tony kushner was a friend of larry kramer's. , was wondering if you could start out by talking about larry kramer's trip to the white house under reagan whwho did not mentn the word aids for something like 6.5 years of his two terms as the plague raged through the community in this country, not to mention around the worlrld. he went there with ththis taelo. talk about w what happened. close someththing that was repoported at the time e and thn was memorialized -- immortalized in a book "the band played on." larry asked to be brought to the white house to a dinner -- i don't remember what the purpose was for the dinner. but it w was at a momentnt when thean was sort t of riding crest of his popularity, being reelected. when he got up to speak, the prpresident of the united state, larry stood upup and started to boo him loudly. which was an astonishingng mome. it was appropriate because reagan notoriously never menentn the epidemicic until 1987. he sat as president making no public utterance while thousands and thousands and thousa