Barack Obama's victory in the Iowa Democratic caucuses. A Black man and women are sitting at a table. The man is reading a newspaper, and he says to the woman, "A white state voted for a black man...cool!"

The woman replies, "You mean 3% of a 98% white state voted for a 50% Black Man?" The woman leaves the room. The man considers what she said, and then says to himself, "Still Cool!"

The 2008 race for the white house officially began last night when the Iowa caucuses sent a message. "It's all about change." And Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee are their guys.

On Tuesday, The Black AIDS Institute (The Institute) released the first in a series of educational briefs on electoral politics-We Demand Accountability: The 2008 Presidential Elections and the Black AIDS Epidemic (www.blackAIDS.org). This report is not only the first analysis to look at the presidential candidates from the perspective of AIDS in Black America; it is the first overview of where all the candidates stand on any issue of import to Black America.

By Phill Wilson, Black AIDS Institute

My holiday celebration was interrupted by the news of the death of my friend Tom Morgan on the morning of Christmas Eve.

Thomas Morgan was one of Black Journalism's shining stars. He was a former New York Times editor and a trailblazing ex-president of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ). He died Monday of an AIDS-related heart attack. He was 52.

Morgan lived for 20 years as an openly HIV-positive, gay man and worked in some of America's largest, most influential newsrooms. He was a reporter and editor at the Times, The Washington Post and the Miami Herald. From 1989 to 1991, he presided over one of NABJ's most explosive periods of growth and organization.

I met Tom in the mid eighties. At the time, he was the highest profiled African American living with AIDS.

By Phill Wilson, Black AIDS Institute

While Maurice Jamal's latest film, Dirty Laundry, is being touted as a story about a modern day prodigal son with a twist". I think it is more a story about what binds Black families together -- and what keeps us from really being together. I think Jamal intended to make a film about what happens when a mother rejects her son.

Instead, I think Dirty laundry is a story about what happens when a gifted son abandons his family because he feels rejected by them, and the pain and hurt they each suffer because they are unable to talk about their own pain or listen to the other's hurt.

Dirty Laundry follows magazine writer Patrick, played by Rockmond Dunbar (Prison Break, Soul Food), who seems to have the perfect life, until one day there is a knock at the door. On the other side stands a secret that brings him face to face with the traditional southern family he's been running away from for ten years.

Dirty Laundry's cast includes a colorful array of character and comedic actors including Loretta Devine (Waiting to Exhale, I Am Sam, Dreamgirls) as "Evelyn", Jenifer Lewis (Antwone Fisher Story, Castaway) as "Aunt Lettuce", Terri J. Vaughn (Daddy's Little Girls, Steve Harvey Show) as "Jackie", Sommore (Queens of Comedy, The Parkers) as "Abby", Alec Mapa (Ugly Betty) as "Daniel" and Director Maurice Jamal as "Eugene". Supermodel Veronica Webb also appears in a cameo.

By Phill Wilson, Black AIDS Institute

About six months ago a young man named Mike Sacco walked into my office with an idea. He had been reading about the AIDS epidemic in Black communities and he wanted to do something. "That's great." I said, "So what do you do?" I asked. "I'm a runner," he replied. "I've been reading about all these new statistics about HIV and AIDS and people are acting like the epidemic is over. I felt like I had to do something.

When I found out about what the Black AIDS Institute was doing and the devastating impact the AIDS epidemic is having on Black communities, a light went off in my head. Maybe I could raise money to fight AIDS and remind people that the AIDS epidemic is not over by combining my love of running and my dream to run from San Francisco to Los Angeles with my desire to do something about the AIDS epidemic?"

I have to admit, when Mike first walked into my office, I found myself in a paradox. My favorite quote is from Calvin Rolark "Nobody can save us from us, but us." I'm the executive director of the Black AIDS Institute. Our motto is "Our people, Our problem, Our solution!" Our mission is to get Black people involved in fighting HIV/AIDS. On the other hand White people should not be given a pass just because Black people bear the brunt of the AIDS epidemic today.

By Phill Wilson, Black AIDS Institue

On Monday, Nov. 26, the Washington D.C. HIV/AIDS administration released its first ever report assessing the status of HIV/AIDS in the District. According to the report, 80% of the new cases identified between 2001 and 2006 in Washington D.C. are Black.

The other news from DC is the AIDS epidemic in DC is primarily a heterosexual disease. 37% of the new HIV cases in the District were spread through heterosexual sex, 25% through men having sex with men.

Our nation's capital has the highest AIDS rate in the country, where 1 in every 50 people is known to be infected. Many experts believe the numbers could be even higher because many people infected with HIV don't know they have the virus because they have not been tested.

DC has the worse AIDS epidemic of any capital city in the world-worse then Dakar Senegal, Pretoria, South Africa, Phnompenh, Cambodia, or Port-au-Prince, Haiti. AIDS is worse in DC than Port-Au-Prince!

I don't know about you, but this report pisses me off.

By Phill Wilson, Black AIDS Institute

This week, people from all over the world are raising awareness about the HIV/AIDS epidemic as a part of the 19th annual World AIDS Day commemoration.

World AIDS Day is observed every year on December 1st.

