The Catholic Church there now has a Spanish mass every Sunday and has had for the last several years. And that is nothing if you are from Orange County, but if you are from northwest Arkansas, that is a huge deal. We also have a big influx of people in western Arkansas from Southeast Asia. But last year, our State ranked first or second I am not sure which, but I am sure it is one of the two in the percentage growth of Hispanic population. Joe Andrew did not mention this, I do not think, but in addition to all the mayors we have celebrated, we have had a truly historic, breathtaking election in the State of Mississippi, where we won the governorship in a State where they did not think a Democrat could be elected for love or money. And part of it was the overwhelming African-American turnout. All over the South, their voices are being heard. And we only won the election by about 6,000 votes, so everybody can take credit for the victory. So we have to think about this. What are we going to do for all these children? They need a world-class education. If we do it right, the diversity of America will be a blessing in a global society. What are we going to do about the fact that this fabulous recovery has left people and places behind? Unemployment on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation is 73 percent. Upstate New York, outside of the suburbs in New York City, if it were a separate State, would rank 49th in job growth since I have been President. Hawaii, burdened by the collapse of the Asian economy, is the only State with no economic growth the inner cities, the Mississippi Delta, Appalachia. How are we going to bring prosperity to people and places left behind? Do we have the will to guarantee economic growth for a generation of Americans by taking America out of debt? I gave a budget to the Congress that will get us out of debt over the next 15 years, for the first time since 1835. And the progressive party, the Democrats, ought to be for that. It sounds like a conservative thing it is but it is the progressive thing to do in a global economy. Because if the government is not borrowing money, you can borrow it for less, and our trading partners can get more for less, and then they can be better partners with us, and they can lift their people out of poverty. How are we going to grow the economy and meet our environmental responsibility? We have proved you could do it.


Are we going to keep doing it? We have got the lowest crime rate in 30 years. If you do, let me just give you one statistic. The accidental death rate of children from gun shots in the United States is 9 times the rate of the next 25 biggest industrial economies combined. I think we now know we can bring the crime rate down. Why do not we set a realistic goal? I mean realistic in terms of our dreams. Why do not we say we will not quit until America is the safest big country in the world? And if we want that, how are we going to do it? Last night, I appeared in the first-ever townhall meeting on the Internet, which was interesting for me, since one of the reasons I asked the Vice President to join the ticket is because I was so technologically challenged. It was quite a thrill for me to do that. But there is a digital divide, and it can have huge consequences. I was in northern California the other night, meeting with people who work for eBay. Do you all ever use eBay? You want to hear something interesting? Over 20,000 Americans now make a living on eBay, not working for eBay, trading on eBay, many of them former welfare recipients. Think of what we could do in America to close the economic divide if we could close the digital divide, if usage and access to computers and connections to the Internet were as dense as telephone ownership and usage. Now, these are the kind of things we ought to be thinking about. Well, I think one of them is we can start running away from each other because we have all of a sudden gotten afraid of trade. We need to keep expanding trade but work harder to put a human face on it, to take into account legitimate environmental issues and labor issues, but not to run away from the fact that with 4 percent of the world's people and 22 percent of the world's income if we want to continue to grow, we have got to sell something to the other 96 percent. And if we want to sell something to them, particularly since we are richer, we have to be willing to buy things. The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, nuclear, chemical, and biological, and the possibility that they can be made in smaller quantities, like everything else is smaller. We have got cell phones so small now my big old fingers will not even hit the numbers right.

Remarks at a Democratic National Committee Hispanic Leadership Forum Dinner


The miniaturization of all things technical will apply to weapons, as well, make no mistake about it. This is a serious challenge, the growth of terrorism around the world, the prospect that the terrorists, the drug runners, the organized criminals will all start working together, and the rampant threat of racial, ethnic, and religious wars big challenges. Which brings me to the last one. Can we truly make our motto, E Pluribus Unum, real as we grow ever more diverse? It requires, I would argue, three things. One is we have to respect, not just tolerate not just tolerate but respect and celebrate our differences. You know, I do not have the same attitude as the people that put out that memo Loretta talked about. I think it is a lot more interesting in America as we grow more diverse. I will never forget the first Cinco de Mayo celebration I went to in San Francisco. I mean, what have we been doing here? You know, I used to when I was Governor of my home State, I used to go to a place called Little Italy to eat spaghetti in a town called Slovak, to meet with the farmers that came there in the 1848 revolution. And now we are just repeating our history in technicolor, times four. But let us stop all this tolerance stuff. We need respect and celebration of our differences, number one. Number two, we need to recognize that, as we have from the beginning, we have genuine differences of opinion, which ought to be forthrightly and publicly argued. In that sense, and if that is all we are doing, partisanship is not necessarily a bad thing. When people say partisanship with a little negative edge, what they really mean is these people in Washington are fighting their partisan battles trying to increase their power without concern for the public interest. But we will always have honest differences. I know why I am a Democrat in the year 1999. And I have friends in the Republican Party who know why they are Republicans. And we honestly see the world in different ways. We ought to create a safe and constructive way for people to feel free to think and argue. But the third thing we have to do is to recognize that the differences we celebrate and the differences we fight over, neither one of them are nearly as important as our common humanity. And that is what the world keeps forgetting, at its peril.


Do not you think it is interesting that, at a time when we talk about the Internet this and finding a cure for cancer, and last year we actually were able to transplant nerves into the spine of laboratory animals that had had their spines severed, and for the first time ever they have movement in their lower limbs. Two years ago we identified the two genes that are the biggest predictors of breast cancer for women. Within a couple of years, when mothers take their babies home from the hospital, we will be able to give them a genetic map which will say, here are the things your child has a greater than normal propensity for, but if you do the following things, you can minimize them. A lot of people I know, experts in the field, actually believe within a very few years babies will be born with a life expectancy of nearly a century within a very few years. Is not it interesting, at this time, with all this marvelous stuff happening, not to mention all the techno-joys we can have, that the biggest problems we have in the world are rooted in the oldest failing of human society? We are afraid of people who are different from us. And when you are afraid of somebody who is different from you, it is easy to formalize that fear in dislike or hatred, and it is a short step to dehumanizing them, after which it is a short step to taking violent action against them and to thinking it really does not matter. I will never forget being in the airport at Kigali, Rwanda, talking to a woman who thought she had been killed, because she was cut up in one of the machete rampages in the Rwandan genocide, and she woke up to find her husband and her six children all slashed to death around her. She is the only surviving one, knowing that they had been betrayed by her neighbor, a person they lived with, lived next to her, in total peace for years, and boom, like that, they started the fight between the Hutus and Tutsis, and people turned on a dime, betrayed their neighbors-for-life, and let people be slaughtered. Now, there are lots of other stories that are heroic on the other side. But what happens to people?


Why are the Catholics and the Protestants still fighting in Northern Ireland when the Irish Republic has got the fastest growing economy in Europe, and their common heritage is rich and fascinating and interesting, and they could be having arguments in bars or in Parliament and making money, instead, and educating their children? What is it that is keeping the Israelis and the Palestinians from taking these last few steps, the Syrians from joining in? Why are there other terrorist and rejectionist groups that are prepared to go out and kill innocent civilians to keep the Israelis and the Palestinians and the Syrians from making their final peace agreement? If you look at America, you look at the success of people from the Indian subcontinent in America from India, from Pakistan, from Bangladesh the phenomenal success, if you look at the fact that India will be bigger than China in 20 years, that they both have big scientific bases of expertise, why are they fighting over the line of control in Kashmir? Why cannot they work that out? Why is that such a big problem that they keep spending money preparing to go to war with one another instead of educating their children and alleviating the abject poverty that is holding them down and keeping them from their full potential? But you get the point. Why did I have to go into Europe and bring the power of the American military to bear in Bosnia and Kosovo to keep people from slaughtering mostly Muslims, although others were involved too. Same reason, in a more thank God mundane but still very cruel way people were spitting on and kicking and cursing those nine kids when they tried to go to Little Rock Central High School 42 years ago. One of the great human weaknesses is that when people get organized, they think that, in order for their tribe to matter, the other tribe has to matter less. In order for their lifestyle to be validated, somebody else's has to be invalidated, that every difference of opinion turns out to be a difference justifying the dehumanization of your opponent. This is a very dangerous thing, made more dangerous, not less, by the collision of societies and the close contact and the openness of borders. So we need you for another reason. We need you in the Democratic Party. We need you as Americans. We need you to remind us of what the concept of family means to you. What are the obligations of people who are in your family? What do we owe to one another?


