Article: 261369 of talk.bizarre
From: thwilson@bnr.ca (Diane Wilson)
Newsgroups: talk.bizarre
Subject: Re: Day Without Art
Date: 1 Dec 1995 19:49:15 GMT
Organization: Bell-Northern Research Ltd.
Lines: 35
Message-ID: <49nm7r$p5a@brtph500.bnr.ca>
References: <49nbga$34fu@lamar.ColoState.EDU>
Reply-To: diane.wilson@pobox.com
Originator: thwilson@brtph885
Status: O
X-Status: 


This is not bizarre.  Vote if you want; your vote will reflect on you, but
not on me.

Today is Fail to Suck day.  As has been pointed out, it is also international
AIDS day, and a Day without Art.  I will do more than think about AIDS.

AIDS has touched my life.  I know people who have died of AIDS.  So far,
none of them have been close friends, but I know that this will change.  But
AIDS has touched my life in other ways, through fear and uncertainty.

It is time to take a moment to think about an old friend.  Steven Vann
was a friend of mine in high school.  We both played in the University of
Arkansas orchestra while we were in high school, and Steven went on to be
a music major there.  When the orchestra went on tour, we shared a room,
and sometimes a bed.  After two years he transferred to another school
on the west coast.  His family moved at the same time, and I lost touch with
him.

Steven could have been one of us.  He was funny, deeply warped, impulsive,
articulate, wildly creative.  He was also gay.

When I think of all the people I have known, and I wonder what might have
happened to those who have passed out of my life forever, Steven is the
first person I always think about.  Of all those people, he would have been
at greatest risk during the early years of the AIDS crisis, when no one knew
what it was, when no one knew how it was transmitted, and no one guessed
that the gay community was at such great risk.

Has AIDS taken my friend Steven?  There are many questions for which I will
never have answers.  The lack of an answer to this question claws at my
heart.
-- 
Diane Wilson
http://www.lava.net/~dewilson