Political Quotes

“last Saturday, just 7 days ago, I was in Cape Town, South Africa, for a conference sponsored by the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations. With me were my colleagues, Senator Susan Collins, Congresswoman Barbara Lee from the State of California, and we had an opportunity to visit an AIDS clinic, a clinic that is funded by the Global Fund. It is an area known as West Cape, and it is an extremely poor area. Many people are infected. South Africa may be the most devastated country on that continent when it comes to the disease of AIDS. To think that 25 percent of the men and women in the South African military are infected with AIDS, to think that most of the major employers in companies find that at least one-fourth of their workforce is infected, is an indication of the reach of this terrible disease. We went to this clinic because something historic was happening there. Because of the Global Fund and because of contributions from countries such as the United States, for the first time we are providing AIDS pills, ARV therapies to people who are infected. What that means is that for some of the poorest people on Earth, they will receive a few pills which, if they take them dutifully each day, they can live. And if they do not receive the pills, or don't take them, they will surely die. Think about that moment when they first heard of the possibility that they might be on the list to be saved with these drugs.…”