Of course, I want to start my remarks by extending to all of you the President's apologies for not being present at lunch today. This meeting was to be a high point of his trip. I am sure you all know as well of his great respect and warm feelings for former Prime Minister Kaifu. And it is with real regret that he was not able to be here at lunchtime today. I talked to his doctor just an hour ago. The doctor is a former classmate of mine at college. I know him very well, so I can assure you the information is correct. The doctor has told the President in very strict terms to rest this morning. He will be resuming his schedule later today and, I am sure, will express to all of you his deep regret at not being able to join you at this wonderful gathering. Prime Minister, members of the Diet, distinguished guests, it is a deep honor to be here today. President has asked me to make his remarks to you this afternoon. Although there have been minor grammatical changes in pronouns, this is the President's speech. We come to Japan at the culmination of a long and productive journey. Today we stand at a turning point in history. The Soviet Union has vanished and with it the delusions of communism. Centuries-old enemies in the Middle East are tempering ancient hatreds in pursuit of peace. Freedom's phoenix is rising from the ashes of tyranny in nations from Latin America to Eastern Europe and from Cambodia to Mongolia. Freedom's rebirth was painful, its triumphs inscribed in blood, its truce seared by the fires of war and sacrifice. First, that isolationism and protectionism lead to war and deprivation; and second, that political engagement and open trade lead to peace and prosperity. These last few years we again learned of the power of ideas. Technologies that transmit ideas in the blink of an eye carry the human spirit over barricades and through barbed wire. They hurdle walls designed to hold back the truth. We live in a world transformed, shrunken by swift travel and instant communication, drawn closer by common interests and ambitions, propelled forward by people's imaginations and dreams. As leaders of this transforming world, the United States and Japan must help build a new international order based on the rule of law, respect for human rights, and political and economic liberty. We must shape a world enriched by open trade and robust competition, a world that will create a better life for people of all nations.

Text of Remarks at the Japanese Welcoming Committee Luncheon in Tokyo


The United States lies between two great oceans, the Atlantic and the Pacific. We are a nation of the Atlantic by birth, but our ties to the Asia-Pacific region deepen daily. Our two-way trade is now $310 billion annually, one-third larger than that with Europe. American businesses cannot flourish in Asia unless the economies of Asia thrive and grow. At the same time, Japan's growth needs American markets open and growing. Since 1975, the number of Americans of Asian origin has nearly quadrupled. What happens here is very important to us. And at the core of our continuing Asian engagement stands our alliance with Japan. At each stop during his visit to the region, the President has stressed the challenges we must face, addressing the new security requirements of our transforming world, promoting democracy, and generating world economic growth and prosperity. Let me expand upon that by focusing on the special relationship that the United States enjoys with Japan. Rarely in history have two nations with such different and differing historic cultural roots developed such an extraordinary relationship. Our people are bound by shared security, by democracy, and by our deep economic ties. There are those who doubt the future of this relationship. Here in Japan you have a saying, Some rain must fall to prepare the ground for building. We can all see that without progress we may be in for some rough weather. And I must be frank in saying that there are problems in our economic relationship. Speaking not only for the United States but for many developed countries, Japan's trade surplus is too high, and its market access too restricted. President Bush has come to Japan as a friend, seeking solutions to these concerns, believing that the expansion of free and fair trade will do nothing but strengthen our relationship. We in the United States are confident about our capacity for partnership. Our areas of common interest are too important. We enjoy a strong security bond with Japan. Japan's generous host-nation support for U.S. forces stationed here is an important demonstration of shared responsibilities. Let us make the most efficient use of our defense resources by building greater coordination of our military forces and by promoting the two-way flow of defense technology. Such cooperation enhances our security and builds even stronger political ties between us. The Gulf crisis sparked spirited debate here about Japan's global role. That makes it all the more profound that no nation outside the Gulf region provided more generous financial support than did Japan.


The American people and peace-loving people everywhere appreciate deeply your contribution, Japan's contribution, to the United Nations coalition in the Gulf. Even before the Gulf war, but especially in its aftermath, Japan has continued to define its growing role in world affairs. An increasingly active, engaged, and responsible Japan is critical to a forward-looking post-cold-war community. This brings us to the second area of our relationship, our foreign policy cooperation. We must fulfill the bright promise of our global partnership. Together, we produce 40 percent of the world's gross national product. We contribute together 40 percent of all bilateral aid. We have the ability to marshal unrivaled resources to build a better future if our foreign policies are well coordinated. America has a responsibility here, but it is a responsibility we share with Japan. The upcoming conference on assistance to the nations of the former U.S.S.R., now the Commonwealth of Independent States, is a timely example of such foreign policy coordination. The collapse of the Soviet Union has also spurred questions within Japan about the durability of U.S.-Japan alliance. For decades, this alliance has stood as the bulwark of American-Japanese international cooperation. It is today every bit the linchpin of regional stability and bilateral cooperation that wise men foresaw years ago. The demise of the Soviet Union may confront us both with ominous dangers, but it also presents us an historic opportunity. The leadership Japan and other Asian nations can provide to help transform a once-totalitarian empire into market-oriented and democratic states helps guarantee the future peace and stability of our world. Let me add that with the changes in the former Soviet Union, the United States sees no reason why Japan should not regain the Northern Territories. We share this goal, and in whatever way we can, we will help you attain it. We cannot imagine meeting the foreign policy challenges of our time without Japan as a partner. That is why today Prime Minister Miyazawa and President Bush will issue a document called the Tokyo Declaration, setting out the basic principles and major challenges of our global partnership. By putting into words the fundamentals of the two great partners, we hope to guide the way through the turbulent waters ahead. We must be clear about our responsibilities and our requirements, for our renewed alliance will do much to define the shape of the post-cold-war world. Third, we must deepen our understanding of each other.


For all of our interaction politically and economically, our peoples know too little of the other's history, traditions, and language. We welcome the work of the Center for Global Partnership in expanding exchanges and interactions, intellectual, scientific, and cultural. Thanks to such programs, our two nations will have an ever-increasing number of people who have lived in each other's country, speak each other's language, and understand more fully how important we are to each other. Although more than 200,000 Asian students now study in American colleges and universities, more Americans must immerse themselves in Asian societies and cultures. As the exchange of free people and ideas flows between our nations and as the cold war ends in victory for our cause, our economic relations have taken center stage. This brings me to the fourth and most important point. If we are to expand our economic ties, we must face up to the economic tensions that threaten our relations. We must reduce those tensions now by opening markets and by eliminating barriers to trade and investment. Japan will sell about $90 billion worth of goods and services to the United States this year. We will sell nearly $50 billion to Japan. Isolation and protectionism must remain the sleeping ghosts of the past, not the waking nightmares of the future. We must reject these failed notions in the sure knowledge that expanding markets mean expanding jobs and increasing prosperity for both our countries. We must ensure a continued strong two-way economic relationship between Japan and the United States, with markets more open to new goods and services, manufacturers more open to new competitive ideas, the financial services industry competing on a fair basis, and an equitable flow of technology on both sides. Our two countries share a special responsibility to strengthen the world economy. Yesterday the President and the Prime Minister announced a strategy for world growth which commits both our countries to domestic policies to stimulate growth. Expanded domestic demand in Japan translates into additional exports to Japan for American products and jobs at home. And we are seeking broad support for growth policies among other industrialized countries as well. Many American businesses learned during the past decade that the old ways no longer work in our changing international marketplace. Our companies have cut costs, improved quality, and championed innovation. As a result, our products sell in markets everywhere they have access. And candidly, such access is still limited in Japan. We must reduce the trade imbalance between us, not through managed trade, through gimmicks or artificial devices, but simply by gaining true and welcome access to your markets.


We want to create fair opportunities for traders and investors, both buyers and sellers, by removing the barriers both seen and unseen to open and equitable trade. American business does not need a handout and does not want one. Some say that perhaps it is time to help the United States out of a sense of pity or compassion. Let me tell you, we are looking for no such help. What the United States wants from Japan is for Japan to recognize its international economic responsibility for its own sake and for the sake of the global marketplace upon which Japan depends. When we express appreciation to those who seek to open Japanese markets, it is not because we need a handout but because we know an open Japan is good for us all. Our companies simply expect the chance to compete fairly in markets around the world. Our Government remains committed to open markets, and we will further reduce our own trade barriers as our friends dismantle their own. Our two countries have embarked on a unique experiment in economic independence called the Structural Impediments Initiative. In this effort, each side pinpoints the other's barriers to competitiveness, and each commits to reduce them. We both must reinvigorate this commitment to market access, whether for high quality American products or quality American services. The beneficiaries will be the workers and consumers on both sides of the Pacific. It means greater openness in many sectors of the Japanese economy still biased against outside investment. These practices hurt American companies, but they also hurt Japanese consumers. Americans want the same things you want, a better quality of life for themselves and their families. Americans never say, Please raise our prices. Every worker is also a consumer, and economic competition brings them great choices and lower prices. In fact, the Toys-R-Us store that the President visited in Kyoto offers prices up to 30 percent lower than its Japanese competition. The stunning success of the consumers' response to its sister store north of Tokyo tells the same story. That is good for us, and it is good for you. We sold more exports last year than ever before. We enjoy a trade surplus with Europe. About one-third of our economic growth between 1985 and 1990 was attributable to merchandise exports. To Japan, our manufactured exports are up 70 percent since 1987, a $20 billion increase that represents almost half a million jobs. Still the overall trade deficit with Japan remains large. And I might add, its persistence is truly the exception among our trading partners.


