I'm 51 years old -- a baby-boomer. I wish I could say I was a Hippie turned Yuppie. But I was never a Hippie.

In 1965, I left college to help launch "Up With People." I was clean-cut, drug-free, morally right, and on stage internationally for two years. I didn't have time to be a Hippie, nor did I believe that protesting and demonstrating were the answers to our problems. But unlike my associates in "Up With People" at that time, I was against the war in Vietnam.

However, I went to Vietnam anyway -- drafted, then enlisted for advanced medical training in the Army to become a Physician's Assistant. I was lucky. I had to study medicine every day, leaving me no time to go crazy in southeast Asia or escape into the drug scene. But I decided, lying on my bunk outside Saigon one day, that I would go into politics and make sure that kind of thing never happened again.

I used my GI bill to become a commercial pilot, worked my way into the position of Executive Director of the Republican Party in southern Arizona, and was finally elected to the Arizona State Senate from Tucson in 1974. I was 28 years old.

I served one term. I soon discovered I was not a Republican or a Democrat, and dropped my affiliation, losing my bid for re-election. It was a good thing. Government isn't the solution; it's the problem.

Since then, I have written a computer program sold nationally, been a management consultant, spent two years in a cult (The Church of Scientology), learned to break and train horses, written a book, and captained a whale/dolphin research ship based in the Canary Islands.

I was just starting a new business that cleans up the air pollution from automobiles when I read Peter Duesberg's book, Inventing the AIDS Virus. (Regnery Press, 1996 -- www.duesberg.com)

By the way, I have never had a homosexual experience, nor have I ever used any recreational drugs.

From the very beginning, I did not believe the press releases that HIV caused AIDS, or that AIDS was contagious, or that it was transmitted by sexual contact. But I was not aware of all the political intrigue, lies, or money-motivated manipulations that have accompanied this medical disaster until I read Duesberg's book.

More importantly, I was not aware of the numbers of people who were -- and are -- dying each year from taking AZT, thinking it would cure or prevent AIDS.