Muncie Times, Muncie, Delaware County, 6 April 2006 — Page 29

The Muncie Times • April 6, 2006 • Page 29

NEWS BRIEFS

continued from page 23 bilities of that fateful night. It simply doesn’t make sense for a 41-year-old, gainfully employed, good looking ex-con to go wanting in the department of sex for hire or for free from bar flies making the scene, to abduct, rape and kill a white woman unknown to him. Bush presidency not good for Americans By Wilbert A. Tatum The man we have elected twice to the presidency of the United States returned from trips to India, Pakistan and Afghanistan recently. He went to places that most American presidents would dare not go in these volatile times of war, rumors of war and certainty of war. Some of us would suggest that George W. Bush is a brave man but George W. Bush is not brave. He is, first of all, a draft dodger who joined the Texas National Guard as a substitute for doing real hard military service and even today it is not certain whether he served honorably in the National Guard and was honorably discharged without question. History has a strange way of telling us what happened but even with history being. Grange

there is no reasonable accounting for the Bush success in causing the disappearance of a record of his life, especially when part of that life is alleged to have been spent in military service. Indeed, we know he was there. Indeed, we have reports on what he did but how, when, where and in what manner we have not a clue. There are those who will tell us about George W. Bush as a happy-go-lucky, not so bright student at Yale. We have reports that he was a gadabout who sometimes drank. The fact of the matter is that we do not know very much about George W. Bush at all. By the military, by White House minions, by public relations persons in the hire of the Bush family for years there was an effort to sanitize George W. Bush’s life and they did so in spite of the man's record. We look at him now upon his return to America when hundreds of billions of dollars have been wasted or stolen over the years from a $300 billion American budget surplus that was there when William Jefferson Clinton left office. We wonder where the money went. Certainly the money is somewhere, but it is not paying off the American debt. Certainly the money is somewhere not improv-

ing the health care of millions of American people. Most of us will recall that there is a longtime relationship between the Bush family and many of the families in the oil-rich countries, including the United Arab Emirates. Certainly someone knows that money has greased the palms of the sultans and the sheiks, the omars and the chiefs. To accuse somebody of stealing in America is not such a horrible thing. People steal all the time. Even now from the same state of Texas the former majority leader of the House of Representatives, Tom Delay, just won a primary election in his home state. Whether he will be successful in his run to return to Congress is problematic. He may. But he cannot return as the majority leader of the House of Representatives right now. He may lose the fight in the U.S. Supreme Court to determine whether the lines that he had drawn to redistrict a portion of Texas, to ensure six additional Republican seats in the House of Representatives, may not be found legal by the Supreme Court of the United States. There is no way of telling right now what is going to happen with the State of Texas, the Supreme CouEt or the

presidency of the United States. There is one thing we know for certain. The budget surplus that Clinton left after his presidential term was up has found its way into those things which interested Bush I and Bush II and the people they cared about. There is little or nothing that has been done for the people of the United States. Much harm has been done to this great nation of ours by the Bush boys from Texas and Florida: Jeb, George W and George. How much harm we will not know immediately. More black churches join fight against HIV/AIDS virus WASHINGTON, D.C.Seventeen years ago, some pastors were actually afraid to get into the same baptism pool with people who had AIDS. The deadly disease and its causal virus, HIV, were taboo conversations, even from the pulpit. Now, thousands of black ministers are not only addressing AIDs in their sermons but-for the 17 th year-an increasing number will actually participated in a 7-day annual conference last month to pray for the healing of AIDS around the world and to educate themselves on dealing with it in their communities. “There is a lot of good

news to report in terms of how far black ministers have come on the subject of HIV and AIDS. We have really some serious models of HIV ministries in black churches today,” says Pernessa Seele, founder and chief executive officer of the Balm in Gilead Inc., now 17 years old. “But, certainly there are far too many Catholics who are still not addressing the issues. But we can certainly point . to some AIDS ministries with denominational leaders who are actively giving their voice to HIV. There’s movement. There’s major movement among the black churches on AIDS and HIV.” That movement has been gradual over the past 25 years since the first cases of AIDS were reported in the United States in 1981. “I think the major drawback is that people cannot move from their belief that AIDS is a homosexual disease,” says Seele. “And the issues around people’s feelings and beliefs regarding homosexuality has stopped them from getting educated.” Church leaders interested in getting involved can visit the event’s Website at www.balmingilead.org. Rev. W. Franklyn Richardson, senior pastor of the Grace Baptist Church in Mount continued on page 32