We have waited a long time, but now the time has come for equal access. Fairplay is in both our interests. As you know, the United States and Japan also face the urgent challenge of leading the way to a successful conclusion of the Uruguay round. Because of the benefits we each derive from free trade, Japan and the United States bear a special responsibility for tackling the remaining difficult issues quickly and decisively. The success of the round depends on bold, farsighted leadership. We must lift our gaze to the glimmering horizon of broader prosperity and not worry over the stones in our immediate path. Yes, all of us have problems with portions of the so-called Dunkel draft, but we cannot let the progress it represents slip through our fingers. If we allow that draft to be picked apart by special interests, who wins? The GATT round is the world's best hope for expanding trade for all countries. They believe very, very strongly in creating a level playing field for everyone. We want all our trading partners to give the United States companies the same kind of opportunities that their firms enjoy in the United States. And it creates a basis for even greater freedom and greater prosperity for all. Many of our Japanese friends argue that the United States must improve its competitiveness, and they are right. We recognize that some of our bilateral trade imbalance stems from causes other than restricted market access. One reason for Japan's competitiveness is because Japan has saved and invested at a rate double that of the United States. You have focused on applied research and development and new manufacturing technologies. Your companies have established fine quality control systems. You have developed a highly educated labor force and have taken the long view to develop markets abroad. There is much for us to learn from you. We are taking steps to boost our competitiveness. We can and will increase our rate of savings and investment. We will continue to boost our manufacturing's excellence. We will reduce the budget deficit. To stimulate innovation, risk, and longer term business outlook, the President is pushing for investment incentives, R&D credits, and capital gains tax cuts. It would be easier if our politicians saw the positive effect on Japan's competitiveness due to low capital gains rates. And America must raise its educational standards. Our America 2000 education strategy will fuel a revolution for better quality schools. This is another path to competitiveness. The education achievements of Japan and others in the Asia-Pacific region inspire us.


That is why President Bush has invited the countries of the Pacific Rim to send their education ministers to Washington for a conference this spring to seek new ways to cooperate and to learn from each other's accomplishments. With the President today, traveling with him, is a delegation of America's top business leaders. They have come to explore new business opportunities in all the nations the President has visited. Every one of them can tell you that despite the fact that our economy is facing some new tough times right now, America still draws upon tremendous strengths. We have many of the world's finest universities. American technology remains on the cutting edge in many advanced fields such as computers and biotechnology. It has the added advantage of drawing upon the strengths and insights of many cultures, including Japan's. The chief executive officers accompanying the President will also tell you that they care about American jobs. They care about American exports. We know that the Asian-Pacific market offers enormous potential to those American businesses that will accept the challenge of competition. That same competition has propelled Japan toward world leadership. Open markets around the world has provided Japan with economic prominence. Japan must now join the ranks of world leadership in strengthening free markets and freedom. Finally, let me leave with you a message that the President wished to give directly to the people of Japan. fairness, trust, and respect. We expect nothing less, and we ask for nothing more. Today marks a turning point for us in many ways. Together, we face the next millennium, a new order for the ages, a new world of freedom and democracy. We stand as the world's powers with the future presenting us with a decision. The United States has made its choice against isolationism and in favor of engagement, against protectionism and for expanding trade. Today we bid Japan to do the same because engagement and open trade are in your best interest. Together, let us shape a new and open world, a world of vigorous competition and dazzling innovation. Let us build a world of greater prosperity and peace than ever before, if not for the sake of ourselves, then for the sake of our children. This is the finest legacy that we could bequeath to them.


Well, first of all, let me tell you what I'd like to do. I like small events like this, with fewer people. And what I'd like to do most of what I have to say about the last 8 years I said at the convention in L.A., and maybe you saw it, and if you did, there is nothing else I can say. I would like to just talk for a few minutes, not long, and then just take the microphone away and have a conversation. If you have got anything you want to ask me or you have anything you want to say or if you'd like to give a speech, just feel free to do it. I want to thank you, Mitch, for what you said. It means more to me than I can say. I want to thank Sim and Debbie, who have been great friends to me and my family. We met them through Senator Boxer, but I cannot-I do not even have the words to say how grateful I am to you for how good you have been to all the members of my family, my motherin-law, my brother-in-law, my nephew. I feel like a bag lady around you. Here is what I'd like you to think about. If somebody asks you tomorrow, Why did you come here and give this money, what would your answer be? Besides, you know, you wanted to get in here and look at this unbelievable house. If I'd found this house when I was 6 years old, I never would have gone out of it. But anyway, this is what I would like to say. When I ran for ENTITY in 1992, only my mother thought I could win. And I did it. It was not easy for me. I was very happy being Governor of my State. My family was in good shape. I was having a great time with my friends. But I had some very definite ideas about how our country ought to work and how we should change direction. And I was afraid that the country was really in trouble. And I thought, well, even if I do not win, maybe we can move the country off the dime. And the first time I realized I had a chance to win was when I was in the snows of New Hampshire in late 1991, and I was going to a little town called Keene, up in northern New Hampshire.

Remarks at a Democratic National Committee Dinner in Hidden Hills, California


So I was asking these young people who were helping me in New Hampshire, I said-they said, We are going to go up here and have a town meeting, but you have got to understand there are six people running for the Democratic nomination. And President Bush is at 70 percent, but New Hampshire is a basket case, and people are hurting . And I said, Look, I said, get to the bottom line here. How many people do I have to have at this town meeting to avoid being humiliated? And they said 50. And I said, Well, what if we get 100? I said, What if we get 150? I was fifth in the polls in New Hampshire. I had nearly negative name recognition. But I had put out this booklet telling people exactly what I would do if I got elected, not what I would try to do. So we showed up in Keene, and 400 people showed up, and the fire marshal shut it down. And keep in mind, they did not -they were not coming there because they were committed to me. They were coming there because they heard that somebody who was serious about the problems of America wanted to talk to them and listen to them and try to change the direction of the country. And I saw those 400 people-I got on the phone and called Hillary and said, This thing may run a little further than we think here. But I say that to make the first point, which is that to a degree that is often underestimated, the Nation's business is like other businesses. It really matters if you have got a clear analysis of where you are, a clear vision of where you want to go and if you lay out what you are going to do. And it is a lot easier to do the job if you get people around you who want to be on the team, and they work like crazy. It makes a difference. The problems of the Nation yield to efforts in the same way the problems of any other enterprise does. And I think sometimes we forget that. And I have been very blessed and have had a great Cabinet and a great staff and people who work like crazy and who had far less destructive ego problems and far fewer sharp elbows than the previous administration had suffered from. And as hard as it is going to be to leave in many ways, that is the way the system is supposed to work. And so that brings me to the present moment.


The only thing I ever worried about in this election was that the American people would somehow believe it was not important because times were good, that somehow the consequences of their collective decisions on election day were somehow not profound. It is very often easier to make a good decision when you are up against a wall than it is when times are good. Nobody over 30 years old can deny having made at least one colossal mistake in their life, not because times were so bad but because things seemed to go so well, you thought you did not have to concentrate anymore-nobody. If you live long enough, you make those mistakes. So the first thing I want to say is, I have spent a lot of time in my life studying the history of my country. I love it very much. If you come to my office in the White House, you will see a lot of-you will see an original edition of the only book Thomas Jefferson ever wrote and two original printings of George Washington's Farewell Address. I have studied this country closely. I am not sure we have ever had a time when we have had, at the same time, so much economic prosperity, so much social progress with the absence of gripping internal crisis or external threat. So the main issue here in this election season is, what do people believe this election is about anyway? Governor Bush gave a beautiful speech in Philadelphia. It was eloquent, and it studiously avoided being specific about what he would do if he were President. Al Gore gave a very good speech in Los Angeles, which revealed who he was. But most important of all, he said-he gave a lot of respect to the American people. And unlike other job interviews, you are running for ENTITY. You have to define the job. The people want you to say what you think the job is and then what you will do. So he said, If you hire me, this is what I will do. And lo and behold, he got a bigger bump out of our convention than they got out of theirs, even among people, I suspect, who were not sure they agreed with everything he said or maybe he could not remember more than two or three things. He said, This is what it is about.


