Congressman Elijah E. Cummings Proudly Representing Maryland's 7th District

I will call her “Rachel,” although she probably wouldn’t mind if I were to use her real name.

You see, Rachel has more pressing worries. She is in a fight just to stay alive.

This brave young woman of color does not fit the image that so many have of the people who are struggling to live with HIV/AIDS.

Intelligent, well-educated and beautiful, Rachel does not do drugs, nor has she ever engaged in promiscuous sex. Her only mistake was to trust a young man whom she loved.

Now, at barely 20 years of age, her message of caution, discipline and compassion speaks to us all.

Rachel has been forced to become a warrior, battling the conspiracy of silence that would have us ignore a plague that has become one of the main killers of our young black women and men.

Far too many young people are being sacrificed to our silence – and, like Rachel, our young women are especially vulnerable.

The health statistics are relentless.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 200,000 African Americans nationwide are living with HIV/AIDS today. Equally alarming, African-Americans (only 12.3 percent of the population) account for 50 percent of recent HIV infections nationwide.

Here in Baltimore, that 50 percent national share increases to more than 85 percent.

Too many of our young people are being infected as a result of intimate, heterosexual contact with those whom they love and trust.

Consider this important insight that Dr. Ligia Peralta shared with me back in 2001.

“For a young woman, in particular” Dr. Peralta observed, “the greatest risk of contracting HIV/AIDS comes from an intimate relationship with someone she loves. Theoretically, she understands the risk of sexually-transmitted infection. Personally, though, she may not connect that risk with her man.”

“If her young man is not an intravenous drug user,” Dr. Peralta continued, “a young woman in love may think that she is safe from HIV/AIDS. She doesn’t even think about the possibility that he may have been infected by another woman (or by another man).”

Back in 1983, when I was a young lawyer newly elected to the Maryland Legislature, AIDS was the killer that did not yet have a name – the killer that no one wanted to mention. Anyone willing to confront the truth, however, could see that people were dying.

That is why I began sponsoring an annual AIDS conference to educate the public and myself about defending ourselves against this predator. Year after year, the suffering and deaths in our community have taught us the appalling extent of our peril.

By the time I entered the Congress in 1996, AIDS had become the leading killer of young African American men, ages 25-44, and the second leading killer of African American women in the same age range.

Today, the human face of the AIDS pandemic world-wide is increasingly one of color – and as the virus continues to ravage our community, we have been forced to declare aloud the name of this predator that stalks and kills our young.

Too many of our young people, however, find it difficult to apply all the warnings to themselves.
This is the failing that now threatens Rachel’s life – and the lives of far too many young people like her.

If Rachel can demonstrate the courage to speak out – so must we. Publicly and within our own families, we must have the difficult conversations that can protect our community

Here in the Baltimore area, our next initiative to educate our young people about protecting themselves from HIV/AIDS will be held on Tuesday May 2, 2006 from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. at Coppin State University, 2500 West North Avenue, Baltimore MD 21216.

At the “Saving Your Life Starts with You: HIV/AIDS Youth Symposium,” Mr. Troy Johnson, a star of the Big Phat Morning Show on 92Q Radio, and I will be joining medical professionals and community activists for an educational forum focused upon both prevention and living with HIV virus. A health fair will follow – providing more information about resources and services, as well as free testing on site.

I urge our young people to attend and learn the truth about the pandemic that is killing people in our community. I hope that they will also bring their friends.

Those who are interested can contact Maryland’s 7th Congressional District Office (410-685-9199) for additional information – or they can simply take the Number 13 bus to Coppin State and walk to the Upper Level of the New Dining Facilities.

Our secrets may make us more comfortable, but we must never forget that we are threatened by a deadly virus.

Secrets can be deadly. That is Rachel’s warning to us all.

Her second message is this: Far too many young people have already been sacrificed.

Our silence about HIV and AIDS feeds the destroyer of lives.