Elizabeth Glaser

Another angel among us has passed on. The voice of Elizabeth Glaser is silent this day, stilled by the killer AIDS (Dec. 4).

I have no doubt that she herself would take no offense at how harsh and tragic that sentence reads. Nor would she fail to see the other, hopeful side. And that is, that in silence now, we might hear.

After reading accounts of Glaser’s activism and courage in the face of AIDS--in fact, giving it a new face itself, that of a woman, compassionate and driven--I listened. I listened to my own silent tears. And reflected on her powerful words.

Glaser was obviously more than those words. She was a woman of action. Rather than cast blame, she chose instead to shed light on our collective responsibility in the AIDS crisis. And she used the word--powerful tool that it can be--in conjunction with that action. It became her life’s work to bring awareness, raise funds and challenge governments.

Her call on Washington in 1992, so stunning and direct, moved many to tears. It is a call still in need of answers and actions. May we each become people of the same.

JEANINE D’ELIA

Granada Hills

* The saddest thing I read in the paper Dec. 4 wasn’t about politics, or Bosnia, or welfare, or racial conflicts, or even murders--oh, they’re sad all right, but not the saddest.

I was hit hardest by the unfairness of the death of one good person, Elizabeth Glaser, the woman who accidentally contracted AIDS from a transfusion, passed it on to her two children and died. There’s no one to blame, there’s no salvation or forgiveness and there’s no logic. All that’s left is pain, and that is what’s so sad.

DAVID SAXON

Sherman Oaks