‘No Politics in AIDS Education’

As if it wasn’t sufficiently tragic that three young boys, 8, 9 and 10 in the same family, all hemophiliacs should receive AIDS-tainted blood, their home in Arcadia, Fla., was burned to the ground (Part I, Aug. 30). The cause of the fire, their anguished father said, was a fire bomb. An uncle was fortunately, the only person at the home at the time of the bombing. He is hospitalized for smoke inhalation.

The family has been subjected to numerous death threats. Haven’t these people suffered enough?

The crime these people in Tampa have accused the three boys of, is the crime of wanting to attend school.

Haven’t they heard that the AIDS virus is not casually transmitted? It is only transmitted by drug abuse from shared needles, sexual contact with infected people and contaminated blood.

My heart goes out to the Ray family, and all the families across this and all countries whose lives have been touched by this, the worst plague to ever hit mankind. The Ray family is subject to more pain than any family should have to endure in a lifetime.

The hysteria surrounding this disease must be turned into an all out war against the enemy, the AIDS virus, not against the people unfortunate enough to have contacted it.

CHARLENE MITCHELL

Westlake Village