THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For
Immediate Release November 30, 2000
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
AT G&P FOUNDATION'S ANGEL BALL 2000
New York Marriot Marquis Hotel
New York, New York
8:30 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Well, first of all, thank you, Denise, for the
saxophone. I'll have a little more time to play it in a week or two.
(Laughter.) And thank you for the wonderful gift. But let me say, to all
of you, I think that we should be here honoring Denise for remembering her
daughter in such a magnificent way. (Applause.)
And I also want to thank Philip for all that you have done to make
this evening possible. And I want to thank the other honorees tonight, for
the power of their examples. Michael Jackson, who has been so kind to us,
thank you for the wonderful thing you said. And Sir Paul McCartney. I
don't know, I got the saxophone at an event which honored two of the
greatest musical geniuses of the 20th century. I don't know what that
says. (Laughter.)
And I would like to thank Her Majesty Queen Noor, who has been a
wonderful friend to Hillary and to me, and I think is one of the truly
great citizens of the world alive today. I thank her. (Applause.)
And thank you, Larry King, for being here. I forgive you for using
this occasion to hit me up for our exit interview. (Laughter.) I am not a
very good story. You should be down in Florida doing interviews tonight.
(Laughter.)
Let me say, to all of you, I want to just echo a thing or two Hillary
said. I love this event. I had a wonderful time two years ago. I had a
terrific time tonight. But I look forward to the time when we will be
forced to find another reason to meet, because the war on cancer will have
been won.
Like all of you, I am tired of burying my family members and friends
from diseases that it seems that we ought to be able to find a way to cure
or even to prevent. It won't be long now, and when that happy day comes,
all of you can take pride in knowing that you did something to hasten the
moment.
I can tell you that we're already making impressive progress. Earlier
this year, we learned that for the very first time, cancer deaths in the
United States are on the decline. (Applause.) Researchers are now
unlocking the secrets of the human genome. Revolutionary new treatments
are sure to follow. There are now medicines being tested now, not only to
cure, but to actually prevent various kinds of cancers.
Now, we actually know that the average human body is built to last
more than 100 years. And the younger women in this audience who are still
having children, in your child-bearing years you will be having babies with
a life expectancy of 90 years or more, because of the medical research that
is now going on. (Applause.)
But it's important for the rest of us to do our part. And our
administration, with Hillary and the Vice President in the lead, has worked
hard. We've doubled research over the last eight years. We have speeded
the approval process for cancer drugs. We've involved more and more
Medicare patients in cancer screenings and test trials. And we've extended
coverage to uninsured women with breast and cervical cancer. But there's a
lot more to do.
What I want you to understand is, that all of us, and mostly you -- I
have been on the public payroll for some years, but those of us that are
fortunate enough to have some income are always given all these
opportunities to make charitable donations, and you always hope that the
money you give will have some beneficial impact. But what I want you to
understand is that the sequencing this year of the human genome is a truly
seminole event in the entire history of science.
We have already identified, scientists have, the problems in the gene
structure that lead women to be much more vulnerable to breast cancer. And
it is just the beginning. There has never been a better time to invest
money in cancer research, ever. And it is highly likely, even though none
of us can know when the next discoveries are coming, or which scientists
will make them, it is highly likely that the money you invest in this
project will actually directly lead to the dramatic acceleration of cures
for cancer, preventions for cancer and the saving of other children's
lives.
And so, again I say, thank you, Denise. Thank you for everything you
have done to make it possible for Hillary and me to serve. Thank you to
those of you who have been so good to my wife. And thank you, Senator
Schumer, for showing up. They will be a great team, and I'm very, very
grateful for that. And as I leave office, let me say to all of you -- I
thank Michael Jackson for what he said -- this has been the greatest honor
imaginable for me to serve.
But the thing that really matters about this country is not who the
President is. It's what kind of people we are. The thing about any free
society is that it's the citizens who matter -- the decisions they make,
the work they do, the dreams they dream. There has never been a better
time to dream of curing every kind of cancer, or to give.
So, even though I won't be President next year, I hope you'll be here,
giving next year, because it will really make a difference.
Thank you, and God bless you all. (Applause.)
END 8:38 P.M. EST
|