So the first thing I want to say to you is, based on 8 years of experience, is that anyone who wants to be President in a dynamic time should be flexible enough to admit that he might have been wrong, flexible enough to change course, but it really matters whether you have thought through what you were going to do with this job when you get it. It is a great comfort when the storms come and when you are in all kind of conflict and all this political stuff is happening in Washington the way it does, and people who are in the business or around it primarily for power are pulling back and forth-if you get up every day with a very clear idea of what you said you were going to do and what you believe the country needs, it is an unbelievable asset to America. So one good reason to be for this guy is, he actually talks about what he would do if he were President in great detail, with the benefit of a unique amount of experience. Now, this may seem self-evident to you, but you go back and look at all the Presidential campaigns in the 20th century. In New Hampshire, I knew that America was moving to this because Senator Tsongas, who was from Massachusetts next door, who won the New Hampshire primary, and I got 60 percent of the vote between us in a six-way race, and we were the only two people that put out very detailed plans of what we would do. The second thing I want to say is, what I think we should be thinking about is how we keep this thing going, first of all. What could go wrong with this economy? How do we head off the problems, maximize the opportunities? And then what are the really big challenges out there for America? Because when you have this luxury and this kind of circumstance, you ought to be going after the big challenge. What are we going to do when all the baby boomers retire and there is two people working for every one person drawing Social Security? What are we going to do when all of America looks like California-there is no majority race- and we have the biggest bunch of school kids we have ever had from all these diverse racial, ethnic, religious backgrounds and with different first languages. The most diverse school district, interestingly enough, is not Los Angeles or New York or Chicago; it is Fairfax County, Virginia, just across the river from Washington, where there are children from 180 different racial and ethnic groups with over 100 different native languages.


And I spent a lot of time there. What I want to say-because California has done a lot of good work in education the last few years, and I am honored to have the attorney general and the speaker here tonight. We know something we did not know 20 years ago, when Hillary and I started working on public schools. We actually know how to turn failing schools around. We actually know what it means to say all children can learn. I was in a school in Harlem the other day where 2 years ago, 80 percent of the kids were doing reading and math below grade level. Two years later-2 years later- in one of the poorest neighborhoods in New York City, 74 percent of the kids were doing reading and math at or above grade level-2 years. But the one thing America has never done, ever-and there was no real penalty to it before, but there is now-we have never taken what works in some places and been able to make it work everywhere for our schools. How are we going to do that? People used to make fun of Al Gore when he talked about global warming. We just got a study from one of the polar icecaps that indicates the 1990's were the warmest decade in a thousand years. I think we ought to have somebody in the White House that understands that. I personally think we ought to keep paying down the debt until we get out of debt for the first time since 1835, because that will keep interest rates lower, and our growth in this 8-year period has been more generated by private sector growth than any economic recovery in the 20th century. You can make your own list. But you think about the big things. That is what America ought to be focused on. The third thing I would like to say, and I think by far the most important, is that we need, as a nation, to have, in my judgment, a unifying, a synthesizing view of human society and human history. I have always tried to bring people together. I ran for ENTITY because I hated what I was hearing out of Washington every night. There was nobody in Congress to get on television and get their 15 seconds at night on the evening news unless they were somehow coming up with a wedge issue that divided us.


But if you think about the way you run your family or your business or any other enterprise, if you spent most of your time on what divided you and none of your time trying to get together, the whole society would fall apart. And yet, national politics, because it is a long way from us and operates at a fairly high level of abstraction, at a time when people do not believe you can do anything right, there is no way to make any headway politically unless you have wedge issues. And I think one of the signal achievements of this administration in rolling back the Gingrich revolution was to reject the politics of division in favor of the politics of unity. And you know, my political philosophy is very simple and borne of my life experience. I think everybody counts; everybody ought to have a chance; and we all do better when we help each other. That is what I believe. I actually believe that. And there is an interesting book out that I recommend, written by a man named Robert Wright, who previously wrote a book called The Moral Animal. It is called Non Zero, and it is a reference to game theory. You know, a zero-sum game is one where, in order for me to win, you have got to lose, or vice-versa, like a golf match. One of them will win; one of them will lose. But the argument he makes in this book is that as societies grow more and more complex and we become more and more interdependent, both within and beyond national borders, we have a greater and greater stake in finding ways to win together. And that, basically, he makes an historical argument for Martin Luther King's wonderful famous saying that, the arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice. And I guess we all like books that agree with us. But I have spent my whole life believing that we waste a lot of our lives by trying to lift ourselves up by putting other people down. So if I could leave America with one wish, it would not be even for continued prosperity; it would be to find some way to get over all this stuff that we are hung up about, respect our differences, relish our differences, teach children to be proud of their ethnic, their racial, their religious heritage; but somehow understand that, underneath it all, the most important thing of all is our common humanity. And I think it is more important than ever before because of the scientific and technological advances we face.


Terrorists will be able to come across national borders with chemical and biological weapons in plastic cases that will not show up on airport metal detectors. The forces of division will be able to do things. If we do not do something about the ENTITY epidemic in Africa and the growing rates in South Asia and the rapidly growing rates in the countries of the former Soviet Union, it will eventually come back around to this country where we are making real headway. If we do not do something about the total breakdown of public health systems in poor countries around the world, all these places that we are looking for to buy our products, because we have got 4 percent of the world's people and 22 percent of the world's wealth, they are not going to have any money; they will not even have any people to buy our products. There are African countries that, within a decade, will have more people in them in their sixties than in their thirties. So what I want to say is, look, I think the best time in human history is unfolding. I think the children in this room tonight will grow up, if we make good decisions, in the most exciting, peaceful, prosperous, interconnected time in all of human history. But nothing happens by accident. So if somebody asked you tomorrow why you came, I hope you will say, Well, I think they have had a pretty good 8 years. The country is going in the right direction. Number two, they seem to have a pretty good idea of what they will do if I give them the job. Number three, I want somebody that will take on big things. I do not want to blow this, certainly the chance of 50 years. And that is basically the defining, enduring dream of the 20th century Democratic Party. And if I have contributed to it, I am grateful. But you know, this is an interesting position for me. I always tell everybody, for most of my life, I was the youngest person who was doing whatever it was I was doing. Now I go in a room, most people are younger than me. Now people look at me like I have got a leg in the grave. My party's got a new leader. My family's got a new candidate. I am the Cheerleader in Chief of the country. What am I supposed to do? I will tell you, the thing that I really want out of all of this is just for you to make the most of it.


And I will just leave you with this one story. I think that if I had any success, part of it was the way I was raised. I think most American people thought I was pulling-I think the people that served this dinner tonight ought to have the same chance to send their kids to college that you do. I believe that. I believe that disabled people ought to be able to access modern technology, because I do not think their bodies ought to keep them from living however much of their dreams that they can live. I went to Flint, Michigan. I will close with this story, because this will make the point. I went to Flint, Michigan, this week to go to one of the community computer centers we are setting up around the country in low-income areas, to try to make sure that people can access the information resources for the Internet. And I got a bunch of stuff in the budget that would put a thousand of these up. But the reason I went to Flint is that it used to be the automotive capital of Michigan, even more than Detroit. They have had to rebuild their whole economy, but they have maybe the best outreach programs to the disability community in their city of anyplace in the country. So I saw software where blind people were working on braille and putting it into the Internet, and then the computer would speak back to them, so they know that they got the Email right or the message right. And I saw the deaf people working on it, and the computer would write back to them so that they could see that they had gotten it right. And this wonderful woman said to me, You know, I get E-mails every week from a guy in North Carolina named Joe Martin, and I understand you know him. And I said, Yes, I do know him. I will tell you about Joe Martin, because I think we ought to empower everybody to live like this. In the 1980's, when I was a young Governor, I was active in something called the Southern Growth Policy Board. And it is a group of Governors and legislators and other folks, businesspeople and educators. And we worked on growing the southern economy and trying to catch it up to the rest of the country. And basically, we worked on jobs and schools; that is what we did. One of the North Carolina delegates was this guy, Joe Martin, whose brother was the Republican Governor of North Carolina.


Well, one of the great pleasures of this job, but also one of my responsibilities, is making sure that we are preserving our Nation's treasures so that they can be enjoyed by our children, our grandchildren, our great-grandchildren. And over the years, over a hundred sites have been set aside as national monuments, everything from the Statue of Liberty to the Grand Canyon. So today I am continuing that proud tradition by adding another monument to the list. Fort Monroe in Hampton, Virginia, has played a remarkable role in the history of our Nation. It was the site of the first slave ships to land in the New World. But during the Civil War, almost 250 years later, Fort Monroe also became a refuge for slaves that were escaping from the South and helped create the environment in which Abraham Lincoln was able to sign that document up there, the Emancipation Proclamation. In September, Fort Monroe closed its doors as a military base. But thanks to the advocacy of some outstanding citizens and historians and elected officials who are represented here, as well as the great work of our Department of the Interior and Ken Salazar and the all the people who have been involved in making this day possible, we are going to continue this legacy, making Fort Monroe a national monument. This is going to give an opportunity for people from all across the country to travel to Fort Monroe and trace the history that has been so important to making America what it is. It is also going to be an incredibly important economic boost to the region. Local officials estimate that this may end up creating as many as 3,000 jobs in the region. It will add millions of dollars to the local economy in and around Hampton. Not only is it good for the people of that region now, but it also allows us to set aside this incredibly important site for the enjoyment and appreciation of generations to come. So I want to thank everybody who is here for the great work that they have done. I am looking forward to not only visiting myself, but also taking Malia and Sasha down there so they get a little bit a sense of their history. And I thank the Commonwealth of Virginia for giving us this opportunity to appreciate the remarkable history of their State, but also of this country. So with that, I am going to sign this bill or Executive order. As I said, there is a strong economic component to this. We think we can see additional jobs in Virginia as a consequence of this.

