Right down the hall from beatification comes crucifixion, joked Bono, thenight love rocked.
Ok, we're a little on the late side getting this story online but we thoughtyou'd want to read it anyway it's the address Bono gave on February 14th,the night Tom Cruise and Kevin Spacey joined Lauryn Hill, Cher and REM in aHollywood tribute to Bono.
'Thank you so much.
Right down the hall from beatification comes crucifixion, so I'd betterenjoy this moment.
[Explaining Cher's appearance with REM] It's, it's a pretty amazing night.Actually, I was in a lift once, and a gentleman got into the lift. I wasthere with a stranger, nothing was said, we travelled floors, and a rathercross gentleman had gone out of the lift and turned around before he leftand said, 'It's Bono.' (pronouncing it 'Bone-o') And I kind of looked atthis little old lady who was in the lift with me and she said, 'That's SonnyBono, who are you?' So, Cher, that's something I wanted to share with you.
I wanted to thank Michael Eisner and the Entertainment Industry Foundationfor honoring me tonight, that is a very, very big deal. And also, my friendswho've turned up to back me up, in what is an unnerving occasion, really.REM came out a little bit after U2, but I have always looked up to them andthey are just the greatest group and it's extraordinary to see them there.In the last year I've looked across to No Doubt because they came on tourwith us, and that is quite a carnival to have on tour with you, I can tellyou.
And thank you to everybody really for turning up. Sean Penn is here tonightand I want to mention him because he just got nominated for doing somethingextraordinary, that is an extraordinary work 'I Am Sam.' I want to thankthe band because they let me come, actually, that's one thing. And I wouldlike to thank my darling wife, Ali, for coming out with me tonight. Also,Drew Carey for hosting tonight's event. I know he knows, but I wanted him toknow I know also, that whatever they may call tonight's event, it'sCleveland Rocks. It's Cleveland that rocks.
Also, the Cardiovascular Initiative, it is a great thing to be in the roomwith a lot of doctors, and people who have put their life and energy intosomething as important as life and death. As life transforming and as lifechanging as I'd like to think a U2 gig is - it's not that. And I just wantedto say that we are dignified tonight by those people who worked on theCardiovascular Initiative. We are dignified by them being in the room.
And that in a way is a bit of a problem, because, you know, I'm in a rockand roll band, and the band do think that the stuff I'm doing is reallyimportant and they really support it, but they do think it is incrediblyunhip. And I just think coming from the rock and roll community I want tosay that the right to be ridiculous is something I hold very dear.
But there is one thing I am not sure I am going to live down, just the otherweek your Secretary of the Treasury, Paul O'Neill, actually referred to meas a serious person. And that's hard - that hurts. I think what he mighthave meant was a serious pain in the arse. And I certainly was a pain in thearse for the last Secretary of the Treasury, and a thorn in the shoe of thisadministration, and the next one, I hope.
But they're smart people, they know that it takes people like us to get themto look up from the numbers and put flesh and bones on some awful facts.Like the fact that there are 28 million people in sub-Saharan Africa who areHIV positive and who are about to leave behind 100 million AIDS orphans bythe end of the decade. And this looks like the greatest threat to humanitythe world has seen since the Bubonic Plague took out about a third of Europein the Middle Ages. So think for a second what it would have been like ifChina, say, had had the resources and the technologies to deal with theBubonic Plague in the Middle Ages, but didn't share them out. Can youimagine what it would feel like now, or how hard the history books wouldhave been on them? Well, that's where we are right now.
And I was in Uganda a couple of weeks ago and met a load of AIDS workers.They are really the heroes, like the NYPD, like the firemen of theirsituation. They're going from town to town, right, and they are tellingpeople about what's going on with AIDS, and I'm asking a friend, where dothey get their passion from? Where do these people get their passion from?And they say, actually, they're HIV positive. And I said. 'What - thesepeople are HIV positive?' Yes, he said, and they know that they cannotafford the dollar a day that would take to save their life. They know thatthey cannot afford to live. And I want to say to them, and I want to saythis evening, that we cannot afford to let them die.
This is not as a moral imperative, we actually financially cannot afford tofill in for the teachers we lose, we cannot afford to look after theirchildren. I mean, I'm actually trying to convince people that it is moreexpensive to let them die. And that's just one of the facts that we have toput flesh and blood on.
But you know, this is Los Angeles. I don't want to say I just love thiscity. More people live off their imaginations in this city than anywhereelse in this world and, boy, do we need your imagination on these problems.It's true, the American dream was sold to the world from this city, righthere. They had the idea but in order to sort of mythologize it they neededLos Angeles. Los Angeles sent out the idea of the American Dream to the restof the world. And what was at the heart of the American Dream was equality.That's really what was going on - equality. And it's funny, there's a painin the arse if ever I heard one, you know, equality. That's a reallyannoying thing to live with.
You know, you think of 2000 years ago, these Jewish sheepherders, walkingwith shit on their shoes in front of pharaohs and kings and they're beingasked: you really think you're equal to me? And these sheepherders aregoing, yeah, you know, it says here we're equal, yeah, God made everybodyequal, actually. And then they go, okay. And then years go by in the journeyof equality, and we accept Jews but not black people, I mean, black peopleare not equal. Okay, black people, we'll have black people in, but notwomen. Women are not equal, you can't be serious. Okay, well right. Andeventually it gets to the place where behind these borders in Europe andAmerica, we have an idea of equality, but what about the rest of the world ?
So, with the same imagination, with the same brilliant minds, here in LosAngeles, can we make the American Dream a little bigger? Can we make it bigenough to fit and affect the lives of the poorest of the poor, the wretchedpeople? Eight million people die every year for the price of going out withyour friends to the movies and buying an ice cream. Literally for about $30a head per year, you could save 8 million lives. Isn't that extraordinary?Preventable disease - not calamity, not famine, nothing like that.Preventable disease - just for the lack of medicines. That is cheap, that isa bargain.
But politicians say there are no votes here - they are wrong! I believe inthis country, it is a great country, but it is also a great idea, and Iwould please just ask you to send that message to the politicians. Actually,America's a big enough country to take on that problem. And I promise youthis, that for those lives that were lost on September 11th, this is theironly fitting memorial. Not just the pursuit of justice, but the pursuit of aless dangerous, safer, fairer, more inclusive world.
Anyway, thank you very much.
What a night! Thank you.'
More on the Campaign to Cancel the Debts of the Poorest Countries here
www.jubileeusa.orgwww.dropthedebt.orgMore on Artists Against AIDS
www.aaaw.org
2026
'I Will Follow' - 50th Anniversary - Bewley's Cafe, Grafton Street, Dublin.
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