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92
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1
�To The 86TH Annual Holy Convocation Of The Church Of God httptlflittrary.whitehouse.gov/Retr...e=text&id=1969&query=Church+ot'+God
White House Press Release
To The 86TH Annual Holy Convocation Of The Church Of God In Christ
The White House
O f f i c e o f t h e Press S e c r e t a r y
(Memphis, Tennessee)
For Immediate
Release
November 13, 1993
Remarks By The P r e s i d e n t
To The 86TH Annual Holy Convocation Of
The Church Of God I n C h r i s t
Mason Temple Church o f God i n C h r i s t
Memphis, Tennessee
11:51 A.M. Cst
The P r e s i d e n t : Thank you. Please s i t down. Bishop
Ford, Mrs. Mason, Bishop Owens and Bishop Anderson; my bishops.
Bishop Walker and Bishop Lindsey.
(Applause.) Now, i f you
haven't had Bishop Lindsey's barbecue, you haven't had barbecue.
(Applause.) And i f you haven't heard Bishop Walker a t t a c k one o f
my opponents, you have never heard a p o l i t i c a l speech.
(Laughter
and applause.)
I am g l a d t o be here. You have touched my h e a r t .
You b r o u g h t t e a r s t o my eyes and j o y t o my s p i r i t .
(Applause.)
Last year I was over w i t h you a t t h e Convention Center. Two
years ago your bishops came t o Arkansas and we l a i d a plaque a t
The P o i n t i n L i t t l e Rock, Arkansas, a t 8 t h and Gaines, where
Bishop Mason r e c e i v e d t h e i n s p i r a t i o n f o r t h e name o f t h i s g r e a t
church.
(Applause.)
Bishop Brooks s a i d from h i s p u l p i t t h a t I would be
e l e c t e d P r e s i d e n t when most people thought I wouldn't s u r v i v e .
thank him and I thank your f a i t h and I thank your works, f o r
w i t h o u t you I would n o t be here today as your P r e s i d e n t .
(Applause.)
I
Many have spoken e l o q u e n t l y and w e l l , and many have
been i n t r o d u c e d .
I want t o thank my good f r i e n d , Governor
McWherter and my f r i e n d Mayor Herenton f o r b e i n g w i t h me today -(applause) -- my f r i e n d Congressman H a r o l d Ford, we a r e g l a d t o be
in his congressional d i s t r i c t .
(Applause.)
I would l i k e t o , i f I might, i n t r o d u c e j u s t t h r e e
o t h e r people who a r e members o f t h e Congress.
They have come
here w i t h me. And w i t h o u t them i t ' s -hard f o r me t o do much f o r
you. The P r e s i d e n t proposes and t h e Congress disposes.
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(Laughter.) Sometimes t h e y dispose o f what I propose, b u t -(laughter).
I'm happy t o say t h a t a c c o r d i n g t o a r e c e n t r e p o r t
i n Washington, n o t w i t h s t a n d i n g what you may have heard, t h i s
Congress has g i v e n me a h i g h e r percentage o f my p r o p o s a l s than
any f i r s t year P r e s i d e n t s i n c e P r e s i d e n t Eisenhower.
And I thank
them f o r t h a t .
(Applause.)
Let me i n t r o d u c e my good f r i e n d , a v i s i t o r , t o
Tennessee, Congressman B i l l J e f f e r s o n from New Orleans,
L o u i s i a n a . Please s t a n d up. (Applause.) And an e a r l y s u p p o r t e r
of my campaign.
(Applause.) Congressman Bob Clement from
Tennessee, known t o many o f you.
(Applause.) And a young man
who's g o i n g t o be coming back t o t h e people o f Tennessee and
a s k i n g them t o g i v e him a p r o m o t i o n next year. Congressman Jim
Cooper from Tennessee, and a good f r i e n d .
Please welcome him.
(Applause.)
You know, i n t h e l a s t 10 months, I've been c a l l e d a
l o t o f t h i n g s , b u t nobody's c a l l e d me a b i s h o p y e t . (Laughter
and applause.) When I was about n i n e years o l d , my b e l o v e d and
More
- 2 now d e p a r t e d grandmother, who was a v e r y wise woman, l o o k e d a t me
and she s a i d , you know, I b e l i e v e you c o u l d be a preacher i f you
were j u s t a l i t t l e b e t t e r boy. (Laughter.)
The p r o v e r b says, "A happy h e a r t doeth good l i k e
medicine, b u t a broken s p i r i t d r y e t h t h e bone." T h i s i s a happy
p l a c e , and I'm happy t o be here.
(Applause.) I thank you f o r
your s p i r i t .
(Applause.)
By t h e grace o f God and your h e l p , l a s t year I was
e l e c t e d P r e s i d e n t o f t h i s g r e a t c o u n t r y . I never dreamed t h a t I
would ever have a chance t o come t o t h i s h a l l o w e d p l a c e where
M a r t i n L u t h e r King gave h i s l a s t sermon. I ask you t o t h i n k
today about t h e purpose f o r which I r a n and t h e purpose f o r which
so many o f you worked t o p u t me i n t h i s g r e a t o f f i c e .
I have
worked h a r d t o keep f a i t h w i t h our common e f f o r t s — t o r e s t o r e
the economy; t o r e v e r s e t h e p o l i t i c s o f h e l p i n g o n l y those a t t h e
top o f our t o t e m p o l e and n o t t h e hard-working m i d d l e c l a s s o r
the poor; t o b r i n g our people t o g e t h e r across r a c i a l and r e g i o n a l
and p o l i t i c a l l i n e s ; t o make a s t r e n g t h o u t o f our d i v e r s i t y
i n s t e a d o f l e t t i n g i t t e a r us a p a r t ; t o reward work and f a m i l y
and community and t r y t o move us f o r w a r d i n t o t h e 21st c e n t u r y .
I have t r i e d t o keep f a i t h .
T h i r t e e n p e r c e n t of a l l my p r e s i d e n t i a l appointments
are A f r i c a n Americans, and t h e r e are f i v e A f r i c a n Americans i n
the Cabinet o f t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s — two and a h a l f times as many
as have ever served i n t h e h i s t o r y o f t h i s g r e a t l a n d .
(Applause.) I have sought t o advance t h e r i g h t t o v o t e w i t h t h e
motor v o t e r b i l l , s u p p o r t e d so s t r o n g l y by a l l t h e churches i n
our c o u n t r y . And next week i t w i l l be my g r e a t honor t o s i g n t h e
R e s t o r a t i o n o f R e l i g i o u s Freedoms A c t , a b i l l supported w i d e l y by
people across a l l r e l i g i o n s and p o l i t i c a l p h i l o s o p h i e s t o p u t
back t h e r e a l meaning o f t h e C o n s t i t u t i o n -- t o g i v e you and
every o t h e r American t h e freedom t o do what i s most i m p o r t a n t i n
your l i f e , t o w o r s h i p God as your s p i r i t leads you.
(Applause.)
I say t o you, my f e l l o w Americans, we have made a
good b e g i n n i n g . I n f l a t i o n i s down. I n t e r e s t r a t e s a r e down.
The d e f i c i t i s down. Investment i s up. M i l l i o n s o f Americans,
i n c l u d i n g , I b e t , some people i n t h i s room, have r e f i n a n c e d t h e i r
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homes or t h e i r business loans j u s t i n the l a s t year.
(Applause.)
And i n t h e l a s t 10 months, t h i s economy has produced more j o b s i n
the p r i v a t e s e c t o r than i n t h e p r e v i o u s f o u r years.
We have passed a law c a l l e d the Family Leave law,
which says you can't be f i r e d i f you take a l i t t l e time o f f when
a baby i s born or a p a r e n t i s s i c k .
(Applause.) We know t h a t
most Americans have t o work, but you ought not t o have t o g i v e up
b e i n g a good p a r e n t j u s t t o take a j o b . I f you can't succeed as
a worker and a p a r e n t , t h i s c o u n t r y can't make i t .
We have r a d i c a l l y reformed the c o l l e g e l o a n program,
as I promised t o lower t h e c o s t o f c o l l e g e loans and broaden t h e
a v a i l a b i l i t y o f i t and make t h e repayment terms e a s i e r .
(Applause.) And we have passed the n a t i o n a l s e r v i c e law t h a t
w i l l g i v e i n t h r e e years -- t h r e e years from now, 100,000 young
Americans a chance t o serve t h e i r communities a t home, t o r e p a i r
the f r a y e d bonds o f community, t o b u i l d up the needs o f people a t
the grass r o o t s , and a t t h e same time, earn some money t o pay f o r
a c o l l e g e education. I t i s a wonderful idea.
(Applause.)
On A p r i l 15th, when people pay t h e i r t a x e s ,
somewhere between 15 m i l l i o n and 18 m i l l i o n working f a m i l i e s on
modest incomes, f a m i l i e s w i t h c h i l d r e n and incomes o f under
$23,000, w i l l get a t a x c u t , not a t a x i n c r e a s e , i n t h e most
i m p o r t a n t e f f o r t t o ensure t h a t we reward work and f a m i l y i n t h e
l a s t 20 y e a r s . F i f t y m i l l i o n American p a r e n t s and t h e i r c h i l d r e n
w i l l be advantaged by p u t t i n g the t a x code back on the s i d e o f
w o r k i n g American p a r e n t s f o r a change.
(Applause.)
More
- 3 Under t h e l e a d e r s h i p o f the F i r s t Lady, we have
produced a comprehensive p l a n t o guarantee h e a l t h care s e c u r i t y
t o a l l Americans.
How can we expect the American people t o work,
and t o l i v e w i t h a l l the changes i n a g l o b a l economy, where the
average 1 8 - y e a r - o l d w i l l change work seven times i n a l i f e t i m e ,
unless we can s i m p l y say, we have j o i n e d the ranks o f a l l the
o t h e r advanced c o u n t r i e s i n t h e w o r l d ; you can have decent h e a l t h
care t h a t ' s always t h e r e t h a t can never be taken away? I t i s
time we d i d t h a t ; l o n g p a s t t i m e . I ask you t o h e l p us achieve
that.
(Applause.)
But we have so much more t o do. You and I know t h a t
most people are s t i l l w o r k i n g harder f o r the same or lower wages;
t h a t many people are a f r a i d t h a t t h e i r j o b w i l l go away. We have
t o p r o v i d e the e d u c a t i o n and t r a i n i n g
our people need, not j u s t
f o r our c h i l d r e n , but f o r our a d u l t s , t o o . I f we cannot c l o s e
t h i s c o u n t r y up t o the f o r c e s o f change sweeping t h r o u g h o u t the
w o r l d , we have t o a t l e a s t guarantee people the s e c u r i t y o f b e i n g
employable.
They have t o be a b l e t o get a new j o b i f t h e y ' r e
going t o have t o get a new j o b . We don't do t h a t today, and we
must, and we i n t e n d t o proceed u n t i l t h a t i s done.
We have t o guarantee t h a t t h e r e w i l l be some
investment i n those areas o f our c o u n t r y -- i n the i n n e r c i t i e s
and i n t h e d e s t i t u t e r u r a l areas i n the M i s s i s s i p p i D e l t a , o f my
home s t a t e and t h i s s t a t e and L o u i s i a n a and M i s s i s s i p p i , and
o t h e r p l a c e s l i k e i t t h r o u g h o u t America.
I t ' s a l l very w e l l t o
t r a i n people, but i f t h e y don't have a j o b , they can be t r a i n e d
f o r n o t h i n g . We must get investment t o those p l a c e s where the
people are d y i n g f o r work.
(Applause.)
And
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finally,
l e t me say, we must f i n d people
who
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w i l l buy what we have t o produce. We are t h e most p r o d u c t i v e
people on E a r t h . That makes us proud. But what t h a t means i s
t h a t every year one person can produce more i n t h e same amount o f
t i m e . Now, i f fewer and fewer people can produce more and more
t h i n g s , and y e t you want t o c r e a t e more j o b s and r a i s e people's
incomes, you have t o have more customers f o r what i t i s you're
making.
And t h a t i s why I have worked so hard t o s e l l more
American p r o d u c t s around t h e w o r l d ; why I have asked t h a t we be
able t o s e l l b i l l i o n s o f d o l l a r s o f computers we used not t o s e l l
t o f o r e i g n c o u n t r i e s and f o r e i g n i n t e r e s t s -- t o p u t our people
t o work.
Why? Next week I am going a l l t h e way t o Washington
s t a t e t o meet w i t h t h e P r e s i d e n t o f China and t h e Prime M i n i s t e r
of Japan and t h e heads o f 13 o t h e r Asian c o u n t r i e s , t h e f a s t e s t
growing p a r t o f t h e w o r l d , t o say: We want t o be your p a r t n e r s .
We w i l l buy your goods, b u t we want you t o buy ours, t o o , i f you
please.
(Applause.) That i s why. (Applause.)
That i s why I have worked so hard f o r t h i s North
American Trade Agreement t h a t Congressman Ford endorsed today,
and Congressman J e f f e r s o n endorsed and Congressman Cooper and
Congressman Clement, because we know t h a t Americans can compete
and w i n o n l y i f people w i l l buy what i t i s we have t o s e l l .
There a r e 90 m i l l i o n people i n Mexico.
Seventy cents o f every
d o l l a r t h e y spend on f o r e i g n goods, t h e y spend on American goods.
People w o r r y f a i r l y about people s h u t t i n g down p l a n t s i n America
and g o i n g n o t j u s t t o Mexico b u t t o any p l a c e where t h e l a b o r i s
cheap. I t has happened.
What I want t o say t o you, my f e l l o w Americans i s ,
n o t h i n g i n t h i s ag reement make t h a t more l i k e l y .
That has
happened a l r e a d y . I t may happen a g a i n . What we need t o do i s
keep t h e j o b s here by f i n d i n g customers t h e r e . That's what t h i s
agreement does. I t g i v e s us a chance t o c r e a t e o p p o r t u n i t y f o r
people.
(Applause.)
I would never — t h e r e are people — I have f r i e n d s
i n t h i s audience, people who a r e m i n i s t e r s from my s t a t e , f a t h e r s
and sons, people -- I've l o o k e d out a l l over t h i s v a s t crowd and
More
- 4 I see people I've known f o r years. They know. I spent my whole
l i f e w o r k i n g t o c r e a t e j o b s . I would never knowingly do a n y t h i n g
t h a t would t a k e a j o b away from t h e American people. This
agreement w i l l make more j o b s . Now, we can a l s o leave i t i f i t
doesn't work i n s i x months. But i f we don't take i t , w e ' l l l o s
i t f o r e v e r . We need t o take i t , because we have t o do b e t t e r .
But I guess what I r e a l l y want t o say t o you today,
my f e l l o w Americans, i s t h a t we can a l l o f t h i s and s t i l l f a i l
u n l e s s we meet t h e g r e a t c r i s i s o f t h e s p i r i t t h a t i s g r i p p i n g
America today.
When I leave you, Congressman Ford and I are going
t o a B a p t i s t church near here t o a town meeting he's having on
h e a l t h care and v i o l e n c e . I t e l l you, unless we do something
about crime and v i o l e n c e and drugs t h a t i s r a v a g i n g t h e
community, we w i l l n o t be able t o r e p a i r t h i s c o u n t r y .
(Applause.)
