Charles Rangel: “I thank you for the opportunity to greet a group of ministers that have come to the Nation's capital in order to support…”

“I thank you for the opportunity to greet a group of ministers that have come to the Nation's capital in order to support the resources to eliminate HIV and AIDS virus infections. It is strange how God has made us forget the blessings that we have with good health until, of course, that health is endangered, and then we recognize that what we have depended on may be threatened or may be gone or may not even exist for the 40,000 people that don't enjoy health insurance. But because this disease has such a stigma and because a million Americans suffer from it, and 500,000 Americans have died from it, it has been a very costly situation in terms of providing the medication to stop the disease and to prevent death. And death is certain without treatment. These ministers have formed, some 20 years ago, in a group that was headed by Deborah House--and today it is directed by C. Virginia Fields, and Pastor Calvin Butts from the Abyssinian Baptist Church, a landmark in Harlem, New York City, and the country--have brought together ministers from all over the country as well as the National Medical Association and other outstanding people to make people aware of the fact that this disease is not only caused by the infection of the virus, but it's caused by reckless sex, unprotected sex, actions of men that are in prison, actions that when they come home they transmit through sexual activities to their wives.…”