Chicago Tribune - December 4, 2002
Bill Glauber and Christine Tatum, Tribune staff reporters

"We look like we're coming to town with the cause du jour," Bono told the Tribune's editorial board. "But the first thing we have to put right is ... the AIDS emergency is not a cause. It is an emergency ... Africans are going to die next year for the stupidest of reasons: money."

The high-profile tour winding through Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Nebraska, Ohio and Tennessee is designed to raise awareness about the AIDS epidemic and to serve as a catalyst for more U.S. funding to combat the disease that has ravaged Africa.

More than 17 million Africans have died of AIDS, with 2.5 million expected to die next year. About 28 million are infected with HIV.

"We can get cold, fizzy drinks to any corner of the world, but we can't get these drugs" to combat AIDS, Bono said. "It's an atrocity, really."

Forsaking America's coasts on his latest crusade, Bono has crafted his message to the American heartland, where he said Americans have been particularly strong about caring and contributing to global causes that are well defined and critical. The bus tour that has taken him to schools, cafes, churches and truck stops concludes Saturday in Nashville.

"We're open to people that activists are rarely open to," Bono said.

Wearing a rainbow-colored, beaded bracelet around his left wrist, a black leather jacket and a green military cap over his unruly dark hair, Bono looked the part of a rocker activist. He's unabashedly using his star power to inspire a groundswell of support in the U.S. that he hopes to leverage against drug makers and world leaders.

"I would, as your biggest fan, say you've made it easy for people to misunderstand you," Bono said of the U.S. "Embarrass Europe, embarrass the rest of the world," with your support, he continued. "I will go back and beat up on (England's Prime Minister) Tony Blair and (France's President) Jacques Chirac."

Joined by actress Ashley Judd, comedian/actor Chris Tucker and a Ugandan nurse with AIDS named Agnes Nyamayrwo, Bono went down a list of items and initiatives that would provide immediate relief, including preventative education and retractable needles to cut down the rate of HIV infection among health-care workers.

Instead of spending money on care for their people, many African nations are saddled with debt to wealthier nations, repaying an estimated $40 million a day.

"There are families with several sick people, (who have) the medicine for only one," Judd said. "How will we respond to the bubonic plague of our time?"

As the lead singer for U2, Bono has displayed a keen interest in politics and human rights issues over the years. In the 1980s, U2 played an historic benefit concert that raised millions of dollars to feed Africa's drought-plagued, starving people. In the mid-1990s, Bono lent a hand to Northern Ireland peace efforts by bringing together on stage two rival politicians, David Trimble and John Hume.

In the last few years, Bono has concentrated on debt relief for the world's poorest nations and the AIDS crisis, taking his message to leaders as varied as Pope John Paul II and U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, whom he accompanied on a high-profile tour of Africa earlier this year.

Among those Bono has met on his heartland tour is billionaire businessman Warren Buffett, the Oracle of Omaha, whom Bono dubbed "Yoda," or "The Master Jedi." Bono said Buffett has a "great ear for melody and great ideas," among them, Bono said, crafting an appeal to America's greatness.

Bono said, "Now is the time for America to set the standard" to fight AIDS.

The Tribune editorial board meeting ended with a first: Participants held hands as Tucker led a prayer that concluded with an appeal for strength to lend a voice to the cause of fighting AIDS.

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