NONFICTION - Jan. 14, 1996

I’LL NOT GO QUIETLY: Mary Fisher Speaks Out by Mary Fisher. (Scribner: $20.; 224 pp.) People with AIDS should not be punished. There are no “guilty” or “innocent” AIDS patients. Anyone can become infected. These are just three of the major points that Mary Fisher makes again and again in her second published collection of speeches, “I’ll Not Go Quietly.” Fisher, who may be best known for her speech at the 1992 Republican National Convention, is HIV-positive. Speaking to a variety of audiences, from inmates at Rikers Island to a reception at Sotheby’s, Fisher’s words, many of them written by speech writer A. James Heynen, are moving and memorable.

One problem with this collection is that many of the speeches contain almost identical messages, so that a passage that may have brought me to tears on Page 30 seemed utterly predictable by Page 130. Still, that does not detract from the urgency of Fisher’s message or her passion.