I f M a r t i n L u t h e r King, who s a i d , " L i k e Moses, I am
on t h e m o u n t a i n t o p and I can see t h e promised l a n d , b u t I'm not
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going t o be able t o get t h e r e w i t h you, but we w i l l get t h e r e , "
-- i f he were t o reappear by my s i d e today and g i v e us a r e p o r t
c a r d on t h e l a s t 25 years, what would he say? You d i d a good
j o b , he would say, v o t i n g and e l e c t i n g people who f o r m e r l y were
not e l e c t a b l e because of the c o l o r o f t h e i r s k i n . You have more
p o l i t i c a l power, and t h a t i s good. You d i d a good j o b , he would
say, l e t t i n g people who have t h e a b i l i t y t o do so l i v e wherever
they want t o l i v e , go wherever they want t o go i n t h i s g r e a t
c o u n t r y . You d i d a good j o b , he would say, e l e v a t i n g people o f
c o l o r i n t o t h e ranks of the U n i t e d States Armed Forces t o t h e
v e r y t o p , or i n t o t h e v e r y t o p o f our government. You d i d a v e r y
good j o b , he would say.
He would say, you d i d a good j o b
c r e a t i n g a b l a c k middle c l a s s o f people who r e a l l y are d o i n g
w e l l ; and t h e m i d d l e c l a s s i s growing more among A f r i c a n
Americans than among n o n - A f r i c a n Americans. You d i d a good j o b .
You d i d a good j o b i n opening o p p o r t u n i t y .
But he would say, I d i d not l i v e and d i e t o see t h e
American f a m i l y d e s t r o y e d .
(Applause.) I d i d not l i v e and d i e
t o see 1 3 - y e a r - o l d boys get automatic weapons and gun down 9y e a r - o l d s j u s t f o r t h e k i c k of i t . (Applause.) I d i d not l i v e
and d i e t o see young people d e s t r o y t h e i r own l i v e s w i t h drugs
and then b u i l d f o r t u n e s d e s t r o y i n g the l i v e s of o t h e r s . That i s
not what I came here t o do.
(Applause.)
I f o u g h t f o r freedom, he would say, but not f o r t h e
freedom o f people t o k i l l each o t h e r w i t h r e c k l e s s abandon; not
f o r t h e freedom o f c h i l d r e n t o have c h i l d r e n and the f a t h e r s o f
t h e c h i l d r e n walk away from them and abandon them as i f t h e y
don't amount t o a n y t h i n g .
(Applause.) I fought f o r people t o
have t h e r i g h t t o work, but not t o have whole communities and
people abandoned. This i s not what I l i v e d and d i e d f o r .
My f e l l o w Americans, he would say, I fought t o stop
w h i t e people from b e i n g so f i l l e d w i t h hate t h a t they would wreak
v i o l e n c e on b l a c k people.
I d i d not f i g h t f o r t h e r i g h t o f b l a c k
people t o murder o t h e r b l a c k people w i t h r e c k l e s s abandon.
(Applause.)
The o t h e r day t h e Mayor of B a l t i m o r e , a dear f r i e n d
of mine, t o l d me a s t o r y of v i s i t i n g t h e f a m i l y o f a young man
who had been k i l l e d -- 18 years o l d -- on Halloween. He always
went out w i t h l i t t l e b i t t y k i d s so t h e y c o u l d t r i c k - o r - t r e a t
s a f e l y . And across t h e s t r e e t from where they were w a l k i n g on
Halloween, a 1 4 - y e a r - o l d boy gave a 13-year-old boy a gun and
dared him t o shoot t h e 18-year-old boy; and he shot him dead.
And t h e Mayor had t o v i s i t the f a m i l y .
I n Washington, Dc, where I l i v e , your Nation's
C a p i t a l , t h e symbol o f freedom throughout the w o r l d -- l o o k how
t h a t freedom i s b e i n g e x e r c i s e d . The o t h e r n i g h t a man came
More
- 5 along t h e s t r e e t and grabbed a one-year-old c h i l d and put t h e
c h i l d i n h i s car. The c h i l d may have been the c h i l d o f t h e man.
And two people were a f t e r him and they chased him i n the car, and
they j u s t kept s h o o t i n g w i t h r e c k l e s s abandon, knowing t h a t baby
was i n the c a r . And they shot the man dead, and a b u l l e t went
t h r o u g h h i s body i n t o t h e baby's body and blew the l i t t l e b o o t i e
o f f the c h i l d ' s f o o t .
The
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o t h e r day on the f r o n t page of our paper, the
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Nation's C a p i t a l , a r e we t a l k i n g about w o r l d peace or w o r l d
c o n f l i c t ? No -- b i g a r t i c l e on t h e f r o n t page o f The Washington
Post about an 1 1 - y e a r - o l d c h i l d p l a n n i n g her f u n e r a l -- "these
are t h e hymns I want sung; t h i s i s t h e dress I want t o wear; I
know I'm n o t g o i n g t o l i v e v e r y l o n g . " That i s not t h e freedom
-- t h e freedom t o d i e b e f o r e you're a teenager i s not what M a r t i n
L u t h e r King l i v e d and d i e d f o r . (Applause.)
More than 37,000 people d i e from gunshot wounds i n
t h i s c o u n t r y every year. G u n f i r e i s t h e l e a d i n g cause o f death
i n young men. And now t h a t we've a l l g o t t e n so c o o l t h a t
everybody can g e t a semiautomatic weapon, a person shot now i s
t h r e e times more l i k e l y t o d i e than 15 years ago, because t h e y ' r e
l i k e l y t o have t h r e e b u l l e t s i n them. One hundre d and s i x t y
thousand c h i l d r e n s t a y home from school every day because t h e y
are scared t h e y w i l l be h u r t i n t h e i r s c h o o l .
The o t h e r day I was i n C a l i f o r n i a a t a town meeting,
and a handsome young man stood up and s a i d , Mr. P r e s i d e n t , my
b r o t h e r and I , we don't belong t o gangs; we don't have guns; we
don't do drugs; we want t o go t o s c h o o l ; we want t o be
p r o f e s s i o n a l s ; we want t o work hard; we want t o do w e l l ; we want
t o have f a m i l i e s . And we changed our school because t h e s c h o o l
we were i n was so dangerous, so when we stowed up t o t h e new
s c h o o l t o r e g i s t e r , my b r o t h e r and I were s t a n d i n g i n l i n e and
somebody r a n i n t o t h e school and s t a r t e d s h o o t i n g a gun. My
b r o t h e r was shot down s t a n d i n g r i g h t i n f r o n t o f me a t t h e s a f e r
school.
The freedom t o do t h a t k i n d o f t h i n g i s not what
M a r t i n L u t h e r King l i v e d and d i e d f o r . (Applause.)
I t ' s not
what people g a t h e r e d i n t h i s h a l l o w e d church f o r t h e n i g h t b e f o r e
he was a s s a s s i n a t e d i n A p r i l o f 1968. I f you had t o l d anybody
who was here i n t h a t church on t h a t n i g h t t h a t we would abuse our
freedom i n t h a t way, t h e y would have found i t hard t o b e l i e v e .
And I t e l l you i t i s our moral d u t y t o t u r n i t around.
(Applause.)
And now I t h i n k f i n a l l y we have a chance.
Finally,
I t h i n k , we have a chance. We have a Pastor here from New Haven,
C o n n e c t i c u t . I was i n h i s church w i t h Reverend Jackson when I
was r u n n i n g f o r P r e s i d e n t on a snowy day i n C o n n e c t i c u t t o mourn
t h e death o f c h i l d r e n who had been k i l l e d i n t h a t c i t y . And
a f t e r w a r d we walked down t h e s t r e e t f o r more than a m i l e i n t h e
snow. Then t h e American people were not ready. People would
say, oh, t h i s i s a t e r r i b l e t h i n g , b u t what can we do about i t .
Now when we read t h a t f o r e i g n v i s i t o r s come t o our
shores and a r e k i l l e d a t random i n our f i n e s t a t e o f F l o r i d a ;
when we see our c h i l d r e n p l a n n i n g t h e i r f u n e r a l ; when t h e
American people a r e f i n a l l y coming t o g r i p s w i t h t h e accumulated
wave o f crime and v i o l e n c e and t h e breakdown o f f a m i l y and
community and t h e i n c r e a s e i n drugs and t h e decrease i n j o b s , I
t h i n k f i n a l l y we may be ready t o do something about i t .
And t h e r e i s something f o r each o f us t o do. There
are changes we can make from t h e o u t s i d e i n -- t h a t ' s t h e j o b o f
t h e P r e s i d e n t and t h e Congress and t h e governors and t h e mayors
and t h e s o c i a l s e r v i c e agencies. Then t h e r e ' s some changes we're
going t o have t o make from t h e i n s i d e o u t , o r t h e o t h e r s won't
matter.
(Applause.) That's what t h a t m a g n i f i c e n t song was
about, wasn't i t ? Sometimes t h e r e are no answers from t h e
o u t s i d e i n ; sometimes a l l t h e answers have t o come from t h e
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More
- 6 values and t h e s t i r r i n g s and t h e v o i c e s t h a t speak t o us from
within.
So we a r e b e g i n n i n g . We are t r y i n g .to pass a b i l l
t o make our people s a f e r -- t o p u t another 100,000 p o l i c e
o f f i c e r s on t h e s t r e e t . To p r o v i d e boot camps i n s t e a d o f p r i s o n s
f o r young people who can s t i l l be rescued.
(Applause.) To
p r o v i d e more s a f e t y i n our s c h o o l s . To r e s t r i c t t h e a v a i l a b i l i t y
of these a w f u l a s s a u l t weapons. To pass t h e Brady B i l l and a t
l e a s t r e q u i r e people t o have t h e i r c r i m i n a l background checked
b e f o r e t h e y g e t a gun. And t o say, i f you're not o l d enough t o
v o t e and you're n o t o l d enough t o go t o war, you ought n o t t o own
a handgun and you ought not t o use one unless you're on a t a r g e t
range.
(Applause.)
We want t o pass a h e a l t h care b i l l t h a t w i l l make
drug t r e a t m e n t a v a i l a b l e f o r everyone. And we a l s o have t o do i t
-- we have t o have drug t r e a t m e n t and e d u c a t i o n a v a i l a b l e t o
everyone, and e s p e c i a l l y those who a r e i n p r i s o n who are coming
out.
We have a Drug Czar now i n Lee Brown, who was t h e P o l i c e
C h i e f o f A t l a n t a , o f Houston, o f New York, who understands these
t h i n g s . And when t h e Congress comes back next year we w i l l be
moving f o r w a r d on t h a t .
We need t h i s crime b i l l now. We ought t o g i v e i t t o
the American people f o r Christmas. And we need t o move f o r w a r d
on a l l these o t h e r f r o n t s . But I say t o you, my f e l l o w
Americans, we need some o t h e r t h i n g s as w e l l .
I do not b e l i e v e
we can r e p a i r t h e b a s i c f a b r i c o f s o c i e t y u n t i l people who a r e
w i l l i n g t o work have work. Work o r g a n i z e s l i f e .
I t gives
s t r u c t u r e and d i s c i p l i n e t o l i f e .
I t g i v e s meaning and s e l f esteem t o people who a r e p a r e n t s . I t g i v e s a r o l e model t o
children.
The famous A f r i c a n American s o c i o l o g i s t , W i l l i a m
J u l i u s W i l s o n , has w r i t t e n a s t u n n i n g book c a l l e d The T r u l y
Disadvantaged, i n which he c h r o n i c l e s i n b r e a t h t a k i n g terms how
the i n n e r c i t i e s o f our c o u n t r y have crumbled as work has
disappeared. And we must f i n d a way, t h r o u g h p u b l i c and p r i v a t e
sources, t o enhance t h e a t t r a c t i v e n e s s o f t h e American people who
l i v e t h e r e t o g e t investment t h e r e . We cannot, I submit t o you,
r e p a i r t h e American community and r e s t o r e t h e American f a m i l y
u n t i l we p r o v i d e t h e s t r u c t u r e , t h e v a l u e , t h e d i s c i p l i n e and t h e
reward t h a t work g i v e s .
(Applause.)
I read a w o n d e r f u l speech t h e o t h e r day g i v e n a t
Howard U n i v e r s i t y i n a l e c t u r e s e r i e s funded by B i l l and C a m i l l e
Cosby, i n which t h e speaker s a i d , " I grew up i n A n a c o s t i a years
ago.
Even then i t was a l l b l a c k and i t was a very poor
neighborhood.
But you know, when I was a c h i l d i n A n a c o s t i a , 100
p e r c e n t A f r i c a n American neighborhood, a v e r y poor neighborhood,
we had a crime r a t e t h a t was lower than t h e average o f t he crime
r a t e o f our c i t y .
Why? Because we had coherent f a m i l i e s .
We
had coherent communities.
The people who f i l l e d t h e church on
Sunday l i v e d i n t h e same place they went t o church. The guy t h a t
owned t h e d r u g s t o r e l i v e d down t h e s t r e e t .
The person t h a t owned
the g r o c e r y s t o r e l i v e d i n our community. We were whole."
And I say t o you, we have t o make our people whole
a g a i n . This c h u r c h has s t o o d f o r t h a t . Why do you t h i n k you
have f i v e m i l l i o n members i n t h i s c o u n t r y ? Because people know
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you are f i l l e d w i t h the s p i r i t of God
t h i s l i f e by them.
(Applause.)
t o do the r i g h t t h i n g i n
So I say t o you, we have t o make a p a r t n e r s h i p -a l l the government agencies, a l l the business f o l k s -- but where
t h e r e are no f a m i l i e s , where t h e r e i s no o r d e r , where t h e r e i s no
hope, where we are r e d u c i n g the s i z e of our armed s e r v i c e s
because we have won the Cold War -- who w i l l be t h e r e t o g i v e
s t r u c t u r e , d i s c i p l i n e and l o v e t o these c h i l d r e n ? You must do
t h a t . And we must h e l p you.
More
- 7 S c r i p t u r e says, you are the s a l t of the Earth and
the l i g h t of t h e w o r l d . That i f your l i g h t shines b e f o r e men
they w i l l g i v e g l o r y t o the Father i n heaven. That i s what we
must do.
That i s what we must do.
How would we e x p l a i n i t t o
M a r t i n L u t h e r King i f he showed up today and s a i d : Yes, we won
the Cold War.
Yes, the b i g g e s t t h r e a t t h a t a l l of us grew up
under, communism and n u c l e a r war.
Communism gone; n u c l e a r war
receding.
Yes, we developed a l l these miraculous t e c h n o l o g i e s .
Yes, we a l l have got a Vcr i n our home. I t ' s i n t e r e s t i n g .
Yes,
we get 50 channels on the c a b l e . Yes, w i t h o u t r e g a r d t o race, i f
you work h a r d and p l a y by the r u l e s , you can get i n t o a s e r v i c e
academy or a good c o l l e g e , y o u ' l l do j u s t g r e a t .
How would we e x p l a i n t o him a l l these k i d s g e t t i n g
k i l l e d and k i l l i n g each other?
How would we j u s t i f y the t h i n g s
t h a t we p e r m i t t h a t no o t h e r c o u n t r y i n the w o r l d would p e r m i t ?
How c o u l d we e x p l a i n t h a t we gave people the freedom t o succeed
and we c r e a t e d c o n d i t i o n s i n which m i l l i o n s abuse t h a t freedom t o
d e s t r o y t h e t h i n g s t h a t make l i f e worth l i v i n g and l i f e i t s e l f ?
We cannot.
And so I say t o you today, my f e l l o w Americans, you
gave me t h i s j o b . And we're making progress on the t h i n g s you
h i r e d me t o do.
But unless we deal w i t h the ravages of crime and
drugs and v i o l e n c e and unless we recognize t h a t i t ' s due t o the
breakdown of t h e f a m i l y , the community and the disappearance o f
j o b s ; and unless we say some of t h i s cannot be done by government
because we have t o reach deep i n s i d e t o the values, the s p i r i t ,
the s o u l and the t r u t h of human n a t u r e , none of the o t h e r t h i n g s
we seek t o do w i l l ever take us where we need t o go.
