If you have followed this site since the summer, you know that the ONE Campaign has been very important to me. This morning I recieved this message in my inbox. Please read this and prayerfully consider what you can do to help alleviate suffering around the world.

Today is World AIDS Day, and right now, over 350,000 people are alive because Americans like you asked our nation to do more to fight AIDS.

Thank you.

Together, we can and must do more. This is what an emergency looks like: every day in Africa, HIV/AIDS kills 6,600 people, 8,800 people are infected with the HIV virus and at least 1,400 newborn babies are infected during childbirth.

This World AIDS Day, we are fighting back-and we know what works. We can prevent, educate and treat. Right now, the U.S. is providing life-saving medicines to kids, mothers, fathers, farmers and teachers who hold the key to their nations’ futures. Together, we have much farther to go. At the G8, leaders listened to your call and pledged near universal access to AIDS medicines by 2010. Let’s keep up the positive pressure and make sure we keep the promise.

You can continue the fight against AIDS and poverty right now by adding your name to the ONE Big Noise letter and ask America to do more to save lives around the world.

Whenever difficult topics such as AIDS relief come up I know that we get a little uneasy. For some reason, we tend to forget about the people who are suffering and focus only on the disease. I am constantly prodded by the words of my Savior:

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
 
“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’

  “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

  “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

  “He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

For what it is worth, check out ONE.org and see what you can do to help the helpless, clothe the naked, and feed the hungry. It is the least you can do.