[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book II)]
[October 12, 1998]
[Pages 1788-1789]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at a G&P Charitable Foundation for Cancer Research Dinner in New 
York City
October 12, 1998

    The President. Thank you. Well, when I told Denise I would do this 
for her and the memory of her daughter, I didn't know that an added 
bonus was I would be introduced by Bill Cosby, a man who--I mean, his 
net worth was 500 times mine before I met all those lawyers in 
Washington. [Laughter] But I thank you, Bill. I thank you and Camille 
for your friendship, the letters you sent me, the words of wisdom in the 
last several months, and for being here tonight.
    I want to thank my wonderful friend Denise Rich for so many things, 
but for remembering her daughter in this magnificent and farsighted and 
humane way. Hillary would like to have been here with me tonight, but 
she is in Prague on a trip for our country. But we love you, Denise, and 
we thank you for what you're doing.
    I want to thank Les Moonves for his work in making this evening a 
success. And I want to say I am delighted that you're honoring Milton 
Berle. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you.
    You know, when you're President, you can speak off the cuff a little 
bit, but you have all these wonderful people who work for you, and they 
dig up interesting facts. Now, here are the facts they dug up for me to 
say about Milton Berle. [Laughter]

[At this point, Mr. Berle stood up and pretended to depart.]

    The President. Oh, no, it gets better; sit down. He's been in show 
business for 85 years. He's performed in drag more than any other 
entertainer except the roadshow cast of ``La Cage Aux Folles.'' 
[Laughter] And most important, he holds the Guinness Book of World 
Records for the most charity benefit performances of any entertainer in 
history. Thank you, Milton Berle.
    I'd like to ask you to take just a couple of minutes to seriously 
consider the purpose for which you have come tonight. Twenty-five years 
ago, America declared war on cancer. Twenty-five years from now, I hope 
we will have won the war. I hope the war on cancer will have about as 
much meaning to schoolchildren as the War of 1812. Twenty-five years 
from now, I hope schoolchildren don't even know what the word 
``chemotherapy'' means.
    The progress now being made against cancer is stunning. We are 
closing in on the genetic causes of breast cancer, colon cancer, and 
prostate cancer; testing medicines actually to prevent these cancers. 
New tools for screening and diagnosis are returning to many patients the 
promise of a long and healthy life. From 1991 to 1995 cancer death rates 
actually dropped for the first time in history.
    For the last 6 years, we have worked hard to fight this dreaded 
disease, helping cancer patients to keep their health coverage when they 
change jobs, accelerating the approval of cancer drugs while maintaining 
safe standards, continually every year increasing funding for cancer 
research.
    In the last few weeks, four critical steps have been taken. First of 
all, in spite of all the fights we've been having in Washington, we did 
succeed in getting from Congress on a bipartisan basis the largest 
single increase in funding for cancer and other medical research in 
history, as part of our gift to the 21st century. Second, I directed the 
National Cancer Institute to expedite a new computer system to give tens 
of thousands of cancer patients across our country

[[Page 1789]]

access to clinical trials on the kinds of new cancer treatments that can 
save their lives. Third, I have taken steps to ensure that by next year 
cancer patients and advocates will have a seat at the table when we set 
the medical research agenda in Government, because those who suffer from 
cancer know truths about these diseases that even the experts do not 
understand. And fourth, we've made $15 million available to study the 
long-term effects of cancer treatment and how to prevent cancer 
recurrence.
    And I know, Denise, these grants have special significance to you 
because Gabrielle herself succumbed as a result of the treatment she 
received from Hodgkin's disease. So we give these grants with you and 
your family in mind.
    Oh, we've still got a lot to do, all right, in this battle for 
victory over cancer. We have to convince the next Congress to finish the 
unfinished agenda of this one: to pass a Patients' Bill of Rights to 
ensure cancer patients high-quality care; to help Medicare beneficiaries 
with cancer be a part of these clinical trials; to convince the next 
Congress to confirm the first oncologist ever nominated to be head of 
the FDA, Dr. Jane Henney; and finally, to take strong action to protect 
our children against America's number one cancer threat, the sales of 
tobacco products illegally to our children.
    But I came here to say to you two things. First of all, our country 
is moving in the right direction. And with all the partisanship in 
Washington, this is one area where we have pretty much moved together, 
hand in hand across party lines.
    Secondly, I want you to know that there is so much to be done that 
in spite of increasing and unprecedented Government efforts, it's not 
enough. We need the kind of effort that you're making here tonight. You 
never know how many lives you'll save, how many children you'll give a 
future to. And it's really worth doing.
    Let me just say one final thing. The fight against cancer is really 
a fight for life, a fight for the elemental proposition that all of us 
are bound to seek, not just for ourselves but for all others, the chance 
to live out our dreams for as long and as well as we can. And whenever 
that chance is cut short, we are all diminished. I'm thinking about it 
in another context today because, like so many of you, I was heartbroken 
this morning to learn that young Matthew Shepard, who was beaten so 
viciously in Wyoming, succumbed to his injuries.
    And I say that to remind you, when we come here tonight, you feel 
good about it; you feel good about yourselves. You're contributing money 
to help people you'll never know live lives you'll never be a part of, 
and that is in the best tradition of humanity. You do it because you 
know, in some profound and almost indescribable way, we share a common 
mission in these brief lives we live on Earth. And when someone else 
takes a life--as this young man was apparently beaten to death and 
apparently only because he was gay--and that taking is done out of blind 
hatred and maybe even fear, like cancer it violates every sense of how 
we think life ought to be.
    So I say to you tonight, when you go home and you ask yourselves 
what happened tonight--besides the fact that you all look beautiful, and 
you saw a lot of interesting people, and you had to put up with a speech 
from the President, and you marveled at Milton Berle, and Bill Cosby 
made you laugh--you can say, ``I stood for life, not my life but someone 
else's; not someone I know but someone I don't; not someone whose life I 
will share but someone whose life I hope will be wonderful.''
    And it is the recognition of how we are all bound together across 
all the lines that superficially divide us that make this a very great 
country. When we violate that, we diminish our own lives. When we honor 
it, we lift our lives. And I thank you for how you have honored it 
tonight.
    God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 9:15 p.m. in the Imperial Ballroom at the 
Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers. In his remarks, he referred to 
Denise Rich, president, G&P Charitable Foundation for Cancer Research; 
entertainer Bill Cosby and his wife, Camille; and Leslie Moonves, 
president, CBS Entertainment.