So i n t h i s p u l p i t , on t h i s day, l e t me ask a l l of
you i n your heart to say we w i l l honor the l i f e and the work of
Martin Luther King; we w i l l honor the meaning of our church; we
w i l l somehow, by God's grace, we w i l l turn t h i s around. We w i l l
give these c h i l d r e n a future.
We w i l l take away t h e i r guns and
give them books. We w i l l take away t h e i r despair and give them
hope. We w i l l r e b u i l d the f a m i l i e s and the neighborhoods and the
communities. We won't make a l l the work that has gone on here
benefit j u s t a few.
We w i l l do i t together by the grace of God.
Thank you.
(Applause.)
End
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�THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
October 16, 1995
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
IN ADDRESS TO THE LIZ SUTHERLAND CARPENTER
DISTINGUISHED LECTURESHIP
IN THE HUMANITIES AND SCIENCES
The Erwin Center
The University of Texas at Austin
Austin, Texas
9:34 A.M. CDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. You know, when I was a boy growing up in
Arkansas, I thought it highly - (applause) --1 thought it highly unlikely that I would ever
become President of the United States. Perhaps the only thing even more unlikely was that I
should ever have the opportunity to be cheered at the University of Texas. (Applause.) I must
say I am very grateful for both of them. (Laughter.)
President Berdahl, Chancellor Cunningham, Dean Olson; to the Texas Longhom
Band, thank you for playing Hail to the Chief. (Applause.) You were magnificent.
(Applause.) To my longtime friend of nearly 25 years now, Bernard Rappaport, thank you for
your statement and your inspiration and your life of generous giving to this great university
and so many other good causes. (Applause.)
All the distinguished guests in the audience - I hesitate to start - but I thank my
friend and your fellow Texan, Henry Cisneros, for coming down here with me and for his
magnificent work as Secretary of HUD. (Applause.)
I thank your Congressman, Lloyd Doggett, and his wife, Libby, for flying down
with me. (Applause.) And I'm glad to see my dear friend, Congressman Jake Pickle here. I
miss you. (Applause.) Your Attorney General, Dan Morales; the Land Commissioner, Garry
Mauro - I thank all of them for being here. (Applause.)
Thank you, Lucy Johnson, for being here. (Applause.) And please give my regards
to your wonderful mother. (Applause.)
�I have not seen here - there she is. And I have to recognize and thank your former
Congresswoman and now
distinguished Professor Barbara Jordan for the magnificent job you did on the immigration
issue. (Applause.) Thank you so much. (Applause.) Thank you. Thank you. (Applause.)
My wife told me about coming here so much, I wanted to come and see for myself.
I also know, as all of you do, that there is no such thing as saying no to Liz Carpenter.
(Laughter.) I drug it out as long as I could just to hear a few more jokes. (Laughter.)
My fellow Americans, I want to begin by telling you that I am hopeful about
America. When I looked at Nikole Bell up here introducing me, and I shook hands with these
other young students - I looked into their eyes; I saw the AmeriCorps button on that
gentlemen's shirt - (applause) - I was reminded, as I talk about this thorny subject of race
today, I was reminded of what Winston Churchill said about the United States when President
Roosevelt was trying to pass the Lend-Lease Act so that we could help Britain in their war
against Nazi Germany before we, ourselves, were involved. And for a good while the issue
was hanging fire. And it was unclear whether the Congress would permit us to help Britain,
who at that time was the only bulwark against tyranny in Europe.
And Winston Churchill said, "I have great confidence in the judgment and the
common sense of the American people and their leaders. They invariably do the right thing
after they have examined every other alternative." (Laughter.) So I say to you, let me begin
by saying that I can see in the eyes of these students and in the spirit of this moment, we will
do the right thing.
In recent weeks, every one of us has been made aware of a simple truth white Americans and black Americans often see the same world in drastically different ways ways that go beyond and beneath the Simpson trial and its aftermath, which brought these
perceptions so starkly into the open.
The rift we see before us that is tearing at the heart of America exists in spite
of the remarkable progress black Americans have made in the last generation, since Martin
Luther King swept America up in his dream, and President Johnson spoke so powerfully for
the dignity of man and the destiny of democracy in demanding that Congress guarantee full
voting rights to blacks. The rift between blacks and whites exists still in a very special way in
America, in spite of the fact that we have become much more racially and ethnically diverse,
and that Hispanic Americans - themselves no strangers to discrimination - are now almost 10
percent of our national population.
The reasons for this divide are many. Some are rooted in the awful history
and stubborn persistence of racism. Some are rooted in the different ways we experience the
threats of modern life to personal security, family values, and strong communities. Some are
rooted in the fact that we still haven't learned to talk frankly, to listen carefully, and to work
�together across racial lines.
Almost 30 years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King took his last march with
sanitation workers in Memphis. They marched for dignity, equality, and economic justice.
Many carried placards that read simply, " I am a man." The throngs of men marching in
Washington today, almost all of them, are doing so for the same stated reason. But there is a
profound difference between this march today and those of 30 years ago. Thirty years ago,
the marchers were demanding the dignity and opportunity they were due because in the face of
terrible discrimination, they had worked hard, raised their children, paid their taxes, obeyed
the laws, and fought our wars.
Well, today's march is also about pride and dignity and respect. But after a
generation of deepening social problems that disproportionately impact black Americans, it is
also about black men taking renewed responsibility for themselves, their families, and their
communities. (Applause.) It's about saying no to crune and drugs and violence. It's about
standing up for atonement and reconciliation. It's about insisting that others do the same, and
offering to help them. It's about the frank admission that unless black men shoulder their
load, no one else can help them or their brothers, their sisters, and their children escape the
hard, bleak lives that too many of them still face.
Of course, some of those in the march do have a history that is far from its
message of atonement and reconciliation. One million men are right to be standing up for
personal responsibility. But one million men do not make right one man's message of malice
and division. (Applause.) No good house was ever built on a bad foundation. Nothing good
ever came of hate. So let us pray today that all who march and all who speak will stand for
atonement, for reconciliation, for responsibility.
Let us pray that those who have spoken for hatred and division in the past will
turn away from that past and give voice to the true message of those ordinary Americans who
march. If that happens -- (applause) -- if that happens, the men and the women who are there
with them will be marching into better lives for themselves and their families. And they could
be marching into a better future for America. (Applause.)
Today we face a choice - one way leads to further separation and bitterness
and more lost futures. The other way, the path of courage and wisdom, leads to unity, to
reconciliation, to a rich opportunity for all Americans to make the most of the lives God gave
them. This moment in which the racial divide is so clearly out in the open need not be a
setback for us. It presents us with a great opportunity, and we dare not let it pass us by.
(Applause.)
In the past when we've had the courage to face the truth about our failure to
live up to our own best ideals, we've grown stronger, moved forward and restored proud
American optimism. At such turning points America moved to preserve the union and
�abolished slavery; to embrace women's suffrage; to guarantee basic legal rights to America
without regard to race, under the leadership of President Johnson. At each of these moments,
we looked in the national mirror and were brave enough to say, this is not who we are; we're
better than that.
Abraham Lincoln reminded us that a house divided against itself cannot stand.
When divisions have threatened to bring our house down, somehow we have always moved
together to shore it up. My fellow Americans, our house is the greatest democracy in all
human history. And with all its racial and ethnic diversity, it has beaten the odds of human
history. But we know that divisions remain, and we still have work to do. (Applause.)
The two worlds we see now each contain both truth and distortion. Both black
and white Americans must face this, for honesty is the only gateway to the many acts of
reconciliation that will unite our worlds at last into one America.
White America must understand and acknowledge the roots of black pain. It
began with unequal treatment first in law and later in fact. African Americans indeed have
lived too long with a justice system that in too many cases has been and continues to be less
than just. (Applause.) The record of abuses extends from lynchings and trumped up charges
to false arrests and police brutality. The tragedies of Emmett Till and Rodney King are
bloody markers on the very same road.
Still today too many of our police officers play by the rules of the bad old
days. It is beyond wrong when law-abiding black parents have to tell their law-abiding
children to fear the police whose salaries are paid by their own taxes. (Applause.)
And blacks are right to think something is terribly wrong when African
American men are many times more likely to be victims of homicide than any other group in
this country; when there are more African American men in our corrections system than in our
colleges; when almost one in three African American men in their 20s are either in jail, on
parole or otherwise under the supervision of the criminal justice system - nearly one in three.
And that is a disproportionate percentage in comparison to the percentage of blacks who use
drugs in our society. Now, I would like every white person here and in America to take a
moment to think how he or she would feel if one in three white men were in similar
circumstances.
And there is still unacceptable economic disparity between blacks and whites.
It is so fashionable to talk today about African Americans as if they have been some sort of
protected class. Many whites think blacks are getting more than their fair share in terms of
jobs and promotions. That is not true. That is not true. (Applause.)
The truth is that African Americans still make on average about 60 percent of
what white people do; that more than half of African American children live in poverty. And
�at the very time our young Americans need access to college more than ever before, black
college enrollment is dropping in America.
On the other hand, blacks must understand and acknowledge the roots of white
fear in America. There is a legitimate fear of the violence that is too prevalent in our urban
areas; and often by experience or at least what people see on the news at night, violence for
those white people too often has a black face.
It isn't racist for a parent to pull his or her child close when walking through a
high-crime neighborhood, or to wish to stay away from neighborhoods where innocent
children can be shot in school or standing at bus stops by thugs driving by with assault
weapons or toting handguns like old west desperados. (Applause.)
It isn't racist for parents to recoil in disgust when they read about a national
survey of gang members saying that two-thirds of them feel justified in shooting someone
simply for showing them disrespect. It isn't racist for whites to say they don't understand why
people put up with gangs on the corner or in the projects, or with drugs being sold in the
schools or in the open. It's not racist for whites to assert that the culture of welfare
dependency, out-of-wedlock pregnancy and absent fatherhood cannot be broken by social
programs unless there is first more personal responsibility. (Applause.)
The great potential for this march today, beyond the black community, is that
whites will come to see a larger truth - that blacks share their fears and embrace their
convictions; openly assert that without changes in the black community and within individuals,
real change for our society will not come.
This march could remind white people that most black people share their
old-fashioned American values - (applause) - for most black Americans still do work hard,
care for their families, pay their taxes, and obey the law, often under circumstances which are
far more difficult than those their white counterparts face. (Applause.)
Imagine how you would feel if you were a young parent in your 20s with a
young child living in a housing project, working somewhere for $5 an hour with no health
insurance, passing every day people on the street selling drugs, making 100 times what you
make. Those people are the real heroes of America today, and we should recognize that.
(Applause.)
And white people too often forget that they are not immune to the problems
black Americans face - crime, drugs, domestic abuse, and teen pregnancy. They are too
prevalent among whites as well, and some of those problems are growing faster in our white
population than in our minority population. (Applause.)
So we all have a stake in solving these common problems together. It is
5
�therefore wrong for white Americans to do what they have done too often simply to move
further away from the problems and support policies that will only make them worse.
(Applause.)
Finally, both sides seem to fear deep down inside that they'll never quite be
able to see each other as more than enemy faces, all of whom carry at least a sliver of bigotry
in their hearts. Differences of opinion rooted in different experiences are healthy, indeed
essential, for democracies. But differences so great and so rooted in race threaten to divide
the house Mr. Lincoln gave his life to save. As Dr. King said, "We must learn to live
together as brothers, or we will perish as fools." (Applause.)
Recognizing one another's real grievances is only the first step. We must all
take responsibility for ourselves, our conduct and our attimdes. America, we must clean our
house of racism. (Applause.)
To our white citizens, I say, I know most of you ever day do your very best by
your own lights — to live a life free of discrimination. Nevertheless, too many destructive
ideas are gaining currency in our midst. The taped voice of one policeman should fill you
with outrage. (Applause.) And so I say, we must clean the house of white America of
racism. Americans who are in the white majority should be proud to stand up and be heard
denouncing the sort of racist rhetoric we heard on that tape - so loudly and clearly denouncing
it, that our black fellow citizens can hear us. White racism may be black people's burden, but
it's white people's problem. (Applause.) We must clean our house. (Applause.)
To our black citizens, I honor the presence of hundreds of thousands of men in
Washington today, committed to atonement and to personal responsibility, and the
commitment of millions of other men and women who are African Americans to this cause. I
call upon you to build on this effort, to share equally in the promise of America. But to do
that, your house, too, must be cleaned of racism. There are too many today - (applause) there are too many today, white and black, on the left and the right, on the street corners and
radio waves, who seek to sow division for their own purposes. To them I say, no more. We
must be one. (Applause.)
Long before we were so diverse, our nation's motto was E Pluribus Unum out of many, we are one. We must be one - as neighbors, as fellow citizens; not separate
camps, but family - white, black, Latino, all of us, no matter how different, who share basic
American values and are willing to live by them.
When a child is gunned down on a street in the Bronx, no matter what our
race, he is our American child. When a woman dies from a beating, no matter what our race
or hers, she is our American sister. (Applause.) And every time drugs course through the
vein of another child, it clouds the future of all our American children. (Applause.)
�Whether we like it or not, we are one nation, one family, indivisible. And for
us, divorce or separation are not options. (Applause.)
Here, in 1995, on the edge of the 21st century, we dare not tolerate the
existence of two Americas. Under my watch, I will do everything I can to see that as soon as
possible there is only one - one America under the rule of law; one social contract committed
not to winner take all, but to giving all Americans a chance to win together - one America.
(Applause.)
Well, how do we get there? First, today I ask every governor, every mayor,
every business leader, every church leader, every civic leader, every union steward, every
student leader - most important, every citizen - in every workplace and learning place and
meeting place all across America to take personal responsibility for reaching out to people of
different races; for taking time to sit down and talk through this issue; to have the courage to
speak honestly and frankly; and then to have the discipline to listen quietly with an open mind
and an open heart, as others do the same. (Applause.)
This may seem like a simple request, but for tens of millions of Americans,
this has never been a reality. They have never spoken, and they have never listened ~ not
really, not really. (Applause.) I am convinced, based on a rich lifetime of friendships and
common endeavors with people of different races, that the American people will find out they
have a lot more in common than they think they do. (Applause.)
The second thing we have to do is to defend and enhance real opportunity.
I'm not talking about opportunity for black Americans or opportunity for white Americans;
I'm talking about opportunity for all Americans. (Applause.) Sooner or later, all our
speaking, all our listening, all our caring has to lead to constructive action together for our
words and our intentions to have meaning. We can do this first by truly rewarding work and
family in government policies, in employment policies, in community practices.
We also have to realize that there are some areas of our country - whether in
urban areas or poor rural areas like south Texas or eastern Arkansas - where these problems
are going to be more prevalent just because there is no opportunity. There is only so much
temptation some people can stand when they turn up against a brick wall day after day after
day. And if we can spread the benefits of education and free enterprise to those who have
been denied them too long and who are isolated in enclaves in this country, then we have a
moral obligation to do it. It will be good for our country. (Applause.)
Third and perhaps most important of all, we have to give every child in this
country, and every adult who still needs it, the opportunity to get a good education.
(Applause.) President Johnson understood that; and now that I am privileged to have this job
and to look back across the whole sweep of American history, I can appreciate how truly
historic his commitment to the simple idea that every child in this country ought to have an
�opportunity to get a good, safe, decent, fulfilling education was. It was revolutionary then,
and it is revolutionary today. (Applause.)
Today that matters more than ever, I'm trying to do my part. I am fighting
hard against efforts to roll back family security, aid to distressed communities, and support for
education. I want it to be easier for poor children to get off to a good start in school, not
harder. I want it to be easier for everybody to go to college and stay there, not harder.
(Applause.) I want to mend affirmative action, but I do not think America is at a place today
where we can end it. The evidence of the last several weeks shows that. (Applause.)
