YOU HAVE TO WANT IT:

HIV rate rises 8 percent among gay, bisexual men (Joyce Howard Price, November 18, 2005, THE WASHINGTON TIMES)

HIV infections among homosexual and bisexual men in the United States rose 8 percent last year, after remaining relatively stable the three previous years, new federal data show.

The increase for the virus that causes AIDS compares with average annual declines of 4 percent among heterosexuals and 9 percent among intravenous-drug users from 2001 to 2004, according to a report in this week's issue of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report.

It's a completely volitional disease.

MORE:
Rethinking Sodom: Individuality and ‘doin' your own thing’ through a biblical perspective (Rabbi Berel Wein, 11/18/05, Jewish World Review)

Once again, here in the story of Sodom, the Torah reiterates to us the value of an individual, of a good person, of a good deed performed for its own sake, how in the eyes of Heaven goodness always trumps evil. Therefore, Judaism places great responsibility upon the individual and his or her personal behavior.

Maimonides makes this point when he states that before doing an act in life one should always consider that the whole world is evenly balanced at that moment between good and evil, salvation and destruction. The act about to be performed if it is one of goodness can save the entire world. And if it is wrong and evil, selfish and uncaring, it can doom all of humankind.

A second lesson inherent in the story of Sodom is that even the most righteous person in the world — our father Abraham — cannot save other people simply with his blessings and entreaties. People, communities, nations, have to save themselves. Abraham can guide and teach, serve as an example and role model, influence and lead, but in the last analysis only Sodom can save Sodom, only Lot can save Lot. There is a great reliance in the religious and general world upon others to somehow pull us through. People are willing to invest a great deal of time, effort and money to obtain the blessings of a righteous person to solve their problems. The same effort invested in their own personal attempts to improve themselves in their daily behavior would perhaps produce greater and more beneficial results than blessings from others, no matter how great those others are.

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 18, 2005 8:13 AM