Elizabeth Glaser’s Legacy

Elizabeth Glaser, who died Saturday of complications from AIDS, was best known for the speech she gave at the 1992 Democratic National Convention. However, she was equally eloquent when she told graduates of the UCLA Medical School: “I will not win all of my battles, and neither will you. But if we do our best with intelligence, compassion and love, that will be enough--it has to be enough. And that way, though each outcome may not be what we had wanted or hoped for, at least each day we can be proud of who we are.”

Her message to the Democrats, and the nation, in 1992 bears repeating: “This (fight against AIDS) is not about being a Republican or an independent or a Democrat. It’s about the future--for each and every one of us.”

Two days before her death, David Satcher, director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, declared AIDS to be the leading cause of death among Americans 25 to 44. “In the history of epidemics, AIDS is among the worst in the world,” Satcher said. At the time of Glaser’s convention speech, 200,000 Americans had died from AIDS; when she died, the list contained 50,000 more names.

It’s said that half of those who learn that they are infected with HIV try to go on with their lives and that the other half simply wait to die. Glaser, who was infected by a blood transfusion, co-founded a group devoted to pediatric AIDS research. She raised millions of dollars to finance research and to pay for the care and treatment of young AIDS patients. Though she lost a child to AIDS, she never succumbed to discouragement and she totally rejected the view this is a disease that strikes those who do not deserve our compassion, our help and our tax dollars. Her legacy is large.