WITH AIDS, MESSAGE OF SAFE SEX IS NOT ENOUGH

Last week, basketball hero Magic Johnson stunned the nation. He announced his retirement from the Los Angeles Lakers because he had tested positive for HIV, the virus that will one day lead to AIDS.

Johnson told his doctors he contracted the disease through careless heterosexual encounters. It made us all realize that no matter how talented, famous, or rich a person becomes, his luck can run out when it comes to AIDS. Not even superstars are invincible.

Magic Johnson will become the new spokesman for an old message: Practice safe sex. But the message needs to go a step further.

As a nation, we should not be content to say: It's okay to sleep around as long as you practice safe sex. Instead, we should be telling our children and teenagers that promiscuity is not only wrong, it's downright dangerous. It's time for our country to return to more traditional values in terms of sex, abstinence and monogamous relationships.

In the aftermath of Johnson's revelation, other sports stars have underscored that promiscuity runs rampart in professional sports. In his new autobiography, Wilt Chamberlain boasts of having relations with 20,000 women. This is simply not an acceptable role model for our kids.

The blame does not rest with our sports heroes or entertainers alone. Promiscuity is a common theme of television and movies. Sex sells everything from cars to perfume. We cannot simply tell our kids that sex before marriage is wrong, when they see just the opposite everywhere they turn. We should not spurn promiscuity because we're afraid of AIDS, but because it's wrong.

That's because fear is not a sufficiently strong deterrent for long-term change. When basketball player Len Bias died of a cocaine overdose in 1986, it shocked the sports world. But there's no evidence his death brought any permanent change in attitude for sports heroes who feel they're indestructible.

That's not to say good things cannot come from Magic Johnson's misfortunes. We can all learn more about the threat of AIDS, and the progression of the disease.

Just as sports heroes are not immune to AIDS, the statistics show that neither are smaller communities. Statistics show 16 HIV cases have been reported in Cape Girardeau from October of 1987 to August of 1991; 15 AIDS cases have been reported in the county from 1982 to August. The Department of Health reports 34 HIV cases and 29 AIDS cases in a seven-county region, which includes Cape Girardeau. Nationwide, between 1 million and 1.5 million Americans have been infected by the AIDS virus. To date, there is no cure.

This is AIDS Awareness Week, and several activities on the Southeast Missouri State University campus should promote that awareness. Tonight, the mother of the late Ryan White will speak on the Southeast Missouri State University campus, beginning at 7:30 p.m. in Academic Auditorium. Thursday through Sunday, 50 panels of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt will be on display at Houck Field House.

Our children learn not only by word, but by action. We must all do our part in returning to more traditional values. "Safe sex" amid promiscuity is simply not safe enough.