Letter To Raise Awareness

Mr. Adrian Fenty

1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Suite 316

Washington, DC 20004

Dear Mayor Fenty:

I am writing about the high HIV/AIDS rate in Washington DC.  Today, the number of people living with HIV is very high, especially in DC. African Americans also have the highest rate of people infected with this disease. A lot of people however do not or are afraid to get tested. So we do not quite know the exact number of infected people in this city. Being that Howard University and DC as a whole are predominantly black, it is important that we find a way to know the exact percentage of HIV/Aids and also control this growing rate of HIV in our nation’s capital.

The question we should ask ourselves is, what resources in and around DC can be used to combat the high percentage of HIV/AIDS infected people in the area? Statistics show that the number of people living with HIV now is higher than before. DC has the highest percentage of known HIV infected people in the nation with 4%. Although African Americans only make up 13% of people living in the united states, they made up nearly half (46%) of the HIV cases in 2007.  Also 81% of all AIDS cases in DC are among African- Americans.

There are  a few ways we can help combat this. First being that we should let people know about the options they have out there, let them know the risk of the disease and how to survive it. There are numerous HIV AIDS education programs and informational websites. Some that cater to DC and its surrounding metropolitan area are: the DC department of health website, the CDC website. Just to name a few. Second, we should let people know that there are places out there to help them keep up with treatment for example my school hospital-Howard University Hospital-, Washington free Clinic etc. Finally we should make some sort of law that requires students to get an HIV test before being admitted to school, just like how we all have to do TB test. The results will be confidential and will not affect if you should be enrolled or not. This way it helps us expand our knowledge on those living with the disease.

Thank you for taking time off your schedule to read my letter. I would really appreciate it if I can get to know your decision regarding this issue. This is a very important issue to a lot of people in our community and I am sure they will appreciate the least amount of work put in on this issue. Again thank you and hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely,

Nestor Afungchwi

Celebration or Not He is out

In March of 2010 rapper Lil Wayne was sentenced to serve 8 months in prison. Yesterday November 4 2010, he was released. T.V stations followed this story heavily, especially music stations like M.T.V, Centric, and the station most watched by blacks, BET. Later on in the day on the show 106&Park, the whole show was basically dedicated to Mr. Carter(Wayne) they were celebrating the homecoming of whom some may call the greatest rapper alive. They gave advice to Wayne. Some might say that his release does not deserve a celebration. Yes you could say that because why would they celebrate the release of someone who is supposed to be a role model but messed up? The fact is that we are not celebrating that he went to jail. To me i viewed it like this: Lil Wayne is very influential and popular to many people. When he talks people listen, what he does people look. Now that he is out, he has to use this situation as a lesson and find a way to reach people and show them that its not "cool" to go to jail. It takes away plenty of things from you like time, time making money, and time with your family. It takes away time from your life. Now that he is out he should be more influential, and people are celebrating this because they want to see what he is going to do. They want him to tell them what he has learned. So Wayne we are glad you are home(well at least i am because i love his music) but now is the time. Its time for you to speak and let us the youth listen, its time for you to walk and lets us follow, it is time for you to teach and we shall learn from your mistakes. Welcome Home Weezy