While whoever was the voice on that tape might’ve meant well, the AIDS crisis unleashed a tsunami of grief there weren’t enough boats for. Aircraft carrier-scale vessels were needed…but there weren’t any.

My vivid sense - however feeble it still is - was that it was left up to you and others in your straits to build the vessels that were needed, when you had no materials or other resources, or even the skill, to do so, at the outset. That they eventually got built was a miracle - and even there, I can see there was a lot of flying-by-the-seat-of-the-pants - you, and so many others, were dealing with a catastrophe that was unprecedented, that the medical establishment was paralyzed over, that governments either didn’t take seriously or if there were any that did, had no clue as to what to do.

Time, and reflection, leads to the profundity you show here. But it has taken you this long, with this much pain, to get down in words. Thank you for this understanding, and bless you as you go on, Ed.