"In America, the majority raises formidable barriers around the liberty of opinion: within these barriers, an author may write what he pleases; but woe to him if he goes beyond them. Not that he is in danger of an auto-da-fe', but he is exposed to continued obloquy and persecution. His political career is closed forever, since he has offended the only authority which is able to open it. Every sort of compensation, even that of celebrity, is refused to him. Before publishing his opinions, he imagined that he held them in common with others; but no sooner has he declared them, than he is loudly censured by his opponents, whilst those who think like him, without having the courage to speak out, abandon him in silence. He yields at length, overcome by the daily effort which he has to make, and subsides into silence, as if he felt remorse for having spoken the truth."

---Alexis De Tocqueville
Democracy in America, 1835

This Sunday's Outlook section of The Washington Post exercised impeccable timing in its choice of feature opinion for the week: "This Is No Way to Fight AIDS in Africa" the paper snorted in condemning apprehension. Enjoying two warm cups of java, mother and son immediately turned from quick, anguishing irascibility to thoughtful reflection on the World Conference on Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance taking place in Durban, South Africa. Noting the Outlook authors' - Daniel Halperin and Brian Williams - defiant distaste for "misguided" AIDS prevention programs in the Horn of Africa, Moms threw words already languishing at the tip of my coffee-singed tongue.

"When is that race conference in South Africa?"

"It's already happening," I swallowed another swig of caffeine salivation.

"Oh ... - whole lot of talk about reparations, right? That's why Bush wasn't all that hot about it, huh?"

"Yeah - whole lot of talk," as we speed read the tale of post-apartheid South Africa's Northwest Province where 23 percent of adults are HIV-infected. "Damn - yo Moms, check this out. You know about a fifth of South Africa's population carries the AIDS virus?"

"Mmm hmm. I know all about it. With all that talk about reparations, will there be enough of us around to even get any?"

As their populations dramatically dip into stagnation, a staggering 25 million Africans are infected with HIV, a slow, grueling, tormenting death expecting to reach its end in eight years for most who carry it. Despite the fact African Americans represent only 16 percent of the U.S. population, they disproportionately claim 45 percent of the nearly 650,000 American AIDS cases reported to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

That's an awful lot of brothers and sisters falling victim to a disease with origins disputed to this day. I became lost on what lost reparations arguments would do for an entire people losing their war with a blitzkrieg-fashioned immune system killer compared to the ravaging Black Plague of the 14th Century. At that point, I couldn't hold out any longer. A conference on World Racism would only serve full purpose if it discussed the survival of an entire people hanging in the most delicate, unimaginable balance. And I wondered why Boyd Graves wasn't there, even though his presence would seem like the perfect intervention to overhaul another hot-air balloon blasted talk on race in dire need of it.

Unbeknownst to her, Moms' one-liner rang many bells of wisdom in it. What's more important: hustling a global shakedown from Western governments who have no intention to bite? Or: actively addressing how best to combat a medical crisis of species extinction potential? Enter Dr. Graves ... Though unseen, one can even smell the incurable rancor lynching the vocal chords of Boyd Graves. His bitterness permeates the digital, pin-drop air of long distance between he and his listener - as thick as his anger is an unfortunate stench of sadness imposed by hard times and hard faith. It is the voice of a man chiseled by struggle and the fate-driven jackhammers of inevitability.

Boyd Graves has AIDS.

"I feel like an American Mandela, waiting for the cavalry," bemoans Graves. If his last name is any indication of his condition, then Dr. Boyd Graves - as he is known in many circles - is no stranger to the soul's joust with pain. Pain for Graves is a braving of merciless, gritty elements striking every muscle, vein and cerebral reflex absent even slight impunity.

"The economic prison," speaks Graves as he pointedly admits scrounging for a mere, but beloved one dollar and fifty cents, "many times equates the phy sical prison."

Home is described as extremely modest ... in fact, one might visualize scenes of wall-to-wall destitution upon leaving Grave's depiction: "Yes. This is solitary confinement - it is a sealed door. Yes: psychosomatically, it's very difficult to live with."

"The other side works very hard to disenfranchise or dishearten you."

Curiosity peaks while the initial wave of cautiousness and fear tumbles into temporary oblivion. Who or what - where - is this "other side?" And this is where both reality and imagination intersect repeatedly, in rapid motion. It is a zone of suspicions, allegation, uncovered lies and the longstanding search for indisputable truths. This is where reality is submerged by deliberate acts of doubt; imagination pulled and bent beyond its unthinkable limitations, the scope of which is immeasurable by standards of conventional thought.

