Gary and I were very involved in the Names Project (the AIDS quilt). We opened our home once a week as a workshop for people who had lost someone to create a panel for the Quilt in their loved-one's name. I found out four people I had cared about had died when someone dropped off their panel at our workshop. I was in charge of logistics for a showing of the Quilt in Los Angeles when I came across the panel created by Jeri Dilno for my friend and our former Club president Doug Scott. It was how I found out Doug was gone.

An actor friend of ours who liked to throw dinner parties, came up with a wonderful idea many years ago to whitewash his dining room walls and give dinner guests a pen to write on/sign the walls. He confided in me not long before his own death that the cute bon mots gathered over many years had become epitaphs or tombstones.

Gary and I were invited to dinner by another friend one evening. When we got there, his lover who was very sick, came out and started giving us little gifts and reminiscing about the good times. It quickly became obvious that this wasn't just supper. Our friend didn't have heart to tell us it was to be the last supper. His lover had made plans to check in to the hospital the following morning, be put on a morphine drip, and "accidentally" overdose on the drip. He decided that he had done all that he could do in life and it was time to die with dignity.

Clearly, AIDS has effected my life. The reason I bring it up though is not for sympathy but to explain my exasperation and hurt, when friends, fellow Club and Party members, frenemies and just plain political contacts don't take the continuing threat of AIDS seriously. Drugs have been found that have drastically reduced the death toll but it's still no picnic to live with HIV/AIDS and there's no reason to assume that drug resistance or virus mutation can't bring back the bad old days.

In addition to research/services to people with HIV/AIDS and prevention education, we now have a new tool - PREP. The Center is in the midst of an awareness/education campaign that aims to end transmission of HIV/AIDS now. The "Be The Generation" (#BeTheGeneration) program is spreading the word that if you're on PREP, and take other common sense precautions, the risk of transmission, even among serodiscordant partners, is minimal.

The beauty of #BeTheGeneration is that regardless of the generation you are a part of, you can be the generation that stops the spread of this horrible disease. AIDS Walk helps to fund all of these programs and you can be part of the generation just by taking part.

Please join the Dems for Equality team for AIDS Walk HERE. The walk will be Saturday, September 26th. It would make me very happy to have a large contingent under our "shoe" this year. Even if you can't walk you can still be the generation. In addition to making a team donation HERE, this year, they've even added another option to participate. Can't walk that far? Become a virtual walker - and walk with us in spirit.

I believe in universal healthcare because I've seen people die because of a lack of resources in "charity" care. I believe in the right to die with dignity because I've seen people die horribly without dignity. I believe in AIDS Walk because it's time to make this horrible disease go away.

Please make an old guy happy and sign-up.

David Warmoth

President, San Diego Democrats for Equality