Elton John called for peace, love, understanding and compassion in his address to the International AIDS Conference this week. Noting that "by all rights, I shouldn't be here today" because of his own self-destructive lifestyle during the 70s and 80s, John, who's been sober for 22 years, said he benefited from compassion shown by others and called for the same for AIDS sufferers. "We have to replace the shame with love," he said. "We have to replace the stigma with compassion. No one should be left behind....All it takes is a bit more funding and a bit more understanding. All it takes is dialogue and the power of words to change actions." John's AIDS Foundation has raised more than $200 million since 1992 to support HIV and AIDS programs around the world, funded partly by royalties from his singles and proceeds from his annual Academy Awards night party. "We need people to say it's OK to be HIV positive," he said during the speech. "We need to move forward in that respect. We need to embrace each other."