Remarks on Signing a Proclamation Establishing the Fort Monroe National Monument and an Exchange With Reporters


It is great to have you at the White House. Otto Warmbier has just passed away. He spent a year and a half in North Korea. A lot of bad things happened. But at least we got him home to be with his parents, where they were so happy to see him, even though he was in very tough condition. It is a brutal regime, and we will be able to handle it. But I want to thank you all for being here, special people. I am thrilled-really thrilled-to welcome many of you for the first time and certainly the first time meeting as the American Technology Council. We are joined by an incredible group of leaders on the absolute cutting edge of innovation, including many CEOs from the world's most successful businesses. We have approximately $3.5 trillion of market value in this room, but that is almost the exact number that we have created since my election. In fact, I think we have you beat by a little bit, and-which is a pretty good number. But I congratulate you all. You have done an amazing job. A lot of ideas have come out of the room today, and a lot of ideas will over the next short period of time. I also want to welcome Secretary Mnuchin, Secretary Kelly, Administrator Verma, and my Budget Director, Mick Mulvaney. I want to thank Jared and Chris-Chris Liddell-for assembling such a spectacular group of people. I want to thank Ivanka for working so hard on it; it is a real passion. Our goal is to lead a sweeping transformation of the Federal Government's technology that will deliver dramatically better services for citizens, stronger protection from cyberattacks, which we were just discussing in the Oval Office with a little bit smaller group. And it is a big-that is a big problem, there is no question about it. We are going to be working on it, and we are going to solve the problem-and up to a trillion dollars in savings for taxpayers over the next 10 years. We are embracing big change, bold thinking, and outsider perspectives to transform Government and make it the way it should be and at far less cost. My administration has already taken very historic steps to modernize critical IT systems and make Government more transparent.

Remarks During a Roundtable Discussion With the American Technology Council


As an example, you are seeing what we are doing with the airports, with all of the billions and billions of dollars that has-have been spent on planes flying all in the wrong directions, we are getting it changed. They have spent many billions of dollars, and we are getting that whole system fixed. VA Secretary Shulkin recently announced that we are upgrading technology to allow the seamless transfer of veterans' medical records from the Defense Department, which has been a huge problem for decades and decades for our great veterans. We will have it fixed very soon, but it is been a problem for many, many decades. Across Government, we are fixing problems in months that others have not fixed in many, many years. Fifty years ago, our Government drove the innovation that inspired the world and put Americans on the Moon. Today, many of our agencies rely on painfully outdated technology, and yet we have the greatest people in technology that the world has ever seen right here with us in this room. And most of them are just nodding as I say that. They are actually agreeing with me, which--that is interesting, Eric, right? Government needs to catch up with the technology revolution. We are going to change that with the help of great American businesses like the people assembled. The businesses represented here today employ hundreds of thousands of American workers. Your innovation has shaped the modern world and created millions of jobs. America should be the global leader in government technology just as we are in every other aspect, and we are going to start our big edge again in technology, such an important industry. I view it from the standpoint of jobs and other things; you view it somewhat differently. But we are all in the same ballpark. My administration is embracing a new spirit of innovation that will make life better for all Americans. And when it comes to what we are here for today, American technology, we are working very diligently with everybody, including Congress, on immigration so that you can get the people you want in your companies. And it is been a tremendous problem that you have had over the past long period of time. So we are working very hard on that, and we will be able to solve that problem. I want to thank everyone in the room for lending your time again.


I am honored today to sign a bill that is an important step in an effort to secure our border, while promoting trade and commerce. It is a good piece of legislation. And I want to thank the members of both parties who have worked hard to get this bill to my desk. I want to thank Tom Ridge, who is here. At least that is what some of the Members are saying. I particularly want to thank Senators Kyl and Brownback and Kennedy, Feinstein, and Hatch for being here fine, fine Members of the United States Senate. I want to thank you for coming. I also want to appreciate Chairman Jim Sensenbrenner and George Gekas as well. These Members worked hard on this legislation. I want to thank the members of my administration who are here. I also want to say hello to Arlene Howard. Howard, it is good to see you. A lot of folks might remember you can stand up. Arlene gave me her son, George's, badge and as a reminder of the evil that had been done to our country. I remember when I went over to Yankee Stadium to throw out the ball there at the World Series, Arlene's one of Arlene's other sons was there. I want to thank Peter Johnson, who was George's partner for 12 years. It is good to see you. I want to welcome you all. I was looking at Arlene and the brave folks here; it reminds me of what was done to us there on September 11th and how important it is that we remain tough and strong and diligent as we seek justice, as we chase down these killers one by one and bring them to justice. And that is a major responsibility of all of ours, and it is a responsibility we take seriously. The country is united in our drive for justice. This Nation is determined, and we are patient, much to the chagrin of the enemy. It must make them really worried to know that we do not have a calendar that says, on such-and-such a date we are going to quit, that when it comes to our free-doms defending our freedoms and securing our homeland and protecting our innocent Americans and never forgetting what happened on September the 11th, we are some kind of tough. We have got responsibilities here at home as well, and it starts with our borders. Our borders process an incredibly huge number of people.

Remarks on Signing the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002


It may come as a surprise to some of you, but there is over 500 million people a year enter America, and half of those are our own citizens that may have been traveling. We have 11 million trucks come across our borders. We have 51,000 foreign ships call into our ports. It reminds us that no nation can be totally secure or more secure, unless we are well-protected and unless our borders are well-screened. We must know who is coming into our country and why they are coming. We must know what our visitors are doing and when they leave. And we must always protect the rights of our law of law-abiding citizens from around the world who come here to conduct business or to study or to spend time with their family. That is what we are known for. We are known for respect. But on the other hand, we can do a better job of making our borders more secure and make our borders smart. We must use technology and be wise about how we use technology, to speed the flow of commerce across our borders and to identify frequent travelers who pose no risk. We should be directing resources to risk. We ought to be routing out smugglers and focusing on criminals and, of course, stopping terrorists from coming into the country. The bill I sign today enhances our ongoing efforts to strengthen our borders. The purpose of this bill is to help our country do a better job of border security. It authorizes 400 additional inspectors, investigators, and other staff on the INS over the next 5 years. We are adding manpower, obviously. It makes it easier for the INS and other Federal agencies to get better information about people and products that come into America. It requires every foreign visitor desiring entrance into the United States to carry a travel document containing biometric identification that would be fingerprints or facial recognition that will enable us to use technology to better deny fraudulent entry into America. It strengthens the requirements that all commercial passenger ships and airplanes entering the United States provide a list of passengers and crew before arrival, so that border authorities can act immediately to prevent someone from entering the country if he or she poses a threat to our citizens. It makes a lot of sense to do that. We should have probably been doing it a long time ago. These new measures will only be effective if Federal authorities have access to important information. One of the things we have learned is how to better share information. Right now, the FBI and the CIA do a good job of sharing information.


Information is getting better shared from the Federal to the State to the local levels. But we have got to do a better job of sharing information and expanding information to the INS and the State Department and Customs agents and throughout the intelligence community. We have just got to do a better job. This bill enables us to modernize our communication, so the information flows freely and quickly. The legislation requires law enforcement and intelligence communities to continue to develop a list of suspected terrorists and to maintain that list and to make it readily available, so that nobody is granted entry into the United States that is on the list. In other words, we are beginning to gather information overseas in a much better way. We have got a vast coalition of nations that are still with us. They heard the message, Either you are with us, or you are not with us. They are still with us. And we are sharing information, and we can use that better use that information with our own agencies here at home, to make sure that we really button us up, that we do our job, the job the American people expect. The bill did not have everything I wanted. I wanted a temporary extension of 245 in the bill, which basically allowed certain immigrants, sponsored by their families or employers, to become legal residents without having to leave the country, so that families can stay together. I thought that made sense. It is not a part of the bill. I intend to work with Congress to see if we cannot get that done here pretty quick. Yet, the commonsense measures will help us meet the goal, and that is important. It will help us meet the goals of legitimate commerce and important travel. And at the same time, it will help us keep the country secure. Basically what we are saying is, this is part of a legislative part of a national strategy. Tom's worked on the national strategy. He is worked with our respective agency heads. And Congress has been a great partner in this strategy. You know, sometimes in Washington we actually are able to put our political parties aside and focus on what is best for the country. And we are able to say, let us make sure America comes is the first priority of all of us. And this has happened in this bill. So it is my honor to welcome both Republicans and Democrats from the legislative branch of Government here as I sign this important legislation.


