From: dks@MIT.EDU (dks)
Subject: Bob Hattoy: 'Someone Worthy of Your Caring'
Date: Sun, 26 Jul 92 21:40:21 EST
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Hello!

By popular request, here is Bob Hattoy's speech.


Cheers,
Dhanesh


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   Bob Hattoy's Speech:
     'Someone Worthy of Your Caring'

                 --- 

    NEW YORK, July 14, 1992

Here is the prepared text of the speech
delivered on Tuesday night to the Democratic
National Convention by Bob Hattoy of Anaheim,
California, an adviser to Bill Clinton on
environmental issues who discovered recently
that he has AIDS:


      I am here tonight because of one man's courage and conviction, one
    man's dedication and daring, and yes, one man's true kindness:
       He is my boss, Bill Clinton.
       You see, I have AIDS.
       I could be an African-American woman, a Latino man, a 10-year-old
    boy or girl.
       AIDS has many faces. And AIDS knows no class or gender, race or
    religion, or sexual orientation.
       AIDS does not discriminate.
       But George Bush's White House does.
       AIDS is a disease of the Reagan-Bush years. The first case was
    detected in 1981. But it took 40,000 deaths and seven years for
    Ronald Reagan to say the word "AIDS."
       It's five years later, 70,000 more are dead. And George Bush
    doesn't talk about AIDS, much less do anything about it.
       Eight years from now there will be 2 million cases in America. If
    George Bush wins again we're all at risk.
       It's that simple. It's that serious. It's that terrible.
       I am a gay man with AIDS.
       If there is any honor in having this disease, it's the honor of
    being part of the gay and lesbian community in America. We have
    watched our friends and lovers die, but we have not given up. Gay
    men and lesbians created community health clinics, provided
    educational materials, opened food kitchens, and held the hands of
    the dying in hospices.
       The gay and lesbian community is a family in the best sense of
    the word.
       President Bush, we are a million points of light. But you are too
    blind to see us.
       Mr. President, you don't see AIDS for what it is. It's a crisis
    in public health that demands medical experts, not moral judges. And
    it's time to move beyond your politics of denial, division, and
    death.
       It's time to move George Bush out of the White House.
       We need a president who will take action.
       A president strong enough to take on the insurance companies that
    drop people with the HIV virus.
       A president courageous enough to take on the drug companies who
    drive AIDS patients into poverty and deny them life-saving medicine.
       A president who is not terrified of the word "condom."
       Every single person with AIDS is someone worthy of your caring.
    After all, we are your sons and daughters. Fathers and mothers.
       We are doctors and lawyers. Folks in the military. Ministers and
    rabbis and priests. We are Democrats. And yes, Mr. President,
    Republicans.
       We're part of the American family.
       Mr. President, your family has AIDS.
       We're dying, and you are doing nothing about it.
       Listen, I don't want to die.
       But I don't want to live in an America where the president
    sees me as the enemy.
       I can face dying because of a disease.
       But not because of politics.
       So I stand here tonight in support of Bill Clinton, a man who
    sees the value in each and every member of the American family.
       And although I am a person with AIDS, I am a person with hope.
    Because I know how different my life -- and all our lives -- could
    be if I could call my boss, Mr. President.
       Now, I am honored to introduce a woman who has been an
    inspiration to millions, the co-founder of the Pediatric AIDS
    Foundation, Elizabeth Glaser.

----------- End of text ------ Hattoy, 7/14/92 p.m. ------------------
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