Get Involved: Be the voice for those who need it.

Do you see it? Can you tell? Who is at risk?

Gone are the days when we can ignore the stark reality that Black communities; locally, nationally and internationally are to fend for themselves. We have lost some of our best and brightest due to our silence and lack of speaking our truth. Many mothers and fathers have buried their sons and daughters quietly within the church and community, and long to wish that they would have had a voice.

For 30+ years now we have watched this epidemic take a heavy toil on Black life, and many have sat back and not said a word. Many have opted to let someone else be the voice and fight for prevention, care and treatment. We are the ones we have been waiting on, there's not a train, bus, or airplane on the way to save us - we must save ourselves.

So, getting involved becomes paramount to the mission of turning HIV around in your community. The federal and state resources are drying up, government is saying they don't have the money or they need to divert it for other national or security issues. So, that leaves us to do it. We have within our communities the resources to support programs, initiatives, and services that are meant to do us more good than bad.

We need every Black person who has a voice to use it for National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day 2013 and speak the truth about the value of Black life into the room. We need students to organize their family and friends on campus. We need business leaders to hang a poster or distribute postcards. We need fraternities and sororities to whisper the sweet truth that we have to do the work. We need mothers and fathers to stand up inside their faith based institutions and challenge them to get involved to save Black life.

If you listen close enough, 240,000+ Blacks who have died from this disease are speaking back to us and asking us to do the right thing RIGHT NOW. They want us to think about them and not allow their death, pain, and suffering to be in vain. Their spirits are asking us to be the change we need to see in Black communities to prevent HIV and get involved.

We need one another. We need that little boy or girl to grow up and make a difference for the good of the whole. We need those educators to take this information and turn it into a lesson for their students. We need ministers, health care professionals and all those who have access to speaking a truth about this disease into the room and challenge folks to get involved.

We have to see the value in ourselves and every reflection of who and what we are if we are to make a difference with this epidemic. We believe our best days are yet to be realized and that if the village locks arms, minds and hearts that we will turn this epidemic around on a dime and stop the toil of AIDS death on Black life.

Make today that day. Make now the time you will walk into the truth of loving Black life, so much that you want to get involved until the cure comes. We salute you now and thank you in advance for the great work you are about to embark upon with National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day 2013.