Thank you everybody! I can't get that song out of my head:

It's been three days now, and I cannot get the damn thing out of my head! If you weren't at the talent show, ask somebody who was and they will fill you in.

The road guide this morning said the route was what? [crowd: "FLAT"] It didn't look flat to me. Did it look flat to you? [crowd: "NO"]

In every age, every generation is given the opportunity and is asked to make a great sacrifice, sometimes the ultimate sacrifice for their country or for their kind. But not everybody responds. A few do.

Whether it was during World War II or whether it was during the civil rights movement in the 60's, or those people that were determined to put an end to Apartheid in South Africa, or those little students standing in front of the tanks in Tianimen Square. People have made the ultimate sacrifice for the cause of their country or their kind.

When we first started the California AIDSRide, I would ask myself and I would ask people who were considering registering, for what will our generation be remembered? Will we be remembered for responding with everything we have to the crises of our age, or will we be remembered only for gestures, or worse than that, will we be remembered for nothing at all?

Well today, with each of you 1,498 people, we have an answer to that question. You will be remembered for greatness. You will be remembered for struggling. You will be remembered for suffering alongside those who suffer. Alongside people like Peter Sebange who we all met on Tuesday night, whose brother and brother's wife both died of AIDS in Uganda, and he is now taking care of their four children on top of the six children that he already has.

You will not be remembered just for responding to the crises of the time, but for going above and beyond the call of duty. Abraham Lincoln in his Gettysburg Address said, "The world will little note nor long remember what we said here, but it can never forget what those souls who here gave their lives did here." The world will not forget what you all did here this week.

And by the world, I don't mean this ambiguous, huge, abstraction. The world is made up of people. Some of you who are in your 20's and in your 30's, you're going to have children. You're going to have grandchildren. You're going to have great grandchildren.

Those children will say, "My Mom rode across Alaska to help find a vaccine for AIDS." Fifty years from now they'll say, "my grandfather rode across Alaska to find a cure for this thing that was called AIDS." And they'll say, "my great grandfather rode across Alaska."

And for those of us who are gay or lesbian, who may not have children of our own, they will say, "my father had a friend." They will say, "I had an uncle that rode across Alaska to find a vaccine for AIDS." They will be inspired by that.

I was turning the corner of the last few miles and you saw all the little children along the route. When I saw, first saw them, I noticed one of the Washington, D.C. riders talking to four or five of them. A 6-foot tall guy with these 2-foot and 3-foot tall little kids. And you know we are in these costumes that are not unlike superhero costumes -- Spandex -- and the Washington, D.C.'s are red and white and blue.

And it looked like Superman talking to little kids and they were looking up to him. They were talking to a powerful human being who believes in dreams and is not willing to be limited only by what is reasonable, but who is willing to live his life to the fullest -- give it everything he's got because this is the only chance he's going to get to go around.

So many kids are surrounded by influences that will limit them. It was a powerful moment for those kids to be around a superhero. So to those who would talk to us over satellites about family values and about morality, you tell them to come to Anchorage where one of the things we value is the value of humanity. Where there were 1,498 people, 500 crew and 70 staff who exercised real moral courage.

You tell them to come here with their hands frozen and their feet frozen. You tell them to ride 68 miles in the cold and in the snow and in the rain. And then they can talk about moral courage. That's my way of saying, "welcome to Anchorage."

I want to congratulate all of you who did this who had great doubt. This doubt about ourselves ... is perhaps the greatest enemy that confronts humanity. We look outside ourselves for the great danger, when in fact, it resides within. The voice within -- the punishing voice, that each of us knows, that says we are not good enough, not strong enough, not good-looking enough, not smart enough. Well today, my friends, you're good enough. Today, let yourself be good enough.

Over the last three days, it is our hope that you saw within yourself a person worth loving. A person who is kind, who is compassionate, and who is doing their best to make the world a better place for all to live in. A person who deserves your respect. A person who doesn't need to be limited or unloved anymore by the cynical voices within and without.

And we hope that you saw in those around you, how much more like you they are than different from you. How much they want to be treated kindly, and how much they want to treat others the same. How much they have suffered in their own lives. The loss they have endured. The courage they have tried, with all their hearts, to muster in the hope that they might see a glimpse of the greater promise within them.

We built the Vaccine Ride so that people might see a new strength within, and that the experience what the world could be like if people were simply kind to one another. We hope we have done our job for you. We hope that we delivered and that you take something important away with you today.

We also built the Vaccine Ride and the new Montana and Canada>U.S. Vaccine Rides so that the lost people of the world might be lost no more. That the forgotten poor, in the huts and villages of half the globe, might be forgotten no more. And I'm going to put my money where my mouth is. All day I've been saying, "I might do the Montana Ride next year." I'm doing the Montana ride next year!

I invite you to look at the Alaska AIDS Vaccine Ride as we look at it at Pallotta TeamWorks. As a first strike that you all have inaugurated in a battle to end the AIDS epidemic. As part of a continuum of effort that will go on, and that must go on, until the forgotten people have been rescued from horrific death and suffering.

We have seen the power of caring for one another this week. This week, we left no one behind. Let us not leave that principle behind either. Let us not limit that ideal to the memory of the past six days. There is a desert of abandonment. There is a desert of poverty. There is a desert where AIDS roams -- a predator, stalking the weak and the neglected. Let us leave no one in that sad place.

Do not forget what we have done here this week. Do not forget what you here did this week.

Before I close the show, let me please introduce my staff to you -- the people who have worked tirelessly over the past year making phone calls to you and helping you through your fears and doubts, and who were essential in the logistics and planning for the last six days themselves, please welcome the staff of Pallotta TeamWorks' Alaska AIDS Vaccine Ride--a group of outstanding pioneers in their own right. This is our mission control. This is our Houston. And they got you to the moon and back safely this week. It was colder here than it is on the moon. Please join me in expressing our gratitude.

Also thanks to the hundreds of volunteers who assisted on today's ceremonies. I just want to say how proud and honored we all have been to meet all of you, to work for all of you, to be inspired by all of you, and your stories, your generosity, your sense of humor, and your compassion. On behalf of all of us, you've enriched our lives. We will never be the same. We look forward to seeing you either in Alaska, Montana or Montreal, or all three. But for now, go get a shower. Go get some hot food. We'll see you here, or in Montana or in Canada next year. Let's make AIDS history. Good night everyone.