New AIDS Initiative

As your editorial “Call for Action on AIDS” (Nov. 24) states so eloquently, it is urgent that Los Angeles County expends all of those funds which have been allocated in the 1987-88 budget to join the battle against AIDS.

The recently formed Los Angeles County Commission on AIDS is determined to deal with the AIDS epidemic and to succeed in its administrative, educational and political role.

Toward that end, the commission recently received a considerable amount of media attention when its members recommended to the Board of Supervisors that the Department of Health Services accelerate its spending program in all AIDS-related activities during the current fiscal year. (Our public presentation of this recommendation is scheduled to come before the Board of Supervisors at its Tuesday meeting).

In addition to this public display of our concerns, members of the AIDS Commission, at our initial session in August, divided ourselves into four active committees which are focusing on education, funding, legislation and services.

Those of us serving on the commission have willingly accepted our mandate. We are doing everything possible to carry the burden of our responsibilities with only one purpose in mind--to meet the needs that the AIDS epidemic creates so that all of our citizens will together surmount the challenges it poses. Our unity and survival as a community depend on it.

RABBI ALLEN I. FREEHLING

Chair

L.A. County Commission on AIDS