Joycelyn Elders was the keynote speaker Feb. 11 for the university's Sexual Health Awareness Week. Robert Barker/University Photography
Cornell welcomed Dr. Joycelyn Elders, former surgeon general of the United States, to campus Feb. 11, and she gave a rousing lecture to a packed audience in Statler Auditorium. Her talk was sponsored by the Cornell University Program Board, and it received a standing ovation.
Elders' talk was the keynote address for Cornell's Sexual Health Awareness Week, which is sponsored by University Health Services' Clinical Volunteer Program.
Nominated by President Clinton to be the first African-American woman to serve as surgeon general for the U.S. Public Health Service, Elders resigned from her post in 1994 after sharp criticism from conservatives about her candid views on sexual health and behavior. During her Statler lecture, she was unapologetic about those views.
Elders stressed the importance of developing a universal health care plan for all Americans and emphasized the significance of health care education.
"You can't educate people if they're not healthy," she said. "And you certainly can't keep them healthy if they're not educated."
Elders offered a biting critique of the United States health care system. Although this country spends more on health care than any other, she pointed out, it is far from being the healthiest country in the world. She cited statistics showing the United States ranking 17th in the world in infant mortality rates and seventh in women's health, and she said we face problems of sexually transmitted diseases, teen pregnancy, substance abuse, access to health care for minorities and unwanted and unloved children.
The American health care system has become a very expensive "sick care system," Elders argued, dramatically. "Our public health care system is in disarray," she said. "It costs too much, delivers too little, is not cost effective, not affordable and certainly not universal."
Prevention, Elders said, needs to become a major part of the health care picture. She suggested that there are simple things Americans can do everyday to ensure that they remain healthy, including preventative measures such as drinking clean water, putting screens on windows, getting prenatal care, using good nutritional practices and getting immunizations.
Many of Elders' health care concerns center around children and adolescents. Elders stated that 3,000 children start smoking every day, over 800,000 children in America are homeless and there are more and more children today having their own children before they themselves have become adults. She also noted that there have been more prisons built in the United States since 1980 than there have been schools.
"The money that is spent to keep one person in prison for one year is close to $40,000," Elders said. "That's how we choose to spend our money, and that needs to change."
She also stressed the importance of making health care universal for all Americans, both financially and geographically. "We need universal access to health care," she said. "That means that every child born in America has the right to have a plan for health care."
Elders called on audience members and the leaders of the 21st century to make the important decisions that will shape not only the public health care system, but also American society and culture in the future.
"I hope you will be the kind of leaders who will lead," Elders said. "Not just the kind of leaders who take polls to see which way the wind is blowing."
The leaders of the 21st century must learn to communicate, collaborate and cooperate in order to ensure that Americans continue to educate themselves and their children and that they remain healthy, she said.
"Keep your eye on the prize," Elders said. "Many leaders have become taillights -- be headlights."
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