ABSTRACT
Proclaiming America the world's housekeeper, George Bush, the weak father, becomes strong by protecting his women from the bad father who raped his neighbor. The economic, bodily, psychic, and political violation of millions of American women is not, for Bush, a ground for waging a just war. There are unidentified dead women's bodies in the morgue and there are women missing in action. Many people with AIDS, and their friends and families, have survived through sheer force of will in the face of an often hostile or indifferent government and society. ACT UP has also had to contend with the problem of linkage by analyzing how the problem of AIDS is connected to and exacerbated by sexism, racism, and homophobia. The AIDS activist community does "the hard work of freedom" in the face of a government whose lack of action amounts to a declaration of war against its own citizens.
