World AIDS Day
Today, Dec. 1, is World AIDS Day. I’ve been sick the last 24 hours but if I’m feeling up to it, I’m going to visit the AIDS Memorial Grove in Golden Gate Park and leave a candle for Randy Shilts, author of And the Band Played On, whom I’ve written about on past World AIDS Days. Simply put, he’s the reason I picked up reading after an 8 year absence, one of my motivations for becoming a writer, and a the beginning of my awareness about San Francisco and its history.
I never got to meet Randy. He died in 1994, several years before I got to the west coast. So I’m going to pay my respects to him today. I owe him the better part of my adult life. It’s the least I can do.