Today is World AIDS Day. HIV/AIDS is affecting millions of people daily.
http://www.unaids.org/en/KnowledgeCentre/HIVData/EpiUpdate/EpiUpdArchive/2009/default.asp
April 4, 1989 my family lost our cousin Peter VanderPutten to AIDS. His life and death gave me many lessons I continue to draw from daily. My song Fallen Friends I wrote in direct reaction to how losing so many friends around me to this terrible disease affected the world around me. Twenty years later and we still have so much to learn. It was heartening to hear today that the President of South Africa Jacob Zuma was preparing to get an HIV test. Disheartening was today’s New York Times which made no mention of World AIDS day. The only acknowledgement I saw was a full-page ad in the first section (from Starbucks who will donate today to the Global Fund to fight AIDS).
lyrics to 'Fallen Friends': http://www.cathygrier.com/music/comin_back/fallenfriends.html
I recorded 'Fallen Friends' in 1990 on my recording 'New York Sessions' (out of print), it later was included in a compilation CD entitled 'Sounds For The Soul'. A solo version is also on my Comin' Back To Me CD