[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Pages 20734-20735]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO PAT CHRISTEN

 Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, this evening in San Francisco, a 
grateful community is coming together to honor one of the Nation's most 
able and respected leaders in the fight against HIV and AIDS--Pat 
Christen. For the past 15 years, Pat has served as executive director 
of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. Tonight, she will end her tour of 
service to spend more time with her family particularly with her two 
young daughters, Morgan and Madison.
  Since 1982, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation has been at the 
forefront of the ongoing battle against HIV and AIDS. Pat was there in 
the beginning, when a mysterious and deadly disease was taking so many 
of the San Francisco community's young people. She manned the agency's 
hotline as a volunteer, serving as an outlet and a resource for those 
facing the disease. From this caring and compassionate beginning, Pat 
rose to become a courageous and visionary leader against HIV.
  In San Francisco, Pat saw thousands of young people in her community 
die needlessly because they could not obtain the proper medical care 
and support they needed in order to live and fight the disease. At the 
foundation, she helped to shape San Francisco's response to prevention 
and treatment of

[[Page 20735]]

AIDS. She also took the battle to Congress and had a vital role in the 
development and passage of the Federal Ryan White CARE Act.
  In her familiar grassroots style, Pat and the foundation galvanized 
other like-minded organizations around the country to help develop the 
CARE Act, and to provide the muscle and hustle that was necessary to 
galvanize action in Congress. Today, the Ryan White Act provides over 
$2 billion a year in HIV care and treatment to those most in need. It 
brings new hope and the promise of a life of dignity for tens of 
thousands of people living with HIV in cities and communities 
throughout the nation.
  Under Pat's leadership, the foundation recently joined the global 
battle against HIV and AIDS. In December 2000, the Pangaea Global AIDS 
Foundation was launched in an effort to expand HIV antiretroviral 
treatment and care in the developing world. In just a few short years, 
Pangaea has become a key strategic resource in this international 
effort, particularly in Asia and Africa.
  In October 2003, the Government of South Africa announced an 
unprecedented program to provide HIV antiretroviral drugs to the 5 
million people in that nation suffering from HIV and AIDS. Pat and 
other Pangaea staff were part of a small technical support team working 
intensively behind the scenes with the South African Government as it 
prepared its national treatment initiative. Without Pat's skillful 
leadership, it might never have happened. Pangaea is now helping to 
make similar urgently needed relief available in Uganda and China.
  Over the course of her career, Pat has demonstrated her willingness 
to speak out, to challenge others to become involved, to show 
compassion and understanding when others reacted with anger and 
vindictiveness. Above all, she had an extraordinary ability to do what 
others thought could not be done. To so many of us who admired her and 
worked with her, she became the symbol of the saying in World War II, 
``the difficult we do immediately; the impossible takes a little 
longer.''
  We all owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Pat for her inspiring 
leadership and her dedication to bring about the day when everyone 
everywhere with HIV will be able to live a long and productive life 
with dignity. Pat, thank you very, very much for all you have done so 
well across the years, and for the enormous difference you have made in 
the lives of so many persons in our own country and throughout the 
world.

                          ____________________