But let us remember, the people marching in Washington today are right about
one fundamental thing - at its base, this issue of race is not about government or political
leaders; it is about what is in the heart and the minds and life of the American people. There
will be no progress in the absence of real responsibility on the part of all Americans.
Nowhere is that responsibility more important than in our efforts to promote public safety and
preserve the rule of law.
Law and order is the first responsibility of government. Our citizens must
respect the law and those who enforce it. Police have a life and death responsibility never,
never to abuse the power granted them by the people. We know, by the way, what works in
fighting crime also happens to improve relationships between the races. What works in
fighting crime is community policing. We have seen it working all across America. The
crime rate is down. The murder rate is down where people relate to each other across the
lines of police and community in an open, honest, respectful, supportive way. We can lower
crime and raise the state of race relations in America if we will remember this simple truth.
(Applause.)
But if this is going to work, police departments have to be fair and engaged
with, not estranged from, their communities. I am committed to making this kind of
community policing a reality all across our country. But you must be committed to making it
a reality in your communities. We have to root out the remnants of racism in our police
departments. We've got to get it out of our entire criminal justice system. But just as the
police have a sacred duty to protect the community fairly, all of our citizens have a sacred
responsibility to respect the police; to teach our young people to respect them; and then to
support them and work with them so that they can succeed in making us safer. (Applause.)
Let's not forget, most police officers of whatever race are honest people who
love the law and put their lives on the lines so that the citizens they're protecting can lead
decent, secure lives, and so that their children can grow up to do the same.
Finally, I want to say, on the day of this march, a moment about a crucial area
of responsibility - the responsibility of fatherhood. The single biggest social problem in our
society may be the growing absence of fathers from their children's homes, because it
8
�contributes to so many other social problems. One child in four grows up in a fatherless
home. Without a father to help guide, without a father to care, without a father to teach boys
to be men and to teach girls to expect respect from men, it's harder. (Applause.) There are a
lot of mothers out there doing a magnificent job alone - (applause) - a magnificent job alone,
but it is harder. It is harder. (Applause.) This, of course, is not a black problem or a Latino
problem or a white problem; it is an American problem. But it aggravates the conditions of
the racial divide.
I know from my own life it is harder because my own father died before I was
born, and my stepfather's battle with alcohol kept him from being the father he might have
been. But for all fathers, parenting is not easy and every parent makes mistakes. I know that,
too, from my own experience. The point is that we need people to be there for their children
day after day. Building a family is the hardest job a man can do, but it's also the most
important.
For those who are neglecting their children, I say it is not too late; your
children still need you. To those who only send money in the form of child support, I say
keep sending the checks; your kids count on them, and we'll catch you and enforce the law if
you stop. (Applause.) But the message of this march today - one message is that your money
is no replacement for your guiding, your caring, you loving the children you brought into this
world. (Applause.)
We can only build strong families when men and women respect each other;
when they have partnerships; when men are as involved in the homeplace as women have
become involved in the workplace. (Applause.) It means, among other things, that we must
keep working until we end domestic violence against women and children. (Applause.) I
hope those men in Washington today pledge among other things to never, never raise their
hand in violence against a woman. (Applause.)
So today, my fellow Americans, I honor the black men marching in
Washington to demonstrate their commitment to themselves, their families, and their
communities. I honor the millions of men and women in America, the vast majority of every
color, who without fanfare or recognition do what it takes to be good fathers and good
mothers, good workers and good citizens. They all deserve the thanks of America.
(Applause.)
But when we leave here today, what are you going to do? What are you going
to do? Let all of us who want to stand up against racism do our part to roll back the divide.
Begin by seeking out people in the workplace, the classroom, the community, the
neighborhood across town, the places of worship to actually sit down and have those honest
conversations I talked about - conversations where we speak openly and listen and understand
how others view this world of ours.
�Make no mistake about it, we can bridge this great divide. This is, after all, a
very great country. And we have become great by what we have overcome. We have the
world's strongest economy, and it's on the move. But we've really lasted because we have
understood that our success could never be measured solely by the size of our Gross National
Product. (Applause.)
I believe the march in Washington today spawned such an outpouring because
it is a reflection of something deeper and stronger that is running throughout our American
community. I believe that in millions and millions of different ways, our entire country is
reasserting our commitment to the bedrock values that made our country great and that make
life worth living.
The great divides of the past call for and were addressed by legal and
legislative changes. They were addressed by leaders like Lyndon Johnson, who passed the
Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. (Applause.) And to be sure, this great divide
requires a public response by democratically-elected leaders. But today we are really dealing,
and we know it, with problems that grow in large measure out of the way all of us look at the
world with our minds and the way we feel about the world with our hearts.
And therefore, while leaders and legislation may be important, this is work
that has to be done by every single one of you. (Applause.) And this is the ultimate test of
our democracy, for today the house divided exists largely in the minds and hearts of the
American people. And it must be united there in the minds and hearts of our people.
Yes, there are some who would poison our progress by selling short the great
character of our people and our enormous capacity to change and grow. But they will not win
the day; we will win the day. (Applause.)
With your help - with your help - that day will come a lot sooner. I will do
my part, but you, my fellow citizens, must do yours.
Thank you, and God bless you. (Applause.)
10
�asm
Clinton
FOR PRESIDENT COMMITTEE
GOVERNOR BILL CLINTON
ADDRESS AT MACOMB COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE
STUDENT CENTER
THURSDAY, MARCH 12, 1992
Thank you very much. And thank you/President Lorenzo, and thank
you a l l for being here.
I've looked forward to t h i s day for a long time because, as I'm
sure you a l l know, t h i s county has become a very famous county in
American p o l i t i c s — a county of people who were native Democrats
who have b a s i c a l l y been voting Republican in Presidential
elections. A county not unlike my native region, the South, and
my state, which was a very Democratic state. A state that voted
or Adlai Stevenson twice against Dwight Eisenhour. A state
overwhelmingly white Protestant that s t i l l voted narrowly for John
.ennedy against Richard Nixon. A state that voted for Lyndon
-hnson against Barry Goldwater, and then we voted for Wallace i n
68. Nixon got 69% of the vote in 72. Jimmy Carter won there i n
7 6 because he seemed to be a lot like us. And then Reagan won,
Reagan won, and Bush won big time in my state. And I was on the
ballot a l l t h i s time trying to stand up in the midst of a l l t h i s .
r
/
And I think I know why a l o t people in t h i s county and inraystate
departed the Democratic party and got involved with the
Republicans. I heard i t over and over again: "You know your party
in Washington doesn't share my values anymore. They're not
rewarding middle-class effort and middle-class valued. They won't
stand up for the country around the world." I've heard a l l of
these things for so long. But, now we are sort of at a crossroads
as a country. I hear that also where I livej-WeTe coming to
another Presidential election at the end of the three siflwest
years of economic growth since before World War I I and/ more
importantly, at the end of more than a decade of economic decline.
There were two stunning studies which came out in the last couple
of weeks. You may have seen i t , and a l o t of you ~ even i f you
didn't see i t — you won't be surprised because you have doubtless
lived i t . One of the studies said that over the last 20 years,
the average family has worked harder and harder, not less and
l e s s ; that i n 1989 the average family was working one month per
year longer than in 1969.
�Nu/aoer one, our economic p o l i c y ought t o put our own people i i r s t
again. I t ought t o reward work and f a m i l y and e f f o r t , and not
j u s t wealth and power. We ought t o focus on education and
t r a i n i n g f o r a l i f e t i m e , so t h a t people can always be competitive
in a g l o b a l economy.
We should g i v e business i n c e n t i v e t o i n v e s t , but only those
incentives t h a t w i l l guarantee investment i n our country. John
Kennedy had an investment t a x c r e d i t . You couldn't g e t i t unless
you bought p l a n t equipment and put i t i n t o our p l a n t s . We have a
tax system t h a t today encourages you t o move plants overseas
r a t h e r than leave them a t home.
Let me j u s t g i v e you a couple of d e s c r i p t i o n s : Let's take a
General Motors p l a n t . OK? I want t o come back t o the General
Motors s i t u a t i o n . But, j u s t suppose you are i n the car business
and you've g o t about 100 m i l l i o n d o l l a r s worth of eguipment. I f
you want t o keep high wage jobs i n America and keep i n production,
under t h e present t a x laws, you don't g e t any investment t a x
c r e d i t , t h a t i s , any r e a l accelerated w r i t e - o f f f o r t h i s
equipment. So, suppose you say: " I t h i n k I ' l l take t h i s o l d
equipment and take i t t o another country where people work f o r
wages we can't l i v e on." So, you shut t h e plant down, you get a
tax deduction f o r t h e cost of s h u t t i n g t h e plant down, you move
the plant overseas; and i t costs you money the f i r s t year or so t o
set i t up. You g e t t o carry forward t h e loss i n your American tax
b i l l . Then, you b u i l d up t h e money, and you keep i t over there;
and as long as you don't put the money back here i n a bank, you
don't have t o take those earnings and p u t those earnings here and
pay taxes on them.
So, i f you look a t t h e whole framework of the tax system we've
got, you would t h i n k your country was t e l l i n g you: "We don't care
whether you keep these jobs here or n o t . " That's the t a x system
we have.
But, i f we had a p e o p l e - f i r s t economics, we'd be investing more i n
education and t r a i n i n g , i n incentives t o keep jobs here; and we'd
be organizing t o deal w i t h these changes. We have no automobile
strategy. You know what your country's automobile p o l i c y is?
Does your country have a p o l i c y f o r changing ^from a defense t o a
domestic economy? We're c u t t i n g defense spending a l l ovpr
America. We've got f a c t o r y workers i n the s t r e e t , technicians
without jobs, s c i e n t i s t s and engineers who don't know what they're
going t o do. Do we have s t r a t e g i e s f o r them? No. Somehow, t h i s
i n v i s i b l e market i s supposed t o f i g u r e out what happens t o them.
Because we have t r i e d t o put money f i r s t , that i s , keep taxes low
in upper income people i n corporations and forget about developing
human capacity.
�That's •.
«.
wanted t o come here t ; give t h i s t a l k today, because
the average young person w i l l change work e i g h t times i n a
l i f e t i m e . And i f you don't have a continuous systfem of education,
i f you don't have a t a x system t h a t rewards investment i n our
country, and i f you don't have a government t h a t ' s t r y i n g t o
organize people f o r change; you get h u r t .
The second t h i n g we need t o do, I t h i n k , i s t o recognize t h a t we
got k i l l e d i n the 1980's by doing something as a nation most of
you would never do i n your f a m i l i e s ; and t h a t i s g i v i n g everybody
something f o r nothing, s t a r t i n g at the t o p . I want t o change
t h a t . Consider the case of General Motors: I n the e a r l y 80's,
they asked f o r tax c u t s , and they got i t . They asked f o r
p r o t e c t i o n from imports, and they got i t . They asked f o r
regulatory r e l i e f , and they got i t . They asked the auto workers to
give them concessions, and they got 'em and they got 'era and they
got
'em.
Look a t t h i s F l i n t , Michigan plant — probably the most innovative
p l a n t i n America f o r worker concessions and changing the work
r u l e s : no foreman people making decisions on the shop f l o o r — an
e x c i t i n g p r o d u c t i v e place. They're going t o close i t anyway. And
what do we get i n r e t u r n f o r that? A l l those concessions. They
kept r a i s i n g the p r i c e of cars and g i v i n g up market share. They
d i d n ' t r e i n v e s t a l o t of t h a t money i n the production process.
A l o t of the i n e f f i c i e n c i e s i n auto working i n America are not due
to labor. That's only 20% of the costs now. I t ' s due t o the
i n e f f i c i e n c i e s i n t h e production process i t s e l f and the f a c t t h a t
we use more scrap metal and we have more waste than our Japanese
and German competitors. We didn't r e q u i r e them t o f i x t h a t .
That's a management problem, not a labor problem; and the
,
executives continue t o r a i s e t h e i r pay and t h e i r perks while the
workers got the s h a f t . So we gave something f o r nothing, and we
got what you would get i f you ran your f a m i l y t h a t way.
And what I t h i n k we need t o do in-the 90's i s say: OK, we are
going t o t r y t h i s a d i f f e r e n t way. We're going to h^ve more
opportunity and more r e s p o n s i b i l i t y . So, i f you are at the top of
the totem pole: more t a x incentives t o i n v e s t - i n our country — no
more t a x i n c e n t i v e s t o move your p l a n t s overseas,-or f o r unlimited
increases i n corporate compensation t h a t don't have anything t o do
with whether or not you are p u t t i n g people t o work and miking
something people are buying.
I f you are a worker, yes, we want you t o change your work rules.
But, you get i n r e t u r n f o r t h a t l i f e t i m e education,' affordable
health care, and a sensible economic p o l i c y . I f you are on
welfare, we are going t o do something f o r you. We w i l l give you
more education and t r a i n i n g , c h i l d care f o r your children, health
care f o r your c h i l d r e n ; and you've got t o take a job.
-4-
�L.
are a scudent, we want t o g i v e you more o p p o r t u n i t i e s .
But,
t h e r e ought t o be n a t i o n a l s t a n d a r d — a n a t i o n a l exam
system t h a t r e a l l y means something. We'-ve g o t some t e a c h e r s here.
They w i l l t e l l you t h a t a l l o f these s t a n d a r d i z e d t e s t s were're
g i v i n g i n America t o d a y make money f o r t h e t e s t i n g companies and
not much e l s e . A f t e r you g i v e them a c o u p l e o f y e a r s , a l l o f t h e
k i d s i n American a r e s c o r i n g above t h e n a t i o n a l average and t h e
t e a c h e r s a r e burdened down t e a c h i n g t o t h e t e s t .
So, you wind up
seeming l i k e you've g o t something you d o n ' t .
I want t o make i t p o s s i b l e f o r every h i g h s c h o o l graduate t o
e i t h e r g e t two y e a r s o f f u r t h e r t r a i n i n g i n an a p p r e n t i c e s h i p
program i f t h e y behave themselves, p l a / by t h e r u l e s , and
graduate;
o r t o f i n d t h e money necessary t o go t o c o l l e g e .
Let me g i v e you a n o t h e r example: I don't know how many f a m i l i e s I
have t a l k e d t o who have been t o l d by t h e i r c o l l e g e a i d f o l k s t h a t
they a r e t o o r i c h t o go t o c o l l e g e . Anybody here i n t h a t
category? Been t o l d t h a t your f a m i l y c o u l d n ' t g e t any help?
Here's what I t h i n k we ought t o do:
I want t o s c r a p t h i s s t u d e n t loan problem we've g o t and s e t i n i t s
p l a c e a n a t i o n a l s e r v i c e t r u s t fund o u t o f which any American
c o u l d borrov t h e money t o go t o c o l l e g e . B u t , you'd have t o pay
i t back; anc ou c o u l d n ' t beat t h e b i l l , l i k e you can t h e student
l o a n b i l l sc stimes.
You'd pay i t back i n one o f two ways: e i t h e r
as a s m a l l f -centage o f income over t i m e a t t a x t i m e — n o t t o
t h e l o c a l b^
a t t a x t i m e ; o r you c o u l d work f o r a year o r two
i n a form o f n a t i o n a l s e r v i c e — l i k e a GI B i l l a t home. Come
home a f t e r y a g r a d u a t e from c o l l e g e . Be a t e a c h e r ; be a law
enforcement o f f i c e r ; work w i t h t r o u b l e d y o u t h ; work i n a drug
c e n t e r . Do something t o h e l p s o l v e t h e problems o f our country t o
pay o f f your s t u d e n t l o a n . We c o u l d educate a whole g e n e r a t i o n o f
Americans and h e l p s o l v e a l o t o f our problems.
