Susan and I, suddenly part of the group, were handed candles. No one seemed to be aware that we were gate-crashers. At the microphone, with my arm around her shoulder, Susan's voice rang out in the direction of the Capitol. She bravely told the audience that she was lighting her candle for her daughter Deanna, whom cigarette smoking had killed with lung cancer. It was the first time such words had been uttered all night.
Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of cancer in America.
Lung cancer, most of which is caused by cigarette smoking, is the leading cause of cancer deaths in America, and lung cancer has surpassed breast cancer as the leading cancer killer of women in the past few years. Reverend Jackson mentioned diet. He should have mentioned cigarette smoking too. It was then that a cheer went up, possibly one of relief on the part of those who, like the two of us, had been frustrated by what had been happening. Standing in that place, near the spot where Martin Luther King, Jr. once changed history, it was one of the most extraordinary moments of my life.