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REMARKS BY:
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TOMMY G. THOMPSON, SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
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PLACE:
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Congress of Racial Equality, New York
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DATE:
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January 20, 2004
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Martin Luther King Dinner
Thank you, Roy (Roy Innis National Chairman of CORE), for that kind introduction.
On behalf of President Bush, I am honored to join everyone here in celebrating the birthday of the Reverend Martin Luther King.
As a law student, I was honored to witness history when Dr. King gave his famous speech in Washington in 1963. I will never forget how he reminded us to be vigilant against hate in our hearts, prejudice in our policies, and injustice in our laws. His life and death were a stirring example of CORE's motto, "Truth, Logic, and Courage."
As a preacher, he knew that every human being is irreplaceable, and that every human being can be taught how to love.
And time after time, in city after city, the Congress of Racial Equality stood with Dr. King in opposing the Jim Crow laws that prevented hotel owners from serving all people alike, in changing the culture of buses and public accommodations, and in replacing fear and resentment with openness and respect.
Perhaps the greatest of Dr. King's virtues was optimism. He looked at injustice and short-sightedness and despair, and he didn't respond with rage or hate or self-pity. He responded with love, with purpose, and with confidence that good people always improve the world.
I'm optimistic for the same reason. I know that good people can make the world better. And I know that good actions can inspire goodness in other people. We shouldn't be frustrated by our limitations-we should ask, every day, how much can I do?
As Dr. King said, "Life's most persistent and urgent question is: what are you doing for others?"
Ladies and Gentlemen, I am optimistic because I meet so many people who do so much for others. And I would like to tell you tonight why you should be optimistic. You should be optimistic because optimists are making America better.
Take poverty. Pessimists want to make poverty easier to bear. Optimists want to make poverty easier to escape.
That's why we reformed welfare and encouraged people to move from the dependency of a welfare check to the independence of a paycheck.
But we aren't done. We need to give people the tools they need to climb the career ladder.
Optimists believe that every child can learn, regardless of race, income, or disability. That's why we've demanded that schools teach every child. That's why we've offered choices to children trapped in failing schools. That's why we've insisted that no child be left behind.
Optimists believe in the power of faith to transform lives and offer hope. That's why we've stopped the government from discriminating against faith-based organizations. That's why we've made churches and community centers our partners. They're the places people go every week. They're the institutions that can help the whole person.
Optimists believe that growing old doesn't have to mean living with chronic illness or paying for medicines you can't afford. That's why we've added a prescription drug benefit to Medicare and covered screenings and preventive care, too. Our great task this year is to explain these new benefits to seniors-and we hope CORE will work with us to help deliver this message.
Optimists believe that people of every ethnic group can lead healthy lives, and that racial disparities in diseases can be overcome. CORE is the Congress on Racial Equality. And part of racial equality is health equality. Health equality is the reason that over the next five years, we're giving $60 million to support research to understand and reduce differences in health outcomes, access, and care, by creating eight Centers for Population Health and Health Disparities. To achieve health equality, we launched our Closing the Health Gap campaign and our Take a Loved One to the Doctor Day. To achieve health equality, we opened the Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities at the NIH.
Optimists believe that families are most qualified to make their own decisions. That's why we support tax-based supports to help low-income Americans purchase health insurance. That's why over the past three years we've expanded access to health coverage for more than 2.2 million people, and expanded the range of benefits offered to 6.7 million other Americans-and that's not even counting the Medicare expansion President Bush recently signed. Making health insurance more accessible advances health equality.
Optimists believe that it's better to prevent diseases instead of treating them, and that people can learn to avoid risky behaviors and practice healthy habits. That's why my whole Department and I practice prevention and promote prevention, in our speeches, our programs, and in our own homes. Prevention advances health equality.
Optimists even believe that the spread of AIDS can be reversed, not just in America, but around the world. That's why we hope to spend more than 18 billion dollars next year to fight AIDS at home and overseas, including $53 million for the HIV/AIDS in Minority Communities Fund. This helps advance health equality. That's why President Bush dedicated $15 billion over five years to fighting AIDS and caring for the afflicted in 14 focus countries in Africa and the Caribbean and more than 60 others in which we have prevention, treatment, and research programs.
Two years ago, I visited Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa, and the Ivory Coast and saw the damage with my own eyes. I held babies who had contracted the virus from their mothers during birth. When I came home, I asked my Department to come up with a program to help HIV mothers have healthy babies and live to raise them. This initiative became the core of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.
Two months ago, I returned to Africa as Chairman of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Malaria, and TB, along with the largest public-private delegation ever to visit that continent. Again I saw the devastation, but this time I also saw treatment and prevention programs we're supporting that are starting to work and show results. The health ministers who had been lamenting the devastation on my first trip were transformed by hope.
I'd like to tell you about two optimists I met in Africa.
Many Ugandans with AIDS live in villages so remote only rutted dirt roads reach them. So my department delivers antiretroviral medications on Suzuki motorcycles. I went along on one delivery and met a woman named Rosemary. Her husband and brother both died of AIDS, leaving her to care for seven children and her elderly mother, who live in mud huts. She feeds them with the crops she grows on 2 acres of her brother-in-law's land, which bring in about $70 a year.
And she has AIDS.
You might expect Rosemary to be bitter. And not that long ago she was close to dying from AIDS. But when she started taking anti-retroviral drugs, her health improved, and she's back to feeding her family. And she's one of the most optimistic people I've ever met.
The other optimist I met was a carpenter named Samson. AIDS killed his wife, and he has it, too. He goes down to the swamp every day to gather wood. After the wood dries, he makes tables and chairs, which he sells for $1.50 each. He supports three children on $5-7 a week. And his wife's grave is right there in the yard, a constant reminder that he uses to warn his children to avoid risky behaviors so they never get the virus.
Samson is also an optimist. And when he met me, he eagerly asked me to thank America and President Bush for sending the antiretroviral medicines that keep him healthy.
Meeting Rosemary and Samson made me proud to be an American, and proud to do my part to help make Africa and the world better.
And making the world better is what CORE is all about. They are the best example of Martin Luther King's optimism. And tonight we honor three other optimists inspired by Dr. King, who knew the world could be better than it was, and have devoted their careers to making that happen.
General Vincent Brooks is an optimist. He knew that the people of Iraq deserve liberty just like everyone else, and he was willing to risk his life to defend it.
Justice Janice Rogers Brown is an optimist. She knows that every Californian has unalienable rights, and she defends those rights every day on the California Supreme Court.
And my good friend David Keene is an optimist. He tirelessly reminds the players in Washington that they don't have all the answers-that if you just protect the freedom of men and women to manage their affairs, they will astound you with their capacity to love and help their neighbors.
As Dr. King said: "Life's most persistent and urgent question is: what are you doing for others?"
So I urge every one of you to ask yourself tonight, What can I do this year to inspire more people with optimism, determination, and realistic plans to make the world better?
Last Revised: January 21, 2004
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