I ' l l g i v e you another example: I n Chicago t h e r e ' s a - p u b l i c
housing program t h a t g i v e s t e n a n t s , who've never had jobs i n t h e i r
l i v e s , t h e o p p o r t u n i t y t o work i n t h e i r own h o u s i n g p r o j e c t s on
24-hour a day s h i f t s i n p a r t n e r s h i p w i t h p o l i c e o f f i c e r s t o clean
out t h e drugs and t h e weapons i n a l l o f t h e housing p r o j e c t s and
keep them s a f e ; so t h a t you g e t t h e r i g h t to-earn- a l i v i n g i f you
work w i t h law enforcement t o keep your l i v i n g environment safe. I
c o u l d g i v e you l o t s and l o t s o f o t h e r examples.
• ^
*
I ' l l g i v e you another example t h a t I t h i n k i s i m p o r t a n t : Look a t
a l l o f these k i d s t h a t a r e i n t r o u b l e w i t h drugs.
I spent a l o t
of t i m e i n my l i f e t a l k i n g t o people who were i n gahgs, t a l k i n g t o
people who had g o t t e n i n t r o u b l e . Almost a l l o f them have no
e d u c a t i o n , come from broken homes, l i v e i n d i f f i c u l t
neighborhoods, and grew up i n an environment where t h e best money
was i n drugs.
Whatever happens t o them now.
-5-
�Now what happens to thera i s nothing the f i r s c cwo or three times.
And then, a f t e r a while, they get into trouble, and we send them
to j a i l where, at great cost to us, they learn how to be f i r s t c l a s s criminals. Then, they get out a f t e r a while, and they do i t
again, and i t goes on for l i f e .
Why not t r y something different? Why not have in every community
of any s i z e in America a community-based, boot-camp-like
f a c i l i t y , where people who get into trouble get d i s c i p l i n e , drug
treatment, r e a l education, do community service work, and have a
chance to develop some relationships with adults who w i l l both
give them love and d i s c i p l i n e and give them a chance to get
reconnected to society. These are the kinds of things I think we
have to look at. Opportunity plus responsibility; no more
something for nothing.
Now, l e t me j u s t make one f i n a l point: You can't do any of this
unless we are prepared to give up some of the prejudices we a l l
had in the 80's, or a l o t of people did. The problems are not
r a c i a l in nature. This i s a c r i s i s of economics, of values. I t has
nothing to do with race. This i s the message, the message that I
j u s t gave you, that I j u s t gave to the South.
Over 80% of the black voters voted for me on Super Tuc
Because most blacks work for a l i v i n g . Most of the woi
who are being ground down in the South are black Amer:
are more whites than blacks on welfare. The systems t
k i l l i n g us are not r a c i a l in nature. This i s a c r i s i s
of education, and of organization.
day. Why?
mg poor
^ns. There
are
: values,
One of the things that the Democrats, I think, have to stand and
draw the l i n e on, and one of the things, that I have to t e l l you
about i s that I do not believe we have any hope of doing what we
have to do i n America unless we can come together and cross r a c i a l
l i n e s again. One in four of our children i s living in poverty
under the age of s i x . One in two minority children under the age
of s i x i s in poverty. Most of the. jobs in the 1990's w i l l be
f i l l e d by women and members of r a c i a l minorities. That's just the
demographics. You can't repeal that. Nobody can change that.
That's where the population growth i s .
And a l o t of those folks are in t e r r i b l e trouble.' And people give
easy answers. Look at the Republican race baiting. DukeT<Even the
Republicans got r i d of him. Why? A l l he did, he talked about
welfare reform. He was a state l e g i s l a t o r . He never h i t a lick to
move anybody from welfare to work because he wouldn't have anybody
to kick around anymore. I t was a code word for race. Go talk to
people on welfare. They hate i t , but you've got to give them .the
power, the opportunity to go to work, and then impose the
responsibility to work. You can't do one without the other. No
more entitlement, but no more rhetoric without empowerment.
�- -•
—. .^ n
.~ ; . ...•
.
n;.
;-e Scuuh - .".ampaign. .-ie aces
.;
a -Jc.-.: i.^^ra-a came car-; -ur. wen ; walk across, cne s t r e e t to the
blacx ramer.sry, sandinc --e signal one mote time t h a t ' t h a t ' s the
problem. And J.'m'tailing you, that's not the problem. I arew UD
an intecrateci sociaty i.-.^c was segregated. My wnole region was"
kept poor and backward because the people who were running t h e
p o l i t i c s knew as long as they could separate us bv race, they
could held us down.
A l i t t l e moment in American history: Arkansas and Michigan were
approved for admission into the union at the same time. Did you
know that? And we came in just a few months before Michigan did.
We were approved under an agreement then available in Congress
that both states had to be Andy Jackson democratic states, but one
would be a slave state, mine, and one would be a free state,
yours. A l l right? One of the reasons that we never could get our
act together in the South i s that we were so polarized over race
for so long.
Bush runs t h i s W i l l i e Horton ad on Dukakis last time. Now, Dukakis
ran into i t because he didn't answer i t . But, the federal
government furloughs prisoners too. Did you know that? I mean they
had a furlough program. They were churning them out, too. A l l the
time Bush was running t h i s ad against Dukakis, there's this
federal furlough program opening the j a i l s letting people out.
Why? Because we now have more people behind bars than any other
nation i n the world as a percentage of our people.
So the answer i s not W i l l i e Horton. The answer i s who should you
keep behind bars, what can you do about the others, and what are
we doing about crime. This guy runs W i l l i e Horton, scares the
l i v i n g daylights out of people, then cuts back on aid to local
prosecutors, cuts back on aid to local law enforcement — ask the
s h e r i f f , cuts back on aid to the customs, the coast guard, the
border patrol, a l l of the people who are supposed to keep drugs
out of t h i s country. I t i s not a r a c i a l issue.
And the one thing that is going to pull this country: together is
that somebody has got to come back to the so-called Reagan
Democratic areas and say: "Look, I'll give you your values back,
1^11 restore the economic leadership, I'll he>lp you build the
middle class back." But you've got to say: "OK, let's do it with
everybody in this country."
• V
In Chicago today, I went to a l i t t l e business, 107 employees:
blacks, Puerto Ricans, other Hispanics, a guy from Romania fixing
to cast h i s f i r s t vote for me, Poles — a l l of them together. And
you know what they said? They work and they went to school at.
work, at a big GED program; and they a l l talked about how the more
education they got, the more secura they got in their jobs and the
more productive they were. And the more their wages went up, the
more fun i t was to be working with a l l different kinds of people.
�i t ' s amazing how, when your l i f e works, you don't f e e l those
resentments. I t ' s amazing when you work w i t h people who share your
values and who are winning/ a l l the r e s e r v a t i o n s t h a t you might
have kind o f fade away. That's the l a s t t h i n g I want t o say.
I f I get e l e c t e d President, maybe I ' l l g i v e a few good t a l k s ; but
I can't change t h i s country unless the Araeirican people are w i l l i n g
to be Americans again. We've got t o say: "We are going up or down
together." So t h a t ' s my message t o you here. I'm t r y i n g t o give
you a new Democratic party based on o l d values t h a t w i l l make you
want t o come home t o the Democrats i n t h i s county. But, I'm
t e l l i n g you, t h e r e i s nothing I can do t o g e t o u t o f the f a c t t h a t
we have g o t t o come together around values and across r a c i a l
l i n e s . And i f we're not prepared t o do i t we are not going t o make
i t as a country because, i f you look a t who's going t o be f i l l i n g
the jobs of tomorrow, they are people whose c h i l d r e n are doing
b u l l e t d r i l l s instead of f i r e d r i l l s i n school; who are working
hard and are s t i l l poor; who are l i v i n g i n substandard housing and
who need these empowerment s t r a t e g i e s .
So, I j u s t hope and I pray t h a t each of you i n your own way and
a l l of the people who l i v e here w i l l t h i n k about t h a t . What would
i t take f o r t h i s county t o embrace a Democrat again based on
o p p o r t u r ' t y , r e s p o n s i b i l i t y , and people-based p o l i t i c s ? Let's
forget £ u t race and be one nation again.
Thank yr. very much.
-8-
�The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
July 19, 1995
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
ON AFFIRMATIVE ACTION
The Rotunda
National Archives
11:40 A.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. To the members of Congress who are
here; members of the Cabinet and the administration, my fellow Americans: In recent weeks I
have begun a conversation with the American people about our fate and our duty to prepare our
nation not only to meet the new century, but to live and lead in a world transformed to a degree
seldom seen in all of our history. Much of this change is good, but it is not all good, and all of us
are affected by it. Therefore, we must reach beyond our fears and our divisions to a new time of
great and common purpose.
Our challenge is twofold: first, to restore the American dream of opportunity and
the American value of responsibility; and second, to bring our country together amid all our
diversity into a stronger community, so that we can find common ground and move forward as
one.
More than ever these two endeavors are inseparable. I am absolutely convinced
we cannot restore economic opportunity or solve our social problems unless we find a way to
bring the American people together. To bring our people together we must openly and honestly
deal with the issues that divide us. Today I want to discuss one of those issues: affirmative
action.
It is, in a way, ironic that this issue should be divisive today, because affirmative
action began 25 years ago by a Republican president with bipartisan support. It began simply as
a means to an end of enduring national purpose ~ equal opportunity for all Americans.
�So let us today trace the roots of affirmative action in our never-ending search for
equal opportunity. Let us determine what it is and what it isn't. Let us see where it's worked and
where it hasn't, and ask ourselves what we need to do now. Along the way, let us remember
always that finding common ground as we move toward the 21st century depends fundamentally
on our shared commitment to equal opportunity for all Americans. It is a moral imperative, a
constitutional mandate, and a legal necessity.
There could be no better place for this discussion than the National Archives, for
within these walls are America's bedrocks of our common ground ~ the Declaration of
Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights. No paper is as lasting as the words these
documents contain. So we put them in these special cases to protect the parchment from the
elements. No building is as solid as the principles these documents embody, but we sure tried to
build one with these metal doors 11 inches thick to keep them safe, for these documents are
America's only crown jewels. But the best place of all to hold these words and these principles is
the one place in which they can never fade and never grow old — in the stronger chambers of our
hearts.
Beyond all else, our country is a set of convictions: We hold these truths to be
self-evident that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Our whole history can be seen first as an effort to preserve these rights, and then as an
effort to make them real in the lives of all our citizens. We know that from the beginning, there
was a great gap between the plain meaning of our creed and the meaner reality of our daily lives.
Back then, only white male property owners could vote. Black slaves were not even counted as
whole people, and Native Americans were regarded as little more than an obstacle to our great
national progress. No wonder Thomas Jefferson, reflecting on slavery, said he trembled to think
God is just.
On the 200th anniversary of our great Constitution, Justice Thurgood Marshall, the
grandson of a slave, said, "The government our founders devised was defective from the start,
requiring several amendments, a civil war, and momentous social transformation to attain the
system of constitutional government and its respect for the individualfreedomsand human rights
we hold as fundamental today."
Emancipation, women's suffrage, civil rights, voting rights, equal rights, the struggle for
the rights of the disabled -all these and other struggles are milestones on America's often rocky,
but fundamentally righteous journey to close the gap between the ideals enshrined in these
treasures here in the National Archives and the reality of our daily lives.
I first came to this very spot where I'm standing today 32 years ago this month. I was a
�16-year-old delegate to the American Legion Boys Nation. Now, that summer was a high-water
mark for our national journey. That was the summer that President Kennedy ordered Alabama
National Guardsmen to enforce a court order to allow two young blacks to enter the University of
Alabama. As he told our nation, "Every American ought to have the right to be treated as he
would wish to be treated; as one would wish his children to be treated."
Later that same summer, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Martin Luther King told
Americans of his dream that one day the sons of former slaves and the sons of former
slaveowners would sit down together at the table of brotherhood; that one day his four little
children would be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. His
words captured the hearts and steeled the wills of millions of Americans. Some of them sang
with him in the hot sun that day. Millions more like me listened and wept in the privacy of their
homes.
It's hard to believe where we were just three decades ago. When I came up here to Boys
Nation and we had this mock congressional session I was one of only three or four southerners
who would even vote for the civil rights plank. That's largely because of my family. My
grandfather had a grade school education and ran a grocery store across the street from the
cemetery in Hope, Arkansas, where my parents and my grandparents are buried. Most of his
customers were black, were poor, and were working people. As a child in that store I saw that
people of different races could treat each other with respect and dignity.
But I also saw that the black neighborhood across the street was the only one in town
where the streets weren't paved. And when I returned to that neighborhood in the late '60s to see
a woman who had cared for me as a toddler, the streets still weren't paved. A lot of you know
that I am an ardent movie-goer. As a child I never went to a movie where I could sit next to a
black American. They were always sitting upstairs.
In the 1960s, believe it or not, there were still a few courthouse squares in my state where
the rest rooms were marked "white" and "colored." I graduated from a segregated high school
seven years after President Eisenhower integrated Little Rock Central High School. And when
President Kennedy barely carried my home state in 1960, the poll tax system was still alive and
well there.
Even though my grandparents were in a minority, being poor, Southern whites who were
pro-civil rights, I think most other people knew better than to think the way they did. And those
who were smart enough to act differently, discovered a lesson that we ought to remember today:
Discrimination is not just morally wrong, it hurts everybody.
In 1960, Atlanta, Georgia, in reaction to all the things that were going on all across the
South, adopted the motto, "The city too busy to hate." And however imperfectly over the years,
they tried to live by it. I am convinced that Atlanta's success ~ it now is home to more foreign
corporations than any other American city, and one year from today it will begin to host the
�Olympics ~ that that success all began when people got too busy to hate.
The lesson we learned was a hard one. When we allow people to pit us against one
another or spend energy denying opportunity based on our differences, everyone is held back.
But when we give all Americans a chance to develop and use their talents, to be full partners in
our common enterprise, then everybody is pushed forward.
My experiences with discrimination are rooted in the South and in the legacy slavery left.
I also lived with a working mother and a working grandmother when women's work was far rarer
and far more circumscribed than it is today. But we all know there are millions of other stories ~
those of Hispanics, Asian Americans, Native Americans, people with disabilities, others against
whom fingers have been pointed. Many of you have your own stories, and that's why you're here
today » people who were denied the right to develop and use their full human potential. And
their progress, too, is a part of our journey to make the reality of America consistent with the
principles just behind me here.
Thirty years ago in this city, you didn't see many people of color or women making their
way to work in the morning in business clothes, or serving in substantial numbers in powerful
positions in Congress or at the White House, or making executive decisions every day in
businesses. In fact, even the employment want ads were divided, men on one side and women on
the other.
It was extraordinary then to see women or people of color as television news anchors, or,
believe it or not, even in college sports. There were far fewer women in minorities as job
supervisors, or firefighters, or police officers, or doctors, or lawyers, or college professors, or in
many other jobs that offer stability and honor and integrity to family life.
A lot has changed, and it did not happen as some sort of random evolutionary drift. It
took hard work and sacrifices and countless acts of courage and conscience by millions of
Americans. It took the political courage and statesmanship of Democrats and Republicans alike,
the vigilance and compassion of courts and advocates in and out of government committed to the
Constitution and to equal protection and to equal opportunity. It took the leadership of people in
business who knew that in the end we would all be better. It took the leadership of people in
labor unions who knew that working people had to be reconciled.
Some people, like Congressman Lewis there, put their lives on the line. Other people lost
their lives. And millions of Americans changed their own lives and put hate behind them. As a
result, today all our lives are better. Women have become a major force in business and political
life, and far more able to contribute to their families incomes. A true and growing black middle
class has emerged. Higher education has literally been revolutionized, with women and racial
and ethnic minorities attending once overwhelmingly white and sometimes all male schools.
