The New York Times - Saturday, December 2, 1995
Frank Bruni

Their voices could barely be heard, because the city would not let them turn on the microphones until dawn. Their faces could barely be seen, because there were no streetlights in the forgotten sliver of park.

But to the small cadre of concerned people who took turns at a podium near City Hall in the earliest, most desolate hours of yesterday morning, these conditions were not so much obstacles as metaphors. Silence and invisibility represented familiar enemies in their long, sorrowful battle against AIDS.

James Aikens, Georgie Airborne, Jasper Alcadez," said Charles King, the first person at the podium, as he began the grim roll call of the dead. His voice was steady, almost monotonous, and his breath rose in thick clouds in the near-freezing air.

"Yolanda Alercon," he continued before an audience of two dozen, all awaiting their own turns at the muted microphone. "Patrick Alexander, Billy Allen."

Of the many events commemorating World AIDS Day yesterday, this one, staged by an AIDS support group, Housing Works, was one of the most emblematic and haunting.

What Mr. King started at midnight Thursday was to continue until midnight Friday, as the speakers vowed that in this corner of the city, at least on this one day, the dead would be remembered as more than statistics.

"They are our brothers, our sisters, our sons and our daughters," Mr. King said in a statement that he read at the beginning, and that would be repeated periodically throughout the 24-hour vigil. "They are our parents, our lovers and our friends."

And they are many. Nationally, 311,381 people had died of AIDS as of Oct. 31, the most recent date for which information is available. In New York City, the death count was 54,262 as of Sept. 30, the most recent date for which the New York City Health Department has information.

Those numbers guaranteed that the people at the podium would not run out of names. Their roster of 80,000 names was culled from hospitals, AIDS support groups and patches of the AIDS quilt, among other sources.

Most of the two dozen people on hand at midnight, when the vigil began, were connected to Housing Works, a nonprofit organization that has been providing help to homeless people with AIDS or infected with H.I.V. since June 1990. And even in the middle of the night, in a place far removed from any human traffic at that time, they attracted a few pilgrims with no special affiliation or agenda.

"I just happened to see a flyer," said Jennifer Drumgoole, 18, a Fordham University freshman. She recruited four classmates to join her, and they called Housing Works to offer their services reading names. They also asked when their help was needed most.

Midnight was the answer, so midnight was when they came. "I really wanted to do something for people with AIDS," said Miss Drumgoole, shivering in the cold. "This is a start."

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