Student Bono visits Oakland to learn about HIV/AIDS
@U2,
March 03, 2007
By: Roman Gokhman, for @U2
Pastor: "Mr. Bono, keep on keeping on." For the last several years Bono has focused his attention to the AIDS epidemic in Africa. Friday, for possibly the first time, he met with community leaders in Oakland, Calif., to learn about the AIDS/HIV pandemic within our borders.
At a short news conference following the two-hour meeting, Bono said East Oakland is "the epicenter...of the new rise in the AIDS epidemic in the United States. But I'd also say we're at the epicenter of the resistance to that epidemic, and these are truly heroic people I've been meeting with this morning."
Bono was invited to Oakland and to Allen Temple Church by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Oakland), whom he has worked with in Washington, D.C., to cut debt cancellation to African countries.
"I walk in the path (Lee) and others like her have cut out, really," Bono said. "I've come as a student, really, and indeed as a servant if I can be of any help."
When asked to compare the AIDS problems in Africa and the United States, Bono said it was too soon for him to make conclusions, but that one similarity is that poverty causes men to feel as though they do not have a place in society.
"They exaggerate the sexuality and become dangerous as a result," he said. "And the escape routes (are) drug abuse and needle-using to kill the pain of their situations -- these are very human responses."
Taking part in the meeting were several local HIV/AIDS service providers, people living with the virus and disease, Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums and members of the clergy, including Pastor J. Alfred Smith, who is the head pastor at Allen Temple.
The main topic at the meeting, at least as discussed in the news conference, was statistics. According to the Centers for Disease Control, African Americans accounted for 49 percent of all new HIV cases in 2005. Between 2001 and 2004, 61 percent of all people under 25 were African American. And nationwide, African Americans make up 12 percent of the population but 44 percent of all HIV and AIDS patients.
Bono again compared America and Africa by saying that churches in Africa are afraid to let HIV-positive people in.
"African churches are very conservative, very noble people, very proper," he said. "But you know, it's still a little bit here (as well). "I've met extraordinary pastors and theologians who want to write more about this issue of sexuality. It's hard for the church to talk about sexuality, but it's critical. You know, Freud said that sex was at the center of people's lives. Now, Freud wasn't right on everything, and I'm not sure he's right about that. But even if it's close to the center, why is it that we relegate it to discussion to the dullest of minds? We need some smart people talking about this because it's important."
Bono said he met Lee while working for African debt relief.
"I march together with this woman for debt cancellation -- we march together in step, and we got organized, and we got busy," he said. "Just recently, over Christmas, we almost lost a billion dollars for people fighting for (Africans') lives against AIDS and malaria and in some of the worst hit places in the world. And she fought back, and we got that money. She stuck it out."
Within the last few months, Lee ask Bono to come to her district, which covers Oakland and several other east bay cities, to learn about the local AIDS problem.
"I'd go anywhere for Barbara Lee," he said after he first arrived at the church. "I'd go to the moon."
Some observations about Bono's day in Oakland....
- He arrived 20 minutes later in a black GMC SUV. Upon exiting, he said hello to the dozen journalists, church leaders and politicians and made a beeline for Barbara Lee. They hugged, and then were joined by Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums. The three then disappeared up the stairs to the meeting room.
- I spoke with the head of U2 security -- I believe he is John Sampson's boss. I didn't catch his name. He said Sampson's nickname in the U2 camp is "Big Sexy."
- In the interim, I spoke to DATA spokeswoman Kathy McKiernan. I asked her about Bono meeting with many presidential candidates lately and asked her which one Bono supports. "He doesn't support anyone because he wants all of them to take on the issues," she said.
- Pastor J. Alfred Smith's church is probably the equivalent of Glide Memorial in San Francisco in terms of providing many services, being a public voice in the community.
- The plane had only a one-hour window to depart from Oakland to L.A. It looks like they barely made it. Bono left the church at about 12:15 p.m. The drive to the airport from there is about 10 minutes.
(c) @U2/Gokhman, 2007.
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