World AIDS DAY SPEECH 2000 Gregg Rowe Exective Director, Mosaik As we gather this evening to be entertained with some well-known comics, before we embark on this evening of laughter, we must ponder why we are joining together on International World AIDS Day 2000.  It was three years ago, today, that Mosaik first opened its doors to be the voice of people living with HIV/AIDS first, on the West Island of Montréal, and then throughtout the province of Québec. During the past two years, we have secured a magnitude of a project for people affected and infected by HIV, our Country Christmas @ Camp Kinkora.  We  have also brought smiles to children's faces, delivering new toys to the St-Justine Hospital, the Montréal Children's Hospital and delivered toys and teddy bears to various AIDS organizations to include them in their Christmas baskets for mothers who are infected with HIV/AIDS. And it is all because of you, the audience, who believe it or not, are activists for the cause by donating these teddy bears and toys and buying a ticket for tonight's show.  But tonight's fundraiser is only a fraction of what Mosaik is attempting to achieve on a daily basis. Our philosophy of being a voice to suburbanites who are living everyday with a chronic illness is only a beginning.  Our purpose in the community is to share what we have experienced everyday.  To leave the next generation with a plan of action so something as pandemic as AIDS will not happen to them. I can only speak of the chronic illness from my lifestyle, I do not profess to speak on behalf of women with HIV/AIDS because their issues are different from mine.  I cannot speak from a heterosexual male point of view, nor an IV drug user, nor a native. That is why we opened our doors.  To give people with diverse backgrounds the opportunity to share their experiences with others so that we may learn and teach.  I believe that we were put here on this earth to share an understanding that people can rise to the top and still keep the riches of their friends that they have known all their adult lives. And all it took was a pandemic to bring us to this point.  From experience, I know that people pass through painful moments in their lives and that there are two roads that they can travel.  One is to be the victim, the other is to take control.  Some choose the victim and remain stagnated, others choose to take control and succeed.  Yet others experience the two.  Like myself. One does not own something, one gathers and attains something.  A gay man does not own AIDS, nor a heterosexual man or woman, or an IV drug user.  As a collective, we all own it and that is how changes are going to be made, when we merge as a collective instead of segragating and isolating ourselves into mainstream society groups. When we can work side by side, no matter what our sexuality is, we can gather an understanding of ourselves and our illness and find our niche in life. I have travelled many roads, that lead me down skid road and back again.  I have learned from these experiences to share with my world, internalized all the positive and negative emotions, molded them into one so that I could understand myself, as well as the world around me.  This maybe egostistic, but I feel that Mosaik achieves this philosophy. Take a look around the room tonight and see your neighbor sitting beside you.  If it wasn't International World AIDS Day, would you be sitting in this room tonight? As a writer, I share these experiences with you.  And to share with others, is a gratifying experience, that the words I write can have such a profound effect on others.  This pleases me, that to reconstruct, so that another feels the pain and joy, is a rewarding experience as a writer. I want to pass these experiences as an individual, as a writer, as a person living with HIV/AIDS and as a person that posses a library of knowledge onto others within the infrastructure of Mosaik. It would be a shame that I die and not pass this knowledge on, it is almost a crime. One day, whether through burn-out, or needing a break, or even in death, I may not be standing up here in front of you.  Secretly though, I am hoping that it is through eradication of HIV/AIDS that we no longer need fundraising events like tonight. But when the time is right, then I can go, knowing that my knowledge did not halt the wheels of the organization, and by sharing the organization with you:  the clients, the supporters, the volunteers, the sponsors, and the Board of Directors, we can help others without putting up barriers. We can look at one another as humans and individuals.  And as individuals, to give back to a community what a community has given to you, is the most precious gift that we can leave mankind.