In communities across our nation police departments now better reflect the make-up of
�those whom they protect. A generation of professionals now serve as role models for young
women and minority youth. Hispanics and newer immigrant populations are succeeding in
making America stronger.
For an example of where the best of our future lies just think about our space program
and the stunning hook-up with the Russian space station this month. Let's remember that that
program, the world'sfinest,began with heroes like Alan Shepard and Senator John Glenn, but
today it's had American heroes like Sally Ride, Ellen Ochoa, Leroy Child, Guy Bluford and other
outstanding, completely qualified women and minorities.
How did this happen? Fundamentally, because we opened our hearts and minds and
changed our ways. But not without pressure — the pressure of court decisions, legislation,
executive action, and the power of examples in the public and private sector. Along the way we
learned that laws alone do not change society; that old habits and thinking patterns are deeply
ingrained and die hard; that more is required to really open the doors of opportunity. Our search
to find ways to move more quickly to equal opportunity led to the development of what we now
call affirmative action.
The purpose of affirmative action is to give our nation a way to finally address the
systemic exclusion of individuals of talent on the basis of their gender or race from opportunities
to develop, perform, achieve and contribute. Affirmative action is an effort to develop a
systematic approach to open the doors of education, employment and business development
opportunities to qualified individuals who happen to be members of groups that have
experienced longstanding and persistent discrimination.
It is a policy that grew out of many years of trying to navigate between two unacceptable
pasts. One was to say simply that we declared discrimination illegal and that's enough. We saw
that that way still relegated blacks with college degrees to jobs as railroad porters, and kept
women with degrees under a glass ceiling with a lower paycheck.
The other path was simply to try to impose change by leveling draconian penalties on
employers who didn't meet certain imposed, ultimately arbitrary, and sometimes unachievable
quotas. That, too, was rejected out of a sense of fairness.
So a middle ground was developed that would change an inequitable status quo
gradually, but firmly, by building the pool of qualified applicants for college, for contracts, for
jobs, and giving more people the chance to leam, work and earn. When affirmative action is
done right, it is flexible, it is fair, and it works.
I know some people are honestly concerned about the times affirmative action doesn't
work, when it's done in the wrong way. And I know there are times when some employers don't
use it in the right way. They may cut comers and treat a flexible goal as a quota. They may give
opportunities to people who are unqualified instead of those who deserve it. They may, in so
�doing, allow a different kind of discrimination. When this happens, it is also wrong. But it isn't
affirmative action, and it is not legal.
So when our administrationfindscases of that sort, we will enforce the law aggressively.
The Justice Department files hundreds of cases every year, attacking discrimination in
employment, including suits on behalf of white males. Most of these suits, however, affect
women and minorities for a simple reason — because the vast majority of discrimination in
America is still discrimination against them. But the law does require fairness for everyone and
we are determined to see that that is exactly what the law delivers. (Applause.)
Let me be clear about what affirmative action must not mean and what I won't allow it to
be. It does not mean - and I don't favor - the unjustified preference of the unqualified over the
qualified of any race or gender. It doesn't mean ~ and I don't favor — numerical quotas. It
doesn't mean — and don't favor — rejection or selection of any employee or student solely on the
basis of race or gender without regard to merit.
Like many business executives and public servants, I owe it to you to say that my views
on this subject are, more than anything else, the product of my personal experience. I have had
experience with affirmative action, nearly 20 years of it now, and I know it works.
When I was Attorney General of my home state, I hired a record number of women and
African American lawyers ~ every one clearly qualified and exceptionally hardworking. As
Governor, I appointed more women to my Cabinet and state boards than any other governor in
the state's history, and more African Americans than all the governors in the state's history
combined. And no one ever questioned their qualifications or performance. And our state was
better and stronger because of their service.
As President, I am proud to have the most diverse administration in history in my
Cabinet, my agencies and my staff. And I must say, I have been surprised at the criticism I have
received from some quarters in my determination to achieve this.
In the last two and a half years, the most outstanding example of affirmative action in the
United States, the Pentagon, has opened 260,000 positions for women who serve in our Armed
Forces. I have appointed more women and minorities to the federal bench than any other
president, more than the last two combined. And yet, far more of our judicial appointments have
received the highest rating from the American Bar Association than any other administration
since those ratings have been given.
In our administration many government agencies are doing more business with qualified
firms run by minorities and women. The Small Business Administration has reduced its budget
by 40 percent, doubled its loan outputs, dramatically increased the number of loans to women
and minority small business people, without reducing the number of loans to white
businessowners who happen to be male, and without changing the loan standards for a single,
�solitary application. Quality and diversity can go hand in hand, and they must. (Applause.)
Let me say that affirmative action has also done more than just open the doors of
opportunity to individual Americans. Most economists who study it agree that affirmative action
has also been an important part of closing gaps in economic opportunity in our society, thereby
strengthening the entire economy.
A group of distinguished business leaders told me just a couple of days ago that their
companies are stronger and their profits are larger because of the diversity and the excellence of
their work forces achieved through intelligent and fair affirmative action programs. And they
said we have gone far beyond anything the government might require us to do because managing
diversity and individual opportunity and being fair to everybody is the key to our future
economic success in the global marketplace.
Now, there are those who say, my fellow Americans, that even good affirmative action
programs are no longer needed; that it should be enough to resort to the courts or the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission in cases of actual, provable, individual discrimination
because there is no longer any systematic discrimination in our society. In deciding how to
answer that let us consider the facts.
The unemployment rate for African Americans remains about twice that of whites. The
Hispanic rate is still much higher. Women have narrowed the earnings gap, but still make only
72 percent as much as men do for comparable jobs. The average income for an Hispanic woman
with a college degree is still less than the average income of a white man with a high school
diploma.
According to the recently completed Glass Ceiling Report, sponsored by Republican
members of Congress, in the nation's largest companies only six-tenths of one percent of senior
management positions are held by African Americans, four-tenths of a percent by Hispanic
Americans, three-tenths of a percent by Asian Americans; women hold between three and five
percent of these positions. White males make up 43 percent of our work force, but hold 95
percent of these jobs.
Just last week, the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank reported that black home loan
applicants are more than twice as likely to be denied credit as whites with the same
qualifications; and that Hispanic applicants are more than one and a half times as likely to be
denied loans as whites with the same qualifications.
Last year alone the federal government received more than 90,000 complaints of
employment discrimination based on race, ethnicity or gender. Less than three percent were for
reverse discrimination.
Evidence abounds in other ways of the persistence of the kind of bigotry that can affect
7
�the way we think even if we're not conscious of it, in hiring and promotion and business and
educational decisions.
Crimes and violence based on hate against Asians, Hispanics, African Americans and
other minorities are still with us. And, I'm sorry to say, that the worst and most recent evidence
of this involves a recent report of federal law enforcement officials in Tennessee attending an
event literally overflowing with racism - a sickening reminder of just how pervasive these kinds
of attitudes still are.
By the way, I want to tell you that I am committed to finding the truth about what
happened there and to taking appropriate action. And I want to say that if anybody who works in
federal law enforcement thinks that that kind of behavior is acceptable, they ought to think about
working someplace else. (Applause.)
Now, let's get to the other side of the argument. If affirmative action has worked and if
there is evidence that discrimination still exists on a wide scale in ways that are conscious and
unconscious, then why should we get rid of it as many people are urging? Some question the
effectiveness or the fairness of particular affirmative action programs. I say to all of you, those
are fair questions, and they prompted the review of our affirmative action programs, about which
I will talk in a few moments.
Some question the fundamental purpose of the effort. There are people who honestly
believe that affirmative action always amounts to group preferences over individual merit; that
affirmative action always leads to reverse discrimination; that ultimately, therefore, it demeans
those who benefit from it and discriminates against those who are not helped by it.
I just have to tell you that all of you have to decide how you feel about that, and all of our
fellow countrymen and women have to decide as well. But I believe if there are no quotas, if we
give no opportunities to unqualified people, if we have no reverse discrimination, and if, when
the problem ends ~ the program ends, that criticism is wrong. That's what I believe. But we
should have this debate and everyone should ask the question. (Applause.)
Now let's deal with what I really think is behind so much of this debate today. There are
a lot of people who oppose affirmative action today who supported it for a very long time. I
believe they are responding to the sea change in the experiences that most Americans have in the
world in which we live.
If you say now you're against affirmative action because the government is using its
power or the private sector is using its power to help minorities at the expense of the majority,
that gives you a way of explaining away the economic distress that a majority of Americans
honestly feel. It gives you a way of turning their resentment against the minorities or against a
particular government program, instead of having an honest debate about how we all got into the
fix we're in and what we're all going to do together to get out of it.
8
�That explanation, the affirmative action explanation for the fix we're in is just wrong. It
is just wrong. Affirmative action did not cause the great economic problems of the American
middle class. (Applause.) And because most minorities or women are either members of that
middle class or people who are poor who are struggling to get into it, we must also admit that
affirmative action alone won't solve the problems of minorities and women who seek to be a part
of the American Dream. To do that, we have to have an economic strategy that reverses the
decline in wages and the growth of poverty among working people. Without that, women,
minorities, and white males will all be in trouble in the future.
But it is wrong to use the anxieties of the middle class to divert the American people from
the real causes of their economic distress ~ the sweeping historic changes taking all the globe in
its path, and the specific policies or lack of them in our own country which have aggravated
those challenges. It is simply wrong to play politics with the issue of affirmative action and
divide our country at a time when, if we're really going to change things, we have to be united.
(Applause.)
I must say, I think it is ironic that some of those ~ not all, but some of those who call for
an end to affirmative action also advocate policies which will make the real economic problems
of the anxious middle class even worse. They talk about opportunity and being for equal
opportunity for everyone, and then they reduce investment in equal opportunity on an
evenhanded basis. For example, if the real goal is economic opportunity for all Americans, why
in the world would we reduce our investment in education from Head Start to affordable college
loans? Why don't we make college loans available to every American instead? (Applause.)
If the real goal is empowering all middle class Americans and empowering poor people to
work their way into the middle class without regard to race or gender, why in the world would
the people who advocate that tum around and raise taxes on our poorest working families, or
reduce the money available for education and training when they lose their jobs or they're living
on poverty wages, or increase the cost of housing for lower-income, working people with
children?
Why would we do that? If we're going to empower America, we have to do more than
talk about it, we have to do it. And we surely have learned that we cannot empower all
Americans by a simple strategy of taking opportunity away from some Americans. (Applause.)
So to those who use this as a political strategy to divide us, we must say, no. We must
say, no. (Applause.) But to those who raise legitimate questions about the way affirmative
action works, or who raise the larger question about the genuine problems and anxieties of all the
American people and their sense of being left behind and treated unfairly, we must say, yes, you
are entitled to answers to your questions. We must say yes to that.
�Now, that's why I ordered this review of all of our affirmative action programs; a review
to look at the facts, not the politics of affirmative action. This review concluded that affirmative
action remains a useful tool for widening economic and educational opportunity. The model
used by the military, the Army in particular - and I'm delighted to have the Commanding
General of the Army here today because he set such a fine example ~ has been especially
successful because it emphasizes education and training, ensuring that it has a wide pool of
qualified candidates for every level of promotion. That approach has given us the most racially
diverse and best-qualified military in our history. There are more opportunities for women and
minorities there than ever before. And now there are over 50 generals and admirals who are
Hispanic, Asian or African Americans.
We found that the Education Department targeted on ~ had programs targeted on
under-represented minorities that do a great deal of good with the tiniest of investments. We
found that these programs comprised 40 cents of every $1,000 in the Education Department's
budget.
Now, college presidents will tell you that the education their schools offer actually benefit
from diversity; colleges where young people get the education and make the personal and
professional contacts that will shape their lives. If their colleges look like the world they're going
to live and work in, and they leam from all different kinds of people thing that they can't leam in
books, our systems of higher education are stronger.
Still, I believe every child needs the chance to go to college. Every child. That means
every child has to have a chance to get affordable and repayable college loans, Pell Grants for
poor kids and a chance to do things like join AmeriCorps and work their way through school.
Every child is entitled to that. That is not an argument against affirmative action, it's an
argument for more opportunity for more Americans until everyone is reached. (Applause.)
As I said a moment ago, the review found that the Small Business Administration last
year increased loans to minorities by over two-thirds, loans to women by over 80 percent, did not
decrease loans to white men, and not a single loan went to a unqualified person. People who
never had a chance before to be part of the American system offreeenterprise now have it. No
one was hurt in the process. That made America stronger.
This review also found that the executive order on employment practices of large federal
contractors also has helped to bring more fairness and inclusion into the work force.
Since President Nixon was here in my job, America has used goals and timetables to
preserve opportunity and to prevent discrimination, to urge businesses to set higher expectations
for themselves and to realize those expectations. But we did not and we will not use rigid quotas
to mandate outcomes.
We also looked at the way we award procurement contracts under the programs known as
set-asides. There's no question that these programs have helped to build up firms owned by
10
�minorities and women, who historically had been excluded from the old-boy networks in these
areas. It has helped a new generation of entrepreneurs to flourish, opening new paths to
self-reliance and an economic growth in which all of us ultimately share. Because of the
set-asides, businesses ready to compete have had a chance to compete, a chance they would not
have otherwise had.
But as with any government program, set-asides can be misapplied, misused, even
intentionally abused. There are critics who exploit that fact as an excuse to abolish all these
programs, regardless of their effects. I believe they are wrong, but I also believe, based on our
factual review, we clearly need some reform. So first, we should crack down on those who take
advantage of everyone else throughfraudand abuse. We must crack down onfrontsand
pass-throughs, people who pretend to be eligible for these programs and aren't. That is wrong.
(Applause.)
We also, in offering new businesses a leg up, must make sure that the set-asides go to
businesses that need them most. We must really look and make sure that our standard for
eligibility is fair and defensible. We have to tighten the requirement to move businesses out of
programs once they've had a fair opportunity to compete. The graduation requirement must
mean something ~ it must mean graduation. There should be no permanent set-aside for any
company.
Second, we must, and we will, comply with the Supreme Court's Adarand decision of last
month. Now, in particular, that means focusing set-aside programs on particular regions and
business sectors where the problems of discrimination or exclusion are provable and are clearly
requiring affirmative action. I have directed the Attorney General and the agencies to move
forward with compliance with Adarand expeditiously.
But I also want to emphasize that the Adarand decision did not dismantle affirmative
action and did not dismantle set-asides. In fact, while setting stricter standards to mandate
reform of affirmative action, it actually reaffirmed the need for affirmative action and reaffirmed
the continuing existence of systematic discrimination in the United States. (Applause.)
What the Supreme Court ordered the federal government to do was to meet the same
more rigorous standard for affirmative action programs that state and local governments were
ordered to meet several years ago. And the best set-aside programs under that standard have
been challenged and have survived.
Third, beyond discrimination we need to do more to help disadvantaged people and
distressed communities, no matter what their race or gender. There are places in our country
where the free enterprise system simply doesn't reach. It simply isn't working to provide jobs
and opportunity. Disproportionately, these areas in urban and rural America are highly
populated by racial minorities, but not entirely. To make this initiative work, I believe the
government must become a better partner for people in places in urban and rural America that are
11
�caught in a cycle of poverty. And I believe we have to find ways to get the private sector to
assume their rightful role as a driver of economic growth.
It has always amazed me that we have given incentives to our business people to help to
develop poor economies in other parts of the world, our neighbors in the Caribbean, our
neighbors in other parts of the world --1 have supported this when not subject to their own
abuses ~ but we ignore the biggest source of economic growth available to the American
economy, the poor economies isolated within the United States of America. (Applause.)
