THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 3, 1996 TAG: 9603010027
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 26 lines
The Feb. 16 editorial-page cartoon, a congressman with legislation to force soldiers with AIDS out of the military, is shown as representing backward thinking.
It is time to treat AIDS as it should have been treated all along and that is as a communicable disease. With any other communicable disease, people would be trying to control the spread of the disease.
For all the pretty pictures of military life, the military person actually has but one mission: to fight and die for his/her country. The practice of hand-to-hand combat presents many opportunities for the spread of disease. Leaving people who are infected with a deadly disease on duty is unsound practice and almost insane policy.
WILLIAM W. JEFFREYS
Suffolk, Feb. 16, 1996 by CNB