Scripture tells us, We count as blessed those who have persevered. Michelle and I are humbled to be with you once again. Thirteen years since the peace of an American morning was broken. Thirteen years since nearly 3,000 beautiful lives were taken from us, including 125 men and women serving here at the Pentagon. Thirteen years of moments they would have shared with us. Thirteen years of memories they would have made. your determination to carry on, your resolve to live lives worthy of their memories. As Americans, we draw strength from you. For your love is the ultimate rebuke to the hatred of those who attacked us that bright, blue morning. They sought to do more than bring down buildings or murder our people. They sought to break our spirit and to prove to the world that their power to destroy was greater than our power to persevere and to build. America endures in the strength of your families who, through your anguish, kept living. You have kept alive a love that no act of terror can ever extinguish. You, their sons and daughters, are growing into extraordinary young men and women they knew you could be. By your shining example, your families have turned this day into something that those who attacked us could never abide, and that is a tribute of hope over fear and love over hate. America endures in the tenacity of our survivors. After grievous wounds, you learned to walk again and stand again. After terrible burns, you smiled once more. For you, for our Nation, these have been difficult years. But by your presence here today, in the lives of service that you have led, you embody the truth that no matter what comes our way, America will always come out stronger. America endures in the dedication of those who keep us safe. The firefighter, the officer, the EMT who carries the memory of a fallen partner as they report to work each and every day, prepared to make the same sacrifice for us all. Because of these men and women, Americans now work in a gleaming Freedom Tower. We visit our great cities, we fill our stadiums and cheer for our teams. We carry on, because, as Americans, we do not give in to fear ever. America endures in the courage of the men and women who serve under our flag.

Remarks at a Wreath-Laying Ceremony at the Pentagon Memorial in Arlington, Virginia


I am profoundly honored to be here within the four sacred mountains, especially on Navajo Nation Sovereignty Day. I want to thank young Myra Jodie. Did not she do a wonderful job up here? Thank you, Congressman Tom Udall; the vice president, Taylor McKenzie; Chief Justice Robert Yazzie; Speaker Edward Begay; members of the Navajo Tribal Council; Shiprock Council Mayor William Lee; and we have with us today the president of the National Congress of American Indians, Sue Masten thank you for being here; to all the honored Governors of pueblos and tribal leaders. the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Andrew Cuomo; the Interior Deputy Secretary, David Hayes; the Assistant Secretary of Agriculture, Carl Whillock; and the person most responsible for working with you, Assistant Secretary of the Interior Kevin Gover I thank him for all he has done; Federal Communications Commission Chairman Bill Kennard and Commissioner Gloria Tristani. And I'd like to thank the people from the White House who are here, especially Gene Sperling, who put together this digital divide tour, and Lynn Cutler, who is my liaison to Indian country all over the United States. I thank them. Senator Robert Bennett, who came from Utah; Representative Bill Jefferson, who came from New Orleans, Louisiana; Silvestre Reyes from El Paso, Texas; and Stephanie Tubbs Jones, who came from Cleveland, Ohio. I want to thank my friend of more than 20 years now, your former Governor, Bruce King, and his wife, Alice, thank them for being here. I want to thank the renowned basketball star Rebecca Lobo, who came with me today. And I thank Reverend Jesse Jackson for coming. I thank all the high-tech leaders who are here. And there was one young man who meant to come with me today who could not come, a man I admire very much not only for his success but for the way he has handled adversity, Notah Begay. And I think we ought to give him a big hand. I also want to recognize two young women who are here, because they were in the First Lady's gallery at my State of the Union Address, members of the Navajo Nation and former volunteers for AmeriCorps, Christina and Justina Jones. I am very proud of them and all the other young Dine people who have served not only the Navajo Nation but our Nation as a whole as AmeriCorps volunteers.

Remarks to the People of the Navajo Nation in Shiprock, New Mexico


Let me also express my deep gratitude to the Navajo Code Talkers who provided our. And I want to thank Senator Jeff Bingaman for working to ensure that you receive the national honors you so richly deserve. All Americans should know of the exploits of the young Navajo men, some as young as 15, who enlisted in the Marine Corps in World War II, helped to develop an ingenious code based on your language, and became the communications link to and from the frontlines of the Allies in the Pacific war. One of our most enduring images of freedom is that of the marines hoisting the American flag over Iwo Jima. Well, there are many American military commanders from that conflict who will tell you that the United States might never have taken Iwo Jima or won countless other battles in the Pacific if it were not for the bravery, the sacrifice, and the unbreakability of the code of the Navajo Code Talkers. It is fitting that we begin this day by recalling their achievements. After all, there are few people in America who better embody the power of communication. In fact, if you think about it, the system the Code Talkers used has real similarities to the beginning of the worldwide network we call the Internet. Both systems were developed for sending information quickly, securely, and reliably during times of war. Both had the power to change the course of history. For more than 50 years after the Code Talkers were able to communicate with one another, over great distances in the Pacific, it is still hard to communicate between many parts of the Navajo Nation itself. In much of America, it takes just a modest amount of money and time to get someone on the Internet. But here, an astonishing 37 percent of the households are without electricity, about 70 percent without phone service, more than half without work. I am here because I believe the new technologies like the Internet and wireless communications can have an enormous positive impact in the Navajo Nation. They can help you to leapfrog over some of the biggest hurdles to develop your economic and human potential. They can be a vehicle for job growth, for education, for health care, for employment opportunities. I know the Navajo Nation has already begun to see this potential, as President Begaye said. Here in Shiprock, the closest public library is more than 30 miles away.


Yet, thanks to your new PowerUP partnership, children and parents now are able to browse some of the great libraries of the world simply by going to the Boys and Girls Club. On the western side of the Navajo Nation, rural health clinics are now linked through computers to the finest medical specialists at the University of Arizona. Your new Navajo Able initiative, funded in part by the Department of Education, is providing technologies to help children with disabilities write and communicate on computers. At Dine College, even rural campuses have state-of-the-art computer labs, where students soon will conduct real-time teleconferences with professors all around the globe. Almost 30 years ago, when I was a young man, still a student with no money and no prospect reasonably of becoming ENTITY, for sure I first drove across New Mexico. I fell in love with the land and the people. I had my first opportunity to buy for my mother and the girlfriend who became my wife some beautiful Navajo jewelry. Now, just imagine if all the remarkable silversmiths and weavers of the Navajo Nation could sell their work not only in local markets but in national and global markets as well. Just imagine if all remote health clinics were connected electronically to major medical centers. Imagine if Dine could commute to high-tech, high-paying jobs in large cities just by getting on a computer here in Shiprock. Imagine if all your children had access to the same world of knowledge at the same instance as children in the wealthiest communities in America. The potential is staggering, and we have to seize it. I am here today to pledge that the National Government will do its part in ways that honor your tribal sovereignty. Ever since I have been ENTITY, we have worked to try to empower the tribes of our Nation. I will never forget the day in 1994, when I had the chance to welcome leaders of more than 300 American Indian tribes to the White House, the first time this had been done since President James Monroe's administration, in 1822. You know, when I was just a very young boy, I used to go to the county public library in my hometown in Arkansas. I can remember spending day after day reading histories of Native American tribes and biographies of famous chiefs. I remember once I read in the biography of Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce that incredible statement he made, From this day, I will fight no more, forever.


But as we all know, though many of your ancestors gave up fighting and gave up land and water and mineral rights in exchange for peace, security, health care, and education, the Federal Government did not live up to its end of the deal. And I have worked hard to change it. There is nothing more important to me than getting this government-to-government relationship right, but getting it right in a way that will empower you to lift yourselves and your children to fulfill your potential and your dreams, not a patronizing relationship but an empowering one, not a handout but a hand up, a genuine partnership so that your children can live their dreams. As Congressman Udall said, I did ask in the State of the Union Address for the largest budget increases in history for new and existing programs to assist tribal nations. That is why I traveled last year to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, the home of the Lakota Sioux. That is why I made Indian country an important focus of our new markets initiative. Let me tell you what that is. I believe the only way to keep this economy growing is to bring economic opportunity to the people and the places who have been left behind. More businesses, more jobs, more incomes means growth without inflation for the rest of America. People in New York City and Los Angeles and Seattle and Dallas and Atlanta and Miami, they all have a stake in your economic success. And I am here to bring that message to you, and through our friends in the media, to them. I want to give Americans who have money the same incentives to invest in underdeveloped areas in America we now give them to invest in underdeveloped areas of Latin America or Asia or Africa. I want Americans to look first to people here at home who need work and education, who need technology and opportunity. Our E-rate initiative, to provide discount rates to schools and hospitals and libraries that could not otherwise afford them, an initiative pioneered by our Vice President, Al Gore, and championed by this administration for years, has helped to equip every classroom in the consolidated school district with computers and the wiring to connect to the Internet. My new budget provides a major new initiative to prepare Native Americans for careers in technical fields.


