November 6, 2008

Barack Obama: 'Change Has Come to America'

The hand-wringing is finally over and a defining moment in American history has taken place before our eyes—Senator Barack Obama has been elected the 44th President of the Unites States of America and the country’s first African American chief executive. It was we, the American public, who proved that change can happen. Many of us, including countless people living with HIV and AIDS, worked tirelessly to this end. In all 50 states, we donated cash to the cause, canvassed our neighbors, attended rallies, mobilized our friends and family and headed to the polls in droves. As President-elect Obama clearly emphasized during his high-voltage acceptance speech last night in Chicago’s Grant Park, the victory truly is ours.

But our fight is far from over. Each and every one of us must work with the coming Obama administration, as well as the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, to ensure that change does in fact happen for people living with HIV. President-elect Obama has committed to developing a national HIV/AIDS strategy, to fix the nation’s health care system, to fight racial disparities in access to prevention and care, to improve quality of life for those living with HIV/AIDS, to assure adequate and safe housing for those infected with the virus, to expand funding for research, to reauthorize and revise PEPFAR, to increase contributions to the Global Fund and to reduce the debts of developing nations.

AIDSmeds offers its unyielding support to Mr. Obama to achieve these and other goals that have largely gone unrecognized for the past eight years. And we look forward to working with the AIDSmeds and POZ community to make these endeavors a top priority.

Search: Obama, President-elect, election, 2008, national AIDS strategy

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