Established in 1988 by the World Health Organization, World AIDS Day provides governments, national AIDS programs, faith organizations, community organizations, and individuals with an opportunity to really think about how HIV/AIDS has affected our lives and make commitments to do what we can to put an end to this deadly disease.

I always use this time to remember all my friends and loved ones lost to the disease and think about how far we've come in the fight against HIV/AIDS and prepare ourselves to do whatever is necessary to end this deadly disease in our communities.

When was the last time you got tested for HIV? Have you ever been tested? If not, shame on you. Knowing your HIV status is a fundamental responsibility for every Black person.

Honestly, It is a responsibility for every person, but this web site is "Black Voices" so all you folks who keep sending the messages about why white people aren't being tested, back off.

By Phill Wilson, Black AIDS Institute, Special to Black Voices

My grandmother used to say, "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail."

When the United States offers aid to developing world countries to address their AIDS epidemics, we require them to have a national strategy to reduce new infections and provide treatment.

Yet, 26 years into the AIDS epidemic and over 30 million deaths provides a roadmap for effective delivery of services and steadily improved results.

It is time we do the same to address the epidemic at home.

America has allowed its domestic AIDS epidemic to become a chronic public health problem characterized by persistent levels of new infection, needless mortality, insufficient access to care, and disturbing racial disparities. The US's investments in AIDS prevention, care and research have paid off in thousands of lives saved and infections prevented, but too many citizens are denied the benefits of these investments.

New approaches are needed to help Americans hold their government, and themselves, accountable for steady progress against the complex challenges involved in the domestic AIDS epidemic. It is time the develops what it asks of other nations that it supports in combating AIDS: a national plan that provides a roadmap for concrete and equitable results.

This summer, the Bush administration revealed that it will use part of its $15 billion a year global AIDS program to promote male circumcision in sub-Saharan Africa as an HIV prevention tool. The news is a welcome development that, for once, puts science at the forefront of the administration's response to this epidemic.

However, both abroad and here at home, educating people about circumcision as a way to slow HIV's spread is a necessarily sensitive endeavor. Everybody involved will have to abandon old bad habits if we are to have a sober dialogue about reducing risk for HIV. Public health must respect communities' traditions and individuals' choices; communities and individuals must discard reflexive distrust of public health.

The facts today are hard to dismiss. Study after study has found that HIV transmits far less easily through the skin of a circumcised penis than it does when the foreskin is still intact. Circumcision is a procedure in which the foreskin covering the tip of the penis is removed.

The most widely reported studies establishing the prevention benefits of circumcision come from Kenya, South Africa and Uganda, completed in 2005 and 2006. Researchers tracking groups of circumcised and uncircumcised men in those countries found the rate of HIV infection among men who had their foreskins removed to be anywhere from 51 percent to 76 percent lower. Those are big numbers, and they're just the latest studies to come up with such striking results.

"Nobody can save us from us, but us"
-- Calvin Rolark, founder of the Black Fund, Washington D.C.

Black leaders are on the move all across the country. From members of congress, media organizations, Hollywood celebrities, big city mayors, and Black ministers, Black leaders are issuing calls to action and making declarations of commitments to confront HIV/AIDS in our communities.

On September 25, the Congressional Black Caucus released an open letter calling for a mass Black mobilization to end the AIDS epidemic in black America and the development of a national AIDS plan in the United States.

"The unfortunate reality is that to be Black in America is to be at greater risk of HIV/AIDS, and we are here today to reaffirm our commitment to changing that reality," said U.S. Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA).

"There is no solution to AIDS in the Black Community that doesn't begin and end with us," said U.S. Representative Maxine Waters (D-CA). "We must stand up and be counted, ask for the money, demand the resources and call on all of the members of our community to act and accept personal responsibility," declared Rep. Waters.

Barack has a plan.

Senator Barack Obama last week became the second presidential contender to show bold leadership by calling for a national AIDS plan to guide America's response to the domestic epidemic. Obama released his AIDS platform on his Web site on Oct. 16 and listed as the top priority the development of a national strategy to target resources, a call that echoes John Edwards' platform, released last month.

Every candidate in both parties should join Obama and Edwards in both publishing an AIDS platform and committing to the development of a national AIDS plan if elected president.

Last week, the Black AIDS Institute released its third annual report on the State of AIDS in Black America. The report, entitled 'We're the Ones We've Been Waiting For,' lays out both the highs and the lows of our national and communal response to this deadly disease. It attempts to paint an honest picture of what AIDS in Black America is like today-the good, the bad, and the ugly. The report doesn't pull punches on policymakers or Black Institutions. In the end, no one is given a pass.

Ultimately, a review of the State of AIDS in Black America today leaves you with a clear conclusion: While we've come a long way in dealing with the epidemic, we are no where near where we need to be to end it once and for all.

That reality is painfully evident as you turn through the pages of this report. It opens with a chart book laying out the dimensions of the problem in clear, cold numbers. Don't just read these charts once, clip them, post them, carry them with you and use them as a resource for getting the startling message out in your community.

The report then explores the latest initiatives, challenges and failures of our national response to the epidemic, first focusing on prevention and then on treatment. Here, I'm reminded of Hurricane Katrina: The levees that are America's HIV health delivery systems are broken-and the rebuilding has been devastatingly slow in coming.