AIDS at 25

Once there was a small boy named William Jefferson Clinton, who was born on August 19, 1946 in Hope, Arkansas. Sixty years later, nearly to the day, he could be found on a stage in Toronto sitting opposite to another Bill.

His namesake, William Henry Gates, hails from Seattle, Washington and is 9 years his junior. The first Bill has a wife named Hillary, the second Bill a wife named Melinda. The first has graced the cover of TIME 5 times, the other 8. One is arguably the United States most popular ex-president. The other is the world's richest man.

These differences aside, they both have known great power: one in government, the other in business. They both still wield enormous influence, which they exert through their own foundations: The William J. Clinton Foundation and the Gates Foundation, respectively. And they both now share a common goal, which they approach with their individual styles: to conquer the world's HIV pandemic. For this they are adored.

When the two Bills get together, as they did today, they swap stories about their travels to distant lands being ravaged by AIDS: Africa, South Asia, Latin American and the Caribbean. They list startling statistics, such as "95 % of people infected with HIV don't know it." They bat around imposing terms like "agricultural productivity," "harm reduction," and "debt relief." They talk frankly about the dark side of society: sex work, injection drug use, violence against woman, poverty and starvation, stigma.

And yet, when they are shoulder to shoulder they manage to be hopeful. They radiate energy. They make plans. They talk about the future. In short, they make the world's problems--HIV among them--seem manageable.

More than their power, more than their money, more than their charm, this may be their legacy.

So goes the tale of two Bills.