To the editor:

Twenty years ago, the fight against AIDS was slowed by a certain religious feeling that it was a gay disease and a drug user’s problem. It was justice-based punishment. Now AIDS threatens economic development in Africa.

Likewise, states’ rights allowed the Confederate flag to fly publicly for 130 years after the end of the Civil War, yet states do not have the right to allow medicinal marijuana.

Can Bush justify stonewalling stem-cell research? Can our loved ones stand another four years of agony before priorities are prioritized? Is dying without dignity justice for getting old? Is nausea a fair trade-off for chemotherapy? National health care must address our gravest concerns immediately.

Don Brennaman,

Lawrence