Best known as a solitary voice among few who endeavor to unravel the hidden mysteries of the modern world's version of the Middle Age's plague, Dr. Boyd Graves initiates his one-man assault against the United States government. Alleging one of the greatest genocidal crimes ever committed, the U.S. Naval Academy graduate and unlicensed lawyer claims the federal government is responsible for the spread of the AIDS virus, promoting a theory shrouded in controversy for nearly 20 years. The plot thickens when the Youngstown, Ohio counselor viciously and unabashedly asserts that the elusive, devastating and immune blasting virus is an all out attempt to eradicate people of color from the face of the Earth. Fiercely determined, Graves must uncover what he sees as "the very convoluted, evil, diabolical scheme to vanquish this planet of its Black global population."

If this is the real world according to Graves, then we would experience a worldwide population loss of over 85 percent. Recently recovering from the terse dismissal of his U.S. Supreme Court petition against the current Secretary of Defense (Boyd E. Graves v. Donald H. Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense, et al. #00-9587), the issue for Graves has reached an unfathomable level of personal trial and tribulation because he too dies from the virus. The days run very short.

"When did you begin your research into the origins of AIDS?"

"The moment I found out I had it. 1992. The last semester at that racist law school I attended," speaking of Northern Ohio University College of Law in Ada, Ohio where he obtained his Juris Doctorate. "That's when I was diagnosed with HIV. If they didn't want me to find out about it, they should have never given it to me."

Between 1962-1978, Graves explains, the United States conducted the "Special Virus Cancer Program (SVCP)." Grounded in research during the notorious human guinea-pig experiments performed by Third Reich scientists in the early 1930s, American officials and scientific experts collaborated to instigate the creation of a deadly hybrid human retrovirus able to literally consume the entire human immune system. Graves claims the evidence is there: it's all in the flowchart.

Uncovered and dusted during his exhaustive search through once classified, now heavily redacted government documents, the flowchart is a rectangular page labyrinth etched across a white paper landscape. By its title alone, the chart reads ominously, thickening the suspense: "Research Logic for the Special Virus Cancer Program - Viral Oncology, Division of Cancer Cause and Prevention, NCI (National Cancer Institute). It is here where one is slowly led through a complex gridlock of boxes, arrows and highly specialized medical terms. The "SCVP-Research Logic Flow" is split into eight distinct phases, from "Phase I: Selection of Specimens and Detection of Virus or Virus Expression" to "Phase V: Plan and Executed Clinical Trials to Evaluate Control Measures."

All of this and more is extensively outlined and detailed in Graves' 260-page volume (including 36 inch flowchart fold out) titled State Origin: The Evidence of The Laboratory Birth of AIDS. This is where we find, Graves alleges, a key to U.S. Government development of the AIDS virus. "According to [this] 1971 U.S. blueprint, the AIDS virus is a 'designer' virus created for population stabilization purposes in accordance with the strategies and policies of the national security of the United States," writes Graves in an underground, conspiracy theory news monthly and government watchdog publication known as "The Oil Patch."

Determined to prove the making of a genocidal plot, Graves presents National Security Council Memorandum #46, dated March 17, 1978. National Security Council Advisor Zbigniew Brezinski indicates then President Jimmy Carter's desire for "a comprehensive review of current developments in Black Africa from the point of view of their possible impact on the black movement in the United States." Brezinski recommends "appropriate steps" to "inhibit any pressure by radical African leaders and organizations on the U.S." However, littered with textual deletions and numerous omissions, NSCM #46 mentions nothing directly about SVCP or the tactical use of biological agents. Instead, it outlines clandestine policy initiatives aimed at destabilizing Black Nationalist movements, eliminating African American resentment against the U.S. and even noting innovative methods to improve Black social conditions through programs and minority business incentives.

These suggestions seem far removed from any hint of a racial extermination plan ("[R]ead ... in between the lines," urges a July 19, 2001 email from Graves' spokesperson, Joel Bales. "Read this document very slowly and digest all of it.") Would it make sense for the most powerful government on the globe to eliminate the strongest segment of its consumer populace? Even after African Americans are estimated to pump nearly $400 billion annually into the national economy (comparably ranking 12th in world Gross Domestic Product), is it reasonable to presume the United States wants to rid itself of ALL Black people?

"Yes," states Graves. There are no pauses. "They have perpetrated mental and social rape upon us for over 400 years. Now, yes: they want us eliminated."

C.D. Ellison is a contributing writer to Metro Connection. He can be reached at againstthegrain@metroconnection.info.