There are those who say, well, even if we made the jobs available people wouldn't work.
They haven't tried. Most of the people in disadvantaged communities work today, and most of
them who don't work have a very strong desire to do so. In central Harlem, 14 people apply for
every single minimum-wage job opening. Think how many more would apply if there were
good jobs with a good future. Our job has to connect disadvantaged people and disadvantaged
communities to economic opportunity so that everybody who wants to work can do so.
We've been working at this through our empowerment zones and community develop
banks, through the initiatives of Secretary Cisneros of the Housing and Urban Development
Department and many other things that we have tried to do to put capital where it is needed. And
now I have asked Vice President Gore to develop a proposal to use our contracting to support
businesses that locate themselves in these distressed areas or hire a large percentage of their
workers from these areas ~ not to supplement what we're doing in affirmative action, not to
substitute for it, but to supplement it, to go beyond it, to do something that will help to deal with
the economic crisis of America. We want to make our procurement system more responsive to
people in these areas who need help.
My fellow Americans, affirmative action has to be made consistent with our highest
ideals of personal responsibility and merit, and our urgent need to find common ground, and to
prepare all Americans to compete in the global economy of the next century.
Today, I am directing all our agencies to comply with the Supreme Court's Adarand
decision, and also to apply the four standards of fairness to all our affirmative action programs
that I have already articulated: No quotas in theory or practice; no illegal discrimination of any
kind, including reverse discrimination; no preference for people who are not qualified for any job
or other opportunity; and as soon as a program has succeeded, it must be retired. Any program
that doesn't meet these four principles must be eliminated or reformed to meet them.
But let me be clear: Affirmative action has been good for America. (Applause.)
Affirmative action has not always been perfect, and affirmative action should not go on
forever. It should be changed now to take care of those things that are wrong, and it should be
retired when its job is done. I am resolved that that day will come. But the evidence suggests,
indeed, screams that that day has not come.
12
�The job of ending discrimination in this country is not over. That should not be
surprising. We had slavery for centuries before the passage of the 13th, 14th and 15th
Amendments. We waited another hundred years for the civil rights legislation. Women have
had the vote less than a hundred years. We have always had difficulty with these things, as most
societies do. But we are making more progress than may people.
Based on the evidence, the job is not done. So here is what I think we should do. We
should reaffirm the principle of affirmative action and fix the practices. We should have a simple
slogan: Mend it, but don't end it. (Applause.)
Let me ask all Americans, whether they agree or disagree with what I have said today, to
see this issue in the larger context of our times. President Lincoln said, we cannot escape our
history. We cannot escape our future, either. And that future must be one in which every
American has the chance to live up to his or her God-given capacities.
The new technology, the instant communications, the explosion of global commerce have
created enormous opportunities and enormous anxieties for Americans. In the last two and a half
years, we have seen seven million new jobs, more millionaires and new businesses than ever
before, high corporate profits, and a booming stock market. Yet, most Americans are working
harder for the same or lower pay. And they feel more insecurity about their jobs, their
retirement, their health care, and their children's education. Too many of our children are clearly
exposed to poverty and welfare, violence and drugs.
These are the great challenges for our whole country on the homefront at the dawn of the
21st century. We've got to find the wisdom and the will to create family-wage jobs for all the
people who want to work; to open the door of college to all Americans; to strengthen families
and reduce the awful problems to which our children are exposed; to move poor Americans from
welfare to work.
This is the work of our administration — to give the people the tools they need to make
the most of their own lives, to give families and communities the tools they need to solve their
own problems. But let us not forget affirmative action didn't cause these problems. It won't
solve them. And getting rid of affirmative action certainly won't solve them.
If properly done, affirmative action can help us come together, go forward and grow
together. It is in our moral, legal and practical interest to see that every person can make the
most of his life. In the fight for the future, we need all hands on deck and some of those hands
still need a helping hand.
In our national community we're all different, we're all the same. We want liberty and
freedom. We want the embrace of family and community. We want to make the most of our
own lives and we're determined to give our children a better one. Today there are voices of
13
�division who would say forget all that. Don't you dare. Remember we're still closing the gap
between our founders ideals and our reality. But every step along the way has made us richer,
stronger and better. And the best is yet to come.
Thank you very. And God bless you.
END
12:28 P.M. EDT
14
�•Remarks By The President To The Congregation Of St. Paul's Ame iatpci'dibrary.\vhitehouse.gov/Retr...=text&id=7478&query=St.+Petersburg
White House Press Release
Remarks By The President To The Congregation Of St. Paul'S Ame Church
The White House
O f f i c e o f the Press S e c r e t a r y
(Tampa, F l o r i d a )
For Immediate Release
November 3, 1996
To The
Remarks By The P r e s i d e n t
Congregation Of St. Paul's Ame
Church
Tampa, F l o r i d a
8:45
A.M.
Est
The P r e s i d e n t : Thank you.
Thank you v e r y much. I
f e e l good today, do you? (Applause.)
Thank you.
Reverend
Washington; P r e s i d i n g E l d e r Reverend Andrews; Governor C h i l e s ;
Congressman and Mrs. Gibbons. Our f i n e c o n g r e s s i o n a l c a n d i d a t e ,
Jim Davis, welcome, s i r . We're proud of you.
(Applause.)
To my
o t h e r f r i e n d s who have j o i n e d us i n t h i s church today, and t o a l l
of you, thank you f o r making us f e e l so welcome here i n t h e house
of t h e Lord.
I was s o r t o f t i r e d when I came i n and I got i n t o
the music, and then we s t a r t e d s i n g i n g about t h e l i t t l e shack by
the r a i l r o a d t r a c k -- ( l a u g h t e r ) -- and I s a i d a l o t o f us i n
t h i s house o f God have l i v e d i n a l i t t l e shack by the r a i l r o a d
t r a c k . And we d i d have a good t i m e . My g r a n d f a t h e r used t o j o k e
w i t h me t h a t i f we d i d n ' t have any b e t t e r sense than t o know we
were poor we c o u l d have a good t i m e .
(Laughter.) And we're
having a good t i m e today.
I'm honored t o be i n t h i s h i s t o r i c p u l p i t which has
been graced by M a r t i n Luther King, Thurgood M a r s h a l l , Adam
C l a y t o n Powell, J a c k i e Robinson. I am humbled t o be here. And I
would l i k e t o say, f i r s t and foremost, I thank you, a l l of you,
f o r g i v i n g me t h e chance t o serve as t h e P r e s i d e n t o f t h e
g r e a t e s t c o u n t r y i n human h i s t o r y f o r the l a s t f o u r years. Thank
you.
Thank you.
(Applause.)
I n j u s t two days a l l of us t o g e t h e r w i l l go t o the
p o l l s t o s e l e c t t h e l a s t P r e s i d e n t of t h i s u n b e l i e v a b l e 20th
c e n t u r y -- t h e c e n t u r y of the c i v i l r i g h t s movement, the c e n t u r y
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c e n t u r y -- the c e n t u r y o f the c i v i l r i g h t s movement, the c e n t u r y
of two g r e a t w o r l d wars and the Great Depression, the c e n t u r y o f
the Cold War, a c e n t u r y of more bloodshed than any i n h i s t o r y ,
but a c e n t u r y o f remarkable p r o g r e s s , as more and more people
move toward t h e r e a l i z a t i o n t h a t a l l o f us are c r e a t e d equal i n
the eyes o f God are e n t i t l e d t o l i v e as equals i n the eyes o f
God.
The masters o f our f a t e , save o n l y i n s u b j u g a t i o n t o our
God.
And w i t h a v a s t new c e n t u r y s t r e t c h i n g b e f o r e us we
know t h a t t h e w o r l d i s changing i n ways we cannot f u l l y
understand. J u s t t h i n k about a l l the changes you have seen here
i n your community i n the l a s t f o u r or f i v e years. Think about
the changes t e c h n o l o g y i s b r i n g i n g i n t h e way we work and l i v e
and r e l a t e t o one another and the r e s t o f the w o r l d . Think about
how much more i n v o l v e d i n the r e s t o f t h e w o r l d we are today t h a n
ever b e f o r e .
We have a d e c i s i o n t o make t h a t goes way beyond the
v o t e on Tuesday. And, f r a n k l y , i t goes way beyond Democrats and
Republicans, way beyond even the choice f o r P r e s i d e n t . I t goes
f a r out i n t o t h e f u t u r e and deep i n t o the human h e a r t . We have
t o decide as a people how we're going t o keep w a l k i n g i n t o t h a t
21st
c e n t u r y and whether we w i l l say t o each o t h e r , you're on
your own o r we're g o i n g t o b u i l d a b r i d g e t o g e t h e r so t h a t
everyone has t h e t o o l s t o make the most o f h i s or her own l i f e .
(Applause.) And we have t o decide whether we're going t o b u i l d
t h a t b r i d g e on t h e s h i f t i n g sands o f d i v i s i o n or on the s t r o n g
walk o f common ground.
s h o u l d be.
I b e l i e v e I know what your d e c i s i o n
I was so g l a d t o hear t h a t w o n d e r f u l passage from
John about t h e Pool o f Bethesda.
When I went t o t h e Holy Land
f o r t h e f i r s t t i m e about 15 years ago, I was l o o k i n g f o r t h e Pool
of Bethesda because i t ' s a g r e a t remembrance t h a t when the angel
w h i r l e d t h e waters and made i t p o s s i b l e f o r people t o go t h e r e
and f i n d h e a l i n g power, Jesus t h o u g h t t h e h e a l i n g power ought t o
be g i v e n even t o t h e one who c o u l d not even get t o t h e p o o l .
No
one was l e f t o u t . Even t h e one who c o u l d not even get t o t h e
p o o l was g i v e n t h e h e a l i n g power o f t h e S p i r i t .
That i s a l e s s o n
f o r us.
When people t e l l me, w e l l , some people j u s t a r e n ' t
going t o make i t . I say t h a t ' s t r u e , but i t ought t o be t h e i r
f a u l t , not o u r s .
(Applause.) I t ought t o be t h e i r f a u l t , not
o u r s . We can't g i v e anybody a guarantee i n l i f e .
Even the man
c r a w l i n g t o t h e p o o l had t o b e l i e v e . His body wouldn't move, but
his mind would. So I don't seek t o g i v e anybody a guarantee, but
I t h i n k everybody ought t o have a chance.
(Applause.)
You know a f t e r the events o f the l a s t week, when we
are d i v i d e d we d e f e a t o u r s e l v e s . How h e a r t b r e a k i n g i t i s on t h i s
Lord's day t h a t t h e r e i s s t i l l no peace i n the Holy Land. A year
ago tomorrow, t h e Prime M i n i s t e r o f I s r a e l was murdered by one o f
his own people because he sought t o b r i n g peace t o t h e Holy Land.
The p l a c e where t h e t h r e e g r e a t r e l i g i o n s o f the w o r l d t h a t
b e l i e v e we are a l l c r e a t e d by one God, a l l o f us and a l l o f our
d i f f e r e n c e s are c r e a t e d by one God, c l a i m as h o l y , t h e y ' r e s t i l l
f i g h t i n g over r e l i g i o n .
I n Bosnia, a p l a c e where the e t h n i c groups are
d i v i d e d i n t o t h r e e by a c c i d e n t o f p o l i t i c a l and m i l i t a r y h i s t o r y ,
not because t h e y are b i o l o g i c a l l y d i s t i n g u i s h a b l e , t h e y ' r e s t i l l
f i g h t i n g over t h e i r d i f f e r e n c e s . Science has not g o t t e n i n t h e
way o f b e l i e v i n g t h a t t h e y are i n h e r e n t l y d i f f e r e n t .
That's what
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way o f b e l i e v i n g t h a t they are i n h e r e n t l y d i f f e r e n t .
That's what
they b e l i e v e . I n A f r i c a today, where Hutus and the T u t s i s share
poor l a n d s , w i t h poor c h i l d r e n who d e s p e r a t e l y need the p r o d u c t
of e a r n e s t , s u s t a i n e d , l o v i n g , c o o p e r a t i v e l a b o r , somehow f i n d i t
more p r o f i t a b l e t o s l a u g h t e r each o t h e r and make the l a n d p o o r e r .
W e l l , t h a t ' s why when our f e d e r a l government
employees are s i n g l e d out f o r h a t r e d . When a h o r r i b l e t r a g e d y
l i k e Oklahoma C i t y occurs, when a b l a c k or a w h i t e church i s
burned or a synagogue or a mosque i s defaced i n America, we must
stand a g a i n s t t h a t , because we know t h a t we are a l l i n t h i s
t o g e t h e r ; t h a t we are going t o r i s e or f a l l t o g e t h e r ; t h a t we
have a d u t y t o h e l p each o t h e r i n our work, i n our f a m i l y , i n our
l i v e s as c i t i z e n s -- a duty t o l i v e i n a way t h a t enable us t o
f i n d common ground and a r e s p o n s i b i l i t y t o g i v e everyone e l s e t h e
o p p o r t u n i t y t o go over t h a t b r i d g e w i t h us i n t o tomorrow.
(Applause.)
Now, P r e s i d e n t L i n c o l n once paraphrased Jesus's
sermon i n St. Matthew when he s a i d , "The house d i v i d e d a g a i n s t
i t s e l f cannot s t a n d . "
I d i d n ' t have time t o go back and read i t
today, but I b e l i e v e t h a t the whole verse says, "A c i t y and a
house d i v i d e d a g a i n s t i t s e l f cannot s t a n d " -- not Tampa, not St.
P e t e r s b u r g , not Washington, D.C,
not the U n i t e d States of
America.
Four years ago, when I asked f o r t h i s j o b , I was
w o r r i e d because our people were d i v i d e d and d i s p i r i t e d and as a
r e s u l t , we were not doing t o g e t h e r what we should have been d o i n g
t o l i f t our economy or d e a l w i t h t h e whole a r r a y of problems
p l a g u i n g our s o c i e t y i n v o l v i n g so many o f our c h i l d r e n , of t h e i r
futures.
Now, I know I am p r e a c h i n g t o a c h o i r today —
( l a u g h t e r ) -- but i n t h e next two days we need the c h o i r t o
preach.
(Laughter and applause.) We w i l l never be what we ought
t o be i f we a l l o w our c o u n t r y t o be l e d by those who b e l i e v e we
are b e t t e r o f f on our own and who seek t o pursue t h a t p a t h by
d r i v i n g wedges between us and e x p l o i t i n g our f e a r s and c o n v i n c i n g
us t h a t our b r o t h e r s and s i s t e r s of d i f f e r e n t races, d i f f e r e n t
f a i t h s , d i f f e r e n t walks o f l i f e are our i n h e r e n t enemies. That
i s a p r e s c r i p t i o n f o r d i s a s t e r i n t h e Holy Land, i n Bosnia, i n
A f r i c a and i n t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s . And we have o n l y become g r e a t e r
at each stage a l o n g t h e way because every time we had t o face t h e
music we chose common ground over t h e s h i f t i n g sands o f d i v i s i o n .
And t h a t i s what we must do again i n t h i s season of our d e c i s i o n .
We have seen the r e s u l t s o f the p o l i t i c s of d i v i s i o n
and g r i d l o c k , but now we have seen t h e r e s u l t s of the p o l i t i c s of
o p p o r t u n i t y and r e s p o n s i b i l i t y and the common ground we seek t o
b u i l d i n our American community. We have more j o b s , a lower
d e f i c i t , h i g h e r growth, the h i g h e s t r a t e o f homeownership i n 15
years, the h i g h e s t r a t e s of homeownership and s m a l l business
ownership among A f r i c a n Americans, o t h e r m i n o r i t i e s and women i n
the h i s t o r y of America.
