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U2 singer gives sobering account of impact of AIDS
By JACK HURST
Staff Writer
Weeklong tour ends in Nashville; about 400 attend luncheon
Rock star Bono came to Nashville yesterday for the last stop on a weeklong ''Heart of America'' tour to bring the scourge of Africa to the forefront of the grass-roots consciousness.
HIV/AIDS, the Irish singer said, is not just a rock celebrity's ''cause du jour'' but, instead, a global disaster and a defining moment in this nation's history.
The singer and U.S. Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., were featured guests, along with Ugandan mother and HIV patient Agnes Nyamayarwo, at a Global Health Council luncheon for 400-plus Nashvillians at Loews Vanderbilt Hotel.
The tour was a project of the council and Bono's nonprofit DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade in Africa) organization. It visited such other heartland cities as Lincoln, Neb., Des Moines, Iowa, and Indianapolis before concluding in Nashville.
Calling on a heartland bedrock ''decency'' and ''moral compass'' that Bono had cited in previous tour appearances, the U2 lead singer quoted President Truman as saying that Americans, when given the facts, ''will make the right decision.''
Bono then gave some facts: that $1 can save one baby from being born with HIV/AIDS; that another $1 will buy medicine to keep the infected mother from dying and leaving her child an orphan; and that 2.5 million Africans each year are dying with the disease.
''I want to ask the media and the church and the colleges what it says about us that this is not being declared an emergency ? that we can live with these statistics and know we have the solution to these people's problems but aren't getting it to them,'' he said.
Frist recalled visiting Africa with Bono in January and called HIV/AIDS ''a challenge equal to what we've had to face since Sept. 11.'' He said that the United States leads the financial fight against it but that more must be done.
''The fire is coming. It's on its way.''
U2 singer gives sobering account of impact of AIDS
By JACK HURST
Staff Writer
Weeklong tour ends in Nashville; about 400 attend luncheon
Rock star Bono came to Nashville yesterday for the last stop on a weeklong ''Heart of America'' tour to bring the scourge of Africa to the forefront of the grass-roots consciousness.
HIV/AIDS, the Irish singer said, is not just a rock celebrity's ''cause du jour'' but, instead, a global disaster and a defining moment in this nation's history.
The singer and U.S. Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., were featured guests, along with Ugandan mother and HIV patient Agnes Nyamayarwo, at a Global Health Council luncheon for 400-plus Nashvillians at Loews Vanderbilt Hotel.
The tour was a project of the council and Bono's nonprofit DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade in Africa) organization. It visited such other heartland cities as Lincoln, Neb., Des Moines, Iowa, and Indianapolis before concluding in Nashville.
Calling on a heartland bedrock ''decency'' and ''moral compass'' that Bono had cited in previous tour appearances, the U2 lead singer quoted President Truman as saying that Americans, when given the facts, ''will make the right decision.''
Bono then gave some facts: that $1 can save one baby from being born with HIV/AIDS; that another $1 will buy medicine to keep the infected mother from dying and leaving her child an orphan; and that 2.5 million Africans each year are dying with the disease.
''I want to ask the media and the church and the colleges what it says about us that this is not being declared an emergency ? that we can live with these statistics and know we have the solution to these people's problems but aren't getting it to them,'' he said.
Frist recalled visiting Africa with Bono in January and called HIV/AIDS ''a challenge equal to what we've had to face since Sept. 11.'' He said that the United States leads the financial fight against it but that more must be done.
''The fire is coming. It's on its way.''
