Letter sent today to the editor of "The State" newspaper in Columbia, SC:

Every day, over 1 billion people around the world live on less than $1 a day. But on Election Day, I can begin to do something about it. I can vote! My vote can set in motion something that will change that. As a voter, as a member of the South Carolina Campaign to End AIDS and as one of the 2.4 million members of ONE: The Campaign to Make Poverty History, I have been working to make the fight against global AIDS and extreme poverty a part of the election conversation. For the first time in history we have the resources and know-how to end extreme poverty and AIDS. All we need now is the political will to make it happen and that means voting and holding our leaders accountable. The South Carolina Campaign to End AIDS, a local grassroots organization comprised completely of volunteers who want to effect positive change, sent a very simple Congressional Questionnaire to all of the candidates for US House from the state of South Carolina. Not a one of them, Republican or Democrat, bothered to answer and return the questionnaire. Do they have no position on global AIDS and poverty? Do they have no interest in the fact that people right here in South Carolina, not South Africa, are dying while on a wait list to receive life-saving medications? Do they not know or do they just not care? Do they think that other South Carolinians don't care? Today I'll be delivering hundred of petitions, signed by my fellow South Carolinians, to our two candidates for governor, that indicate that South Carolinians DO care about HIV/AIDS. I encourage my fellow voters to contact our candidates and ask them what actions they'll take to help fight global AIDS and extreme poverty AND what actions they will take that will help those right here at home. Beyond the attack ads and the partisan sparring filling the airways are the life and death decisions that our newly elected leaders will make on our behalf. Fighting global AIDS and extreme poverty is something we can reach across party lines to do together, and it can make a better, safer world for us all. As my favorite quote from Gandhi says, "YOU must be the change you wish to see in the world." Don't wait on someone else to change the world. Go vote! Sincerely, Karen Bates Columbia, SC 29210-6009 803-750-5259 scaplwa@aol.com www.c2ea.org/southcarolina www.aidsvote.org