It provides $2 billion in tax incentives to encourage the private sector to donate computers, sponsor community technology centers available to adults as well as children, and provide technology training for workers; $150 million to train every single new teacher on how to use this technology effectively in the classroom; and $100 million to create 1,000 community technology centers all across the country, to serve all the people of the community the old, the young, those in between, those with disabilities, and those without education, everyone who can benefit from tapping into this new technology. And I want you to know that I am joined here today by private sector leaders who are part of our national call to action. Hundreds of organizations, including all 32 tribal colleges, have answered this pledge. And I want to highlight just some of the public and private commitments being made to benefit the Navajo Nation and Native Americans all across our country. First, and very important, our Federal Communications Chairman, Bill Kennard, is proposing to expand the Lifeline program to ensure that every Native American who needs it will be able to get basic phone service for as little as $1 a month. In this day and age, when we want every American to have access to the Internet, we must first make sure that every American has access to a phone, so there will be a line to hook into. Second, Native American Systems, headed by Robert Rutherford, a Choctaw, is committing $100,000 state-of-the-art satellite communications to the Red Rock Day School, to provide equipment to 30 other BIA schools in other parts of Indian country. Tachyon is providing satellite Internet access to Dine College and the Lake Valley School. Compaq will provide $500,000 to spur the TechCorps schools partnership, which uses the Internet and TechCorps volunteers to help teachers make the best use of technology in the classroom. Four Navajo Nation schools participated in the pilot of TechCorps schools. Today I am proud to say that this new commitment will make it available to all Navajo Nation schools and all K-through-12 schools nationwide for Native Americans. Microsoft will provide $2.75 million in software and technical support for the American Indian Tribal College program, which will directly benefit Dine College. Andersen Consulting has committed $100,000 to support small business in Indian country, something we need more of. We need access to capital, training, technological support.


And it is a pleasure to be with you on this beautiful Virginia day. Let me first thank Mr. Robert Bass and Mr. Jack Walter of the National Trust for Historic Preservation for hosting this event. And we are fortunate to have the Secretary of the Interior with us, Manuel Lujan. John Warner, Chuck Robb; Congressman George Allen, and other members of Congress. I am delighted to be with you on this special day. It is an honor to be here with the people of Orange County, for this is the community that nurtured the father of our Constitution, James Madison. Citizens of this county launched Madison's political career, sending him to the Virginia House of Delegates when he was just 25 years old. In 1789, Orange County, almost by itself, provided Madison's margin of victory in gaining a seat in the First Congress of the United States. Here is the home where Madison developed and sustained his deep love of liberty, of religious freedom, economic freedom, intellectual freedom. Here at Montpelier, Madison immersed himself in the historical and philosophic study that shaped our Constitution. And here, he promised his constituents he would work to enact a Bill of Rights. I am especially pleased to announce that our fiscal year '93 budget will seek $1 million in Federal support for the restoration of Montpelier. Two hundred years ago this week, the Virginia General Assembly ratified the Bill of Rights. And with this action, three-fourths of the States had approved the Bill of Rights, thus making it a part of our Constitution. Americans have celebrated all of 1991 as the bicentennial year of the Bill of Rights. And thanks to efforts by schools and foundations and corporations, government bodies, active individuals, we have marked the year with many outstanding educational programs, including a national tour exhibiting Virginia's own original copy of the Bill of Rights. Next year, an exhibit on the Bill of Rights, organized by the U.S. Information Agency, will be the centerpiece of the United States Pavilion at the Expo in Seville. Congress has resolved that we observe the Bill of Rights bicentennial with a Year of Thanksgiving for the Blessings of Liberty. As a gesture of my esteem for James Madison and his home community, I am signing here at Montpelier the Presidential proclamation of this bicentennial celebration. May God bless all of you, and may He always keep the American people free and dedicated to Madison's ideals of a just society.

Remarks on Signing the Year of Thanksgiving for the Blessings of Liberty Proclamation in Orange County, Virginia


I am coming to you from aboard the United States ship Theodore Roosevelt, which left yesterday from Norfolk, Virginia, on a 6-month mission. What I have seen on this ship today only increases my pride not only in the sailors and marines I met but also in every soldier, every sailor, every airman, every marine who serves our Nation, from Rhein-Main Air Force Base in Germany, where Americans are leaving to airdrop lifesaving supplies into Bosnia, to Somalia, where our Armed Forces have served with great distinction and made every American proud. I am honored to join you on Armed Forces Radio. the privilege of meeting Americans all across our Nation, the opportunity to hear about their lives and their dreams for our future, and of course, the opportunity to become the President of the United States. Your day at the office can be 6 months or longer. And it is not for the money, it is always for the country. dedication and responsibility and the willingness of you and your loved ones to bear a tremendous level of sacrifice. You commit your daily energies and even your lives to benefit your fellow Americans. Our armed services stand as one of history's great successes. Every color, every background, every region of our society is represented in America's Armed Forces. The American military pioneered our Nation's progress toward integration and equal opportunity. It is constantly adapted to change and always rising to the challenge of change. You, and all who wear America's uniforms, are what make the United States a true superpower. It is your skill, your professionalism, your courage, and your dedication to country and service that constitutes the muscle, the sinew, and the soul of our strength. And today I salute you. I want to say a special word about the Navy since I am on board this fine ship today. It means a lot to a Commander in Chief to have a ready fleet. Where is the nearest carrier? This ship's namesake, President Theodore Roosevelt, once said, The Navy of the United States is the right arm of the United States and is emphatically the peacemaker. Theodore Roosevelt was the first American ever to win the Nobel Peace Prize, in part with the help of the United States Navy. We have a great stake, you and I, in maintaining a strong American defense and in working hard even at the end of the cold war. The Theodore Roosevelt played an important part in the end of the cold war.

Radio Address to the Armed Forces


In 1988, it was here that an American Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff first welcomed his Soviet counterpart to visit an American aircraft carrier. That was when my friend Admiral William Crowe and Marshal Sergey Akhromeyev stepped aboard this ship to meet the crew and watch flight operations just as I have done today. It was a key milestone on the path to the end of the cold war. The specter of Soviet tanks rolling westward across the northern German plains no longer haunts us. Saddam Hussein confirmed that. The tragic violence in Bosnia reminds us of that every day. The proliferation of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction is unfortunately a growing, not a receding, menace. And human suffering, such as that in Somalia, may not threaten our shores but still requires us to act. These challenges are new in many ways, but we dare not overlook their significance. Blinders never provide security. A changed security environment demands that we change our security arrangement. Yes, we are reducing the defense budget because of the end of the cold war, but we are not downsizing for its own sake, we are trying to rightsize our security for security's sake. Our military first must be exceptionally mobile, with first-rate sealift, airlift, and ability to project power. Our military must be agile, with an emphasis on maneuver, on speed, and on technological superiority. Our firepower must be precise so that we can minimize the exposure to harm for men and women who wear our uniform and reduce civilian casualties. Our military must be flexible so that we can operate with diverse coalition partners in different parts of the world. Our forces must be smart with the intelligence and communications we need for complex threats. And above all, our military must be ever-ready, given the unpredictability of new threats. None of these goals are possible without a quality force. The people on this ship and all of you who are listening to me exemplify that quality. It is your skills, your experience, your training, and your dedication that will get the job done for America and guarantee that our vital interests can be protected. While all of you carry out your mission so far from home, we back home will be engaged in many debates on defense policy. I will tell you that there are changes which lie ahead. Defense cuts are, and have been for the last several years, a fact of life, an inescapable consequence of the new world you have worked so hard to create.

Radio Address to the Armed Forces


As you watch the news or read newspapers, you will hear us talk of new roles and missions and you will see news about bases and budget cuts. But as we reduce defense spending, we must not leave the men and women who won the cold war out in the cold. As these bases close, as close some of them must, we must not close our eyes and our hearts to the need for new investments and a need to create new jobs in communities with old bases. Defense spending has been declining since 1986, but there is been no real plan about what to do on it, no real plan for military personnel mustered out, no real plan for civilian workers who have lost their jobs or for the communities who have been hurt or for the companies who have been devastated. We can be buffeted by change, or we can act boldly to use this change to make our country stronger and safer and smarter. That is why it is so important to make the investments we need in defense conversion, in education and training and new jobs in new industries. I want to help ensure that those of you who choose to leave the military in the years to come return to a nation of jobs and growth and opportunity. I am immensely proud of who you are and what you are doing. And as these changes proceed I pledge that as long as I am your President, you and the other men and women in uniform will continue to be the best trained, the best prepared, the best equipped Fighting force in the world. There is no single decision I take more seriously than those involving the use of force. As I weigh crises that confront America around the world, you will be in my mind and in my heart. This is, on balance, a very hopeful time. But still, it is full of challenges. We can be glad that your mission is not darkly framed by the cold war's confrontation with a nuclear adversary. But many new duties and dangers are taking the place of that single stark threat, some of them yet unknown. There is no sonar, no radar that can enable us to fathom all the changes in terrain over which we are about to set sail. Napoleon had a standing order to his corps commanders to, quote, March to the sound of the gun. He meant that when the shooting starts on a battlefield, it is the soldier's obligation to move into the fight. Today, there are many different security challenges into which we must all move.

