Jesse Helms has long been a major roadblock to the U.S. progress on HIV/AIDS, seemingly driven by a pathological dislike of the homosexual. Yet of all the people in the world, Helms has just released a video pressuring Americans to care about the AIDS epidemic in Africa. To be sure, there’s no sign that his hatred of gays is anything but alive and well. But as for AIDS in Africa, he credits our man Bono with changing his thinking.

I think that points to an important point. Before Bono, the story of AIDS in Africa was one of death and despair. Heck, the popular story of the entire continent of Africa was that of a place consumed by death. It reminds me of a time in grad school when I listened to another student talk about her research on the competition for resources in Africa. She went on and on about the suffering and misery there, about disease, infant mortality, and ethnic violence. The picture she painted was of the darkest and most horrible place on earth. At the end, our professor said something like, “Your facts are right. But I don’t even recognize the place you’re describing.” Bono, with his artistic flair and wraparound sunglasses, has started rewriting that Africa death narrative. To be sure, the facts are still pretty awful. But at least it’s not so crazy anymore to think that they don’t have to be.

That hope is a powerful thing, of course. But so is alliance building. Bono made the choice at some point to engage folks like Helms, Bush, John Snow, and he’s gotten a fair amount of crap for it. But hey, seems to me like there are worse outcomes in politics than expending a little time and energy, and winding up with Jesse Helms hawking AIDS videos.