(Applause.) I t t u r n s out g i v i n g
everybody a chance -- not a guarantee, but a chance -- i s good
f o r t h e r e s t of us.
While a l l these b i g numbers were o c c u r r i n g , we've
seen t h e b i g g e s t d e c l i n e
i n i n e q u a l i t y among
working people i n 27 years, the b i g g e s t drop i n c h i l d p o v e r t y i n
20 years, t h e lowest r a t e s of p o v e r t y ever recorded f o r s e n i o r
c i t i z e n s and A f r i c a n Americans s i n c e the s t a t i s t i c s have been
kept.
I t i s t h e r i g h t t h i n g t o do f o r a l l t h e r e s t of us t o see
t h a t everybody has a chance, j u s t as the man s t r u g g l i n g f o r the
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pool a t Bethesda
was g i v e n h i s chance.
(Applause.)
We are s e e i n g the b e n e f i t s of g r e a t e r
responsibility:
the w e l f a r e r o l l s are down; the crime r a t e i s a t
a 10-year low. We see i n so many o t h e r areas -- f o u r years of
d e c l i n i n g pregnancy, the f i r s t drop i n o u t - o f - w e d l o c k pregnancy
i n 20 years, community e f f o r t s b u i l d i n g up a l l over t h e c o u n t r y ,
more and more people g o i n g i n our schools t o t e l l our c h i l d r e n
t h a t drugs are wrong and i l l e g a l and can k i l l you.
More and more c i t i z e n e f f o r t s w o r k i n g w i t h t h e
p o l i c e t o t r y t o h e l p keep t h e s t r e e t s s a f e r . More and more
communities doing t h i n g s t o t r y t o h e l p our young people s t a y out
of t r o u b l e l i k e curfew p o l i c i e s or even school u n i f o r m p o l i c i e s
and o t h e r t h i n g s . These experiments going on i n America, people
w o r k i n g t o g e t h e r t o t r y t o f i n d ways t o be r e s p o n s i b l e c i t i z e n s .
And every p l a c e i t i s done we are b e t t e r o f f .
We're seeing a deeper sense of community -- t r y i n g
to p r e s e r v e our n a t u r a l environment f o r our c h i l d r e n and our
grandchildren.
I thank Governor C h i l e s f o r the work he has done
on t h e Everglades. Every person i n F l o r i d a i n the f a r t h e s t
n o r t h e r n c o r n e r o f F l o r i d a has a stake i n t h a t .
Every person i n
the f a r t h e s t n o r t h w e s t c o r n e r o f America has a stake i n s a v i n g
our common h e r i t a g e .
We see i t i n so many o t h e r ways. We have been moved
by t h e enormous u p s w e l l i n g o f American c o n v i c t i o n i n t h e
a f t e r m a t h o f Oklahoma C i t y , the r e a c t i o n t o the church b u r n i n g s
b e i n g so n e g a t i v e . Our common sense, whenever i t p r e v a i l s t o
b r i n g us t o g e t h e r as a community, makes us s t r o n g e r . And I
r e a l l y b e l i e v e we're on t h e verge o f the most e x c i t i n g p e r i o d i n
human h i s t o r y .
But we can't f o r g e t what brought us here because
i t w i l l t a k e us home. So t h e t r i c k f o r us i s t o f i n d out w i t h
God's wisdom how t o s e i z e a l l these f a b u l o u s o p p o r t u n i t i e s t h a t
are out t h e r e i n a way t h a t enables us t o move c l o s e r t o our
values.
I t i s r e a l l y t r u e t h a t none o f us l i v e by bread
a l o n e . I don't know any s e r i o u s person who's l i v e d l o n g enough
who b e l i e v e s t h a t w i t h a l l t h e bread i n the w o r l d you can be
r e a l l y happy.
( L a u g h t e r . ) On the o t h e r hand, i t ' s i m p o r t a n t not
t o be t o o s e l f - r i g h t e o u s .
I always say one o f my r u l e s o f
p o l i t i c s i s whenever you hear a person s t a n d i n g on a c o r n e r
screaming t h i s i s not a money problem, sure as t h e w o r l d he's
t a l k i n g about somebody e l s e ' s problem, not h i s . (Applause.)
So we need t o be a l i t t l e humble about t h i s .
But we
have work t o do.
I f you t h i n k about what our c h i l d r e n can do, i f
we c o u l d p u t every c h i l d i n America -- from the p o o r e s t
i n n e r - c i t i e s t o t h e most remote r u r a l areas -- i n a classroom
w i t h a computer t h a t was hooked up t o the e n t i r e I n f o r m a t i o n
Superhighway, then f o r t h e f i r s t time ever every c h i l d i n America
would have access t o t h e same l e a r n i n g i n the same way a t the
same t i m e . That would r e v o l u t i o n i z e what our c h i l d r e n c o u l d do,
a l l o f our c h i l d r e n .
(Applause.)
I f we c o u l d put a m i l l i o n c i t i z e n s w i t h 100,000 more
p o l i c e and walk t h e b l o c k s t o g e t h e r we c o u l d have not f o u r years,
but e i g h t years o f d e c l i n i n g crime and a l l of our c h i l d r e n c o u l d
f e e l s a f e on t h e i r s t r e e t s and i n t h e i r schools and i n t h e i r
neighborhoods. We can r e c l a i m our s t r e e t s .
Four years ago
m i l l i o n s o f people d i d not b e l i e v e we c o u l d ever do a n y t h i n g
about r i s i n g c r i m e . Now we have no excuse.
We know we can b r i n g
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i t down f o r f o u r years, b u t we know we have t o have about f o u r
more years b e f o r e i t w i l l be t o l e r a b l e t o l i v e i n s t i l l a l o t o f
our p l a c e s . But we can make our s t r e e t s safe again, we know
that.
But w e ' l l have t o do t h a t t o g e t h e r . And we can do t h a t i n
the f u t u r e .
We know t h a t we're b r e a k i n g down t h e f r o n t i e r s o f
ignorance i n so many ways t h a t w i l l h e l p us t o cure cancer, t h a t
w i l l h e l p us t o f i n d ways t o grow our economy w h i l e we improve
our environment, t h a t w i l l h e l p us t o f i n d ways t o c r e a t e j o b s
f o r people who have never been a b l e t o g e t them b e f o r e . But we
have work t o do. I signed a law t h a t says t h a t everybody on
w e l f a r e who's a b l e - b o d i e d w i l l keep g e t t i n g h e a l t h care and food
and c h i l d care i f t h e y go t o work; b u t i f t h e y ' r e a b l e - b o d i e d ,
they've g o t t o t r a d e t h e w e l f a r e check f o r a paycheck i n two
years. That's t h e law.
(Applause.)
But now we have f i g u r e d
r e a l l y been a b l e t o f i g u r e out f o r a
g i v e j o b s t o people.
You can't t e l l
work unless t h e r e ' s work f o r them t o
do.
(Applause.. )
out something we haven't
l o n g t i m e , which i s how t o
people they have t o go t o
find.
So we've g o t work t o
We know we've got work t o do i n b u i l d i n g our
American f a m i l y . We know t h e r e ' s s t i l l t o o many k i d s who don't
t h i n k drugs w i l l k i l l them. We know t h a t 3,000 c h i l d r e n s t a r t
smoking every day and a thousand w i l l d i e sooner as a r e s u l t ,
even though i t ' s i l l e g a l .
We know t h a t even though we have
removed a l o t o f a s s a u l t weapons from our s t r e e t s and made i t
harder f o r c r i m i n a l s t o g e t guns t h e r e ' s s t i l l t o o many
c o m p l e t e l y i n n o c e n t c h i l d r e n being k i l l e d .
We know t h a t even
though we have demonstrated i n our a d m i n i s t r a t i o n t h a t you can
have d i v e r s i t y and e x c e l l e n c e -- i n my appointments t o t h e
Cabinet, t o t h e f e d e r a l branch and t h r o u g h o u t t h e c o u n t r y -t h e r e are s t i l l t o o many people who are l i t e r a l l y a f r a i d t o d e a l
as equals w i t h people who are d i f f e r e n t from them. We know t h a t .
(Applause.)
We know t h a t t h e r e are s t i l l t o o many w h i t e people
who wouldn't f e e l as c o m f o r t a b l e as I do s i t t i n g i n t h i s church
today. And t h a t ' s wrong.
(Applause.)
They read t h e same B i b l e
you do. They c l a i m t h e same s a v i o r you do. They ought t o f e e l
at home here. We've g o t work t o do. And you ought t o f e e l a t
home i n t h e i r churches.
(Applause.)
So I say t o you, we have work t o do. Our best days
are s t i l l ahead. But we must always marry our progress t o t h e
r e a l i z a t i o n o f our v a l u e s . We have t o t a k e advantage o f p r o g r e s s
t o move c l o s e r t o l i v i n g as we say we b e l i e v e . We have work t o
do.
And as we g e t c l o s e r and c l o s e r and c l o s e r t o t h e
e l e c t i o n , t h e work passes from my hands t o yours again. I t ' s a
v e r y humbling t h i n g f o r me, you know. (Laughter.) I f you ever
doubt whether t h e people are t h e boss i n t h e end i n a democracy,
run f o r o f f i c e .
(Laughter and applause.) Run f o r o f f i c e .
(Applause.)
Even t h e P r e s i d e n t i s a h i r e d hand — ( l a u g h t e r )
- - t r y i n g t o get a c o n t r a c t renewed.
(Laughter.) I t ' s a humbling
t h i n g . There i s a power i n freedom t h a t you cannot u n d e r e s t i m a t e .
We t a k e i t f o r g r a n t e d .
You know, now, i n t h e l a s t few years, f o r t h e f i r s t
time i n a l l o f human h i s t o r y , more people are l i v i n g i n
democracies on t h e face o f t h e e a r t h than d i c t a t o r s h i p s . I t ' s
5 of 7
06/11/97 13:12:37
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-Remarks By The President To The Congregation Of St. Paul'S Amefiap[idibrary.whitehouse.gov/Retr...==text&id=7478&query=St.+Petereburg
the f i r s t
years.
time i n a l l o f human h i s t o r y , j u s t i n t h e l a s t few
Think how f a r your ancestor walked, t h i n k how many
b l e d and d i e d t o g i v e you t h e r i g h t t o v o t e .
(Applause.) And
t h i n k what a b l e s s i n g i t i s t h a t you a r e anchored i n what you
b e l i e v e and t h a t you a r e n o t s u b j e c t t o t h e w i l d winds t h a t o f t e n
blow t h r o u g h t h e airwaves a t e l e c t i o n t i m e .
I ask you t o l e t me share t h i s s t o r y as I c l o s e . I n
1992, when I was seeking t h i s o f f i c e , I was i n a church much l i k e
t h i s i n C l e v e l a n d one n i g h t .
I t was a warm n i g h t , and t h e church
was w i t h o u t a i r c o n d i t i o n e r -- a t l e a s t t h e a i r c o n d i t i o n e r was
unequal t o t h e h o t a i r a l l t h e p u b l i c o f f i c i a l s were spewing o u t .
(Laughter.) And we were packed i n t h a t church.
And i t was one
o f those meetings, you know, where everybody t h e r e t a l k e d b u t
t h r e e people and t h e y went home mad. (Laughter.)
Everybody
t a l k e d . We a l l g o t t o t a l k .
And t h e temperature rose. And people s t a r t e d
wanting t o g e t o u t . And t h e g r e a t p a s t o r i n t h a t church stood up
-- who i s a f r i e n d o f mine, Reverend O t i s Moss, one o f America's
g r e a t p r e a c h e r s ; some o f you may know him. And he s t a r t e d
t a l k i n g t o t h e people about t h e simple a c t o f v o t i n g . And he
s a i d , you know, my f a t h e r c o u l d n o t v o t e , t h e law d i d n o t a l l o w
him t o v o t e . And, f i n a l l y , one day t h e law was changed and he
c o u l d v o t e . And he walked seven m i l e s t o t h e p o l l i n g p l a c e . But
t h e people d i d n o t want my f a t h e r t o v o t e , and they s a i d , Mr.
Moss, you're a t t h e wrong p l a c e .
So t h e y sent him t o another p l a c e , and he walked a
couple more m i l e s . And t h e y s a i d , Mr. Moss, you're s t i l l a t t h e
wrong p l a c e . And t h e y sent him t o another p l a c e and he had t o
walk a couple more m i l e s . And when t h e y got t h e r e t h e y s a i d , Mr.
Moss, t h e p o l l s have c l o s e d . And he s a i d , when my daughter was
o l d enough t o v o t e I took her t o t h e p o l l i n g place and we went
t o g e t h e r , t o two v o t i n g machines s i d e - b y - s i d e . And I know you're
not supposed t o l i n g e r i n t h e b a l l o t booth.
But I c o u l d n ' t v o t e .
I p u t my e a r r i g h t next t o t h a t booth u n t i l I heard my daughter
v o t e . We don't miss votes a t our house, he s a i d .
(Applause.)
This i s a day t h a t t h e Lord hath made; l e t us
r e j o i c e and be g l a d i n i t .
And l e t us remember t h a t here on
E a r t h God's work must t r u l y be our own. We have work t o do. But
i f we do i t and i f we remember, l i k e Jesus, t h a t even t h e man who
c o u l d n o t reach t h e p o o l a t Bethesda, we w i l l a l l go f o r w a r d on
t h a t b r i d g e t o t h e 21st c e n t u r y t o g e t h e r .
Thank you and God b l e s s you.
End
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Michael Waldman
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Michael Waldman was Assistant to the President and Director of Speechwriting from 1995-1999. His responsibilities were writing and editing nearly 2,000 speeches, which included four State of the Union speeches and two Inaugural Addresses. From 1993 -1995 he served as Special Assistant to the President for Policy Coordination.</p>
<p>The collection generally consists of copies of speeches and speech drafts, talking points, memoranda, background material, correspondence, reports, handwritten notes, articles, clippings, and presidential schedules. A large volume of this collection was for the State of the Union speeches. Many of the speech drafts are heavily annotated with additions or deletions. There are a lot of articles and clippings in this collection.</p>
<p>Due to the size of this collection it has been divided into two segments. Use links below for access to the individual segments:<br /><a href="http://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=43&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=2006-0469-F+Segment+1">Segment One</a><br /><a href="http://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=43&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=2006-0469-F+Segment+2">Segment Two</a></p>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Michael Waldman
Office of Speechwriting
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1993-1999
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
2006-0469-F
Extent
The size or duration of the resource.
Segment One contains 1071 folders in 72 boxes.
Segment Two contains 868 folders in 66 boxes.
Provenance
A statement of any changes in ownership and custody of the resource since its creation that are significant for its authenticity, integrity, and interpretation. The statement may include a description of any changes successive custodians made to the resource.
Clinton Presidential Records: White House Staff and Office Files
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
William J. Clinton Presidential Library & Museum
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Adobe Acrobat Document
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
paper
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
[University of California at San Diego (UCSD) and Misc. Speeches and Drafts]: [Miscellaneous Speeches] [Folder 1]
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Office of Speechwriting
Michael Waldman
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
Box 53
<a href="http://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/items/show/36404"> Collection Finding Aid</a>
<a href="https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7763296">National Archives Catalog Description</a>
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
2006-0469-F Segment 2
Provenance
A statement of any changes in ownership and custody of the resource since its creation that are significant for its authenticity, integrity, and interpretation. The statement may include a description of any changes successive custodians made to the resource.
White House Staff and Office Files
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
William J. Clinton Presidential Library & Museum
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Adobe Acrobat Document
Medium
The material or physical carrier of the resource.
Preservation-Reproduction-Reference
Date Created
Date of creation of the resource.
6/3/2015
Source
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7763296
42-t-7763296-20060469F-Seg2-053-002-2015