Sean's older friend Mark and Mark's two coalition buddies were in Washington, D.C., one cold week in spring. The hugeness of the armed forces could be felt throughout that powerful city.

Mark sat in the corner of a maroon taxi, scrunched up with his notebook and backpack. His two buddies sat beside him. All three were as sullen as the weather was gray. They passed the Vietnam War Memorial. In the rear view mirror the White House bobbed up and down. Cars with plates from places like Utah, Wyoming, or California wove from lane to lane. There were trailers and station wagons. There were cabs of yellow, maroon and tan. Thousands of tires hissed on the wet avenue. The dome of the Capitol Building rose in the distance before Mark's cab.

"Tell me again what Representative Weiss said about yesterday's and today's sessions?" one of the buddies asked, as the taxi skimmed along.

Mark proudly piped up, "He said that yesterday was for testimony by people outside the government, and that today would be for government people at the highest level. Including, in my opinion the two bad guys." Mark meant Doctors Fauci and Young. He returned to his notebook. The two friends watched Mark, warily. Mark wasn't feeling well, and they knew it. And his behavior seemed unpredictable. He didn't always follow a logical train of thought. He had mood swings.

AIDS had knocked Mark's weight down so low, he looked fragile. Diet supplements had helped for a while, but not very much anymore. His queasy stomach scared him, and his anxiety hurt his concentration, so he had to resort to note taking to focus his mind.

Mark loved the New York City Congressman who was running this two-day hearing on AIDS. Ted Weiss. Congressman Weiss was actually born in Hungary, in 1927, but had lived most of his life in the United States where he became a citizen in 1953. As a Democrat he had gained renown for his liberal politics, and was a member of such highly regarded organizations as the NAACP and the ACLU.

"Since 1981, 60,000 Americans have contracted AIDS and more than 33,000 have died…," Weiss said at the previous day's session. "Each year, Congress has forced large budgets on a reluctant administration which has often found ways to inhibit AIDS work such as the expansion of the clinical trials program.…" Mark had liked the dig at President Reagan. Mark thought, maybe Americans will realize one day that Reagan is a bad president.

The American voters loved Reagan, though. He had demonstrated power in the eyes of the people. With his invasion of Granada, his mining of Nicaragua's harbors, and his strengthening of the Defense system in general, he won the hearts and minds of voters.

Recently, the news was filled with grim stories about the administration and its corrupt arms deal with Iran and the Contras. Reagan sometimes appeared confused and slack on such sensitive matters. And mainstream optimism in the economy had fallen off, because of the stock market's collapse in the autumn of 1987. (It had fallen 508.32 points, or 22.6 percent.) But Reagan himself still seemed loved.

At the hearing's first session, Representative Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco alluded to her own home base, saying, "Although we already have close to 5,000 cases of AIDS reported in San Francisco - 5,000 cases - the city is bracing for an additional 12,000 new cases in the next five years…."

A little later, another representative spoke, Congressman Beilenson from California, saying, "We, in our office, both in Washington and in Los Angeles, receive complaints weekly and sometimes several times a week, Mr. Chairman, that the FDA is dragging its feet in processing new drug trials…"

Although the media was there, that first day, cameras had to be lowered when the father of a baby girl with AIDS spoke, because the father wanted anonymity for his family.

Among the many points the man made was the heartbreaking one that experimental drugs were not available to children. His baby was denied a prophylaxis against PCP, even though it was probably her only protection against the deadly pneumonia's recurrence.