Radio Address to the Armed Forces


I just want everybody to know that it is now my second term, so rather than Hail to the Chief, we are going with that from here on out. Now, before we get started, I am going to exercise some Presidential prerogative to say a few words about two very special people who are here tonight. This will humiliate them, but I am going to go ahead and do it anyway. Jess Wright and Kenny Thompson both work on my staff, crucial members of my team since way back in Iowa in 2007. Over the weekend, Kenny popped the question, and Jess said yes. So I want to congratulate-publicly-Kenny Thompson, Jess Wright. We love them. They have been loyal, shown such great friendship to me, and I am so glad that they have gone ahead and taken the plunge. By the way, guys, Justin Timberlake just got married to this lovely young lady right here, Jessica Biel. So Justin can probably offer you a few pointers. And, Justin, they are looking for a wedding singer. Tonight I am speaking not just as a President, but as one of America's best known Al Green impersonators. We do not even know ourselves how that music has endured for so long and how that came out of us. All I know is I have been looking forward to tonight because, let us face it, who does not love this music? These songs get us on the dance floor. Even the Governor of Tennessee said he is going to dance tonight. They get stuck in our heads. We go back over them again and again. And they have played an important part in our history. In the sixties and seventies, Memphis knew its share of division and discord and injustice. But in that turbulent time, the sound of Hi and Duke and Sun and Stax records tried to bridge those divides, to create a little harmony with harmony. The great Memphis musician Don Nix went to an all-White school, and he described what it was like. If you could imagine, nobody's ever heard R&B music before. White kids had never heard it. And you can imagine what that did to us. So he and others kept playing music that everybody could get in to. They created a whole new sound, and as they did, they broke down barriers. On McLemore Avenue, in the heart of a segregated city, Stax Records was integrated from the studio musicians all the way to upper management.

Remarks at PBS's In Performance at the White House: Memphis Soul


Booker T. Jones and Steve Cropper, who are both here tonight, helped form one of the city's first integrated bands. They were not allowed to go to school together. But no one could stop them from playing music together. And that was the spirit of their music-the sound of Soulsville, U.S.A. -a music that, at its core, is about the pain of being alone, the power of human connection, and the importance of treating each other right. After all, this is the music that asked us to 'try a little tenderness'. It is the music that put Mr. Big Stuff in his place. Can you dig it? So it is really no surprise that Memphis soul swept the Nation, and it has stood the test of time. Tonight we bring it to the White House. We have got folks here who were there at the beginning, legends like Mavis Staples, Charlie Musselwhite, William Bell, and Eddie Floyd. We have got artists like Cyndi Lauper and Ben Harper and Queen Latifah, who still turn to Memphis for inspiration. We have got Justin Timberlake, a proud son of Memphis who is never forgotten his roots, and the Alabama Shakes, who are bringing the Muscle Shoals sound to a new generation. So to all of you, even more than for the music you have created, I want to say a special thank you for the difference that you have made in our lives. More than half a century after Soulsville, U.S.A., first opened its doors, you still bring us together. You still remind us how much we have in common. You still help us imagine a better place. And you promise, through your beautiful music, that you can take us there. So tonight we are going to start things off with two extraordinary artists who span the generations. In the heyday of soul music, no band had more hits than the group known simply as Sam and Dave.


To Messrs. Mays and Fritts, thank you both, and to all of the rest of the leaders of the NAB that are here today. And also I understand there are a lot of Members of the United States Congress here. In my line of work, you always pay your respects to the Members of Congress in the forlorn hope that they will do it exactly my way someday. It is my privilege this morning to be back before America's family of broadcasters, the National Association of Broadcasters. And I cannot help but marvel at these huge screens as I walked in here. You know, if I were as large as my image on these screens, imagine how easy it would be for me to get my way with the Congress. And this convention is also displayed, I am told, on monitors throughout the arena, and from here, beamed around the world. I will try to finish each sentence without a preposition. But there was a time when most Americans knew their Presidents distantly, from woodcut prints in the weekly newspaper. The circle of democracy in ancient Athens and Rome was even more limited, just to those within hearing range of the debates inside the Parthenon or the Forum. But today, through free over-the-air broadcasts, you have brought millions of living rooms within hearing range; you have made every home a part of the American forum. In fact, on this very day, you are providing for the 6,000 foreign broadcasters in attendance, through your international seminars, and through USIA's WORLDNET a seminar for the world. Television, which began as the American forum, has become the world forum. And so, when a lone brave man stood up to a column of tanks in Tiananmen Square, the world stood with him. When the people of Prague sang the first Christmas carols in over 40 years, the world sang with them. And when the first German took the first hammer to that wall of shame in Berlin, the world shared in an historic act of courage. We all know that governments can censor, governments can silence, but the voice of freedom will not be stilled as long as there is an America to tell the truth. These sounds and images of the Revolution of '89 belong to the world. But it was here in America that a free people first explored how to put the airwaves into the service of democracy. We accept regulation, but we firmly reject government programming. We reject government ownership of stations.

Remarks at the Annual Convention of the National Association of Broadcasters in Atlanta, Georgia


And most of all, we reject censorship. You see, the freedom that this association enjoys probably takes for granted is a model for the world. democracy, private investment, competitiveness, stewardship. We will see what competitiveness means just this afternoon I am going out to visit a General Electric plant in Cincinnati, where free workers transformed foreign investment into foreign business. Tomorrow I am going to Indianapolis help promote stewardship, where the city works with citizens to cultivate an urban forest. But these are not what you'd call isolated whistlestops. America's ideas are powerful, and through the power of communication, we share them with the world. After all, we live in a time when commodity prices and travel reservations and fast-breaking news flash from Hong Kong to Tokyo, Tokyo to Bonn, Bonn to Boston, all in the blink of an eye. Roam among the hundreds of exhibits in this convention center, and you will find 22 football fields chock-full of the latest gadgets in telecommunications personal computers and modems, fax machines, lasers, optical fibers, satellites all strands in a growing web of world communications, a growing network linking all of us, a global village. it is the essence of who and what we are. Last May, I discussed the future of Europe with the citizens of Mainz, a German city nestled in the green hills along the Rhine River. And it was while I was there that I appreciated anew the Biblical expression, In the beginning was the Word. For it was in that German town that the inventor of the printing press, Johann Gutenberg, first put the scholarship of the ages into the hands of millions of knowledge-hungry readers. His one invention made possible all the pamphlets and journals of the Enlightenment and of the American Revolution, from the call to arms of Thomas Paine to the cool logic of The Federalist Papers. You might argue that out of that one invention sprang the very idea called America. images projected on color television and evoked by the sounds of radio. But while Western democracy broadened as our knowledge broadened, the circle of democracy and knowledge narrowed under Communist regimes that took power on many continents. For these nations, truth was something to be twisted and stretched by the brutal hands of authority, manipulated beyond recognition. The Czech author Kundera calls this time the kingdom of forgetting, when whole nations almost forgot their heroic histories and finest traditions. Radio Marti, Radio Liberty, Radio Free Europe and, God bless it, the Voice of America.


To fully appreciate what these broadcasts mean, you need only ask someone who listened to them. Sichan Siv, a young man now works on our White House staff he is a Cambodian, an American who lived through the horrors of the killing fields. And he is told me that when the Khmer Rouge took control of a village the very first items they confiscated were the radios, for if they respected and feared anything, it was the power of free information. But even under the threat of death, men and women like Sichan Siv were so hungry for news from the outside world that they would turn on a hidden transistor radio at the lowest possible volume and then put it up flush to one ear. We take free news broadcasts for granted in America, but some people risked death to hear the truth. And some people still do, and we are not going to let them down. No government should fear free speech, whether it is from entertainment programs or accurate, unbiased news about world events. And that is why Congress strongly supported TV Marti and why I strongly support TV Marti. We will scrupulously adhere to the letter of the law. The voice of freedom will not be stilled as long as there is an America to tell the truth. that free flow of ideas. Americans have always stood for free speech, and we always will. So, I have come here to ask something of you. I ask you to stand by your traditions, the best traditions of America. I ask you, once again, to stand for TV Marti and to stand for freedom. If we broadcast freedom, our message will be heard. After the bloodshed at Tiananmen Square and the expulsion of the VOA from China, I was heartened to see that Beijing relented a little bit and permitted a VOA correspondent to return. In the Soviet Union, publications that once vilified the Voice of America now praise it. Warm words of support even come from Izvestia. A commentator in Moscow News thanks VOA and says that it uses, and here is the quote, our own broadening sources of information better than we do and without delay return to us what they have gathered. And now Radio Free Europe has bureaus in Warsaw, in Budapest, and VOA even has one in Moscow, an unthinkable development just a few years ago.


The very fact that it is no longer considered remarkable for USIA's WORLDNET to link live programs from Washington to Kiev, or from Chicago and New York to Gdansk and Warsaw, is in itself remarkable. It happened in part because of the power of truth. Czechoslovakia's playwright-President Vaclav Havel paid a very personal tribute to this power in his recent visit to Washington. First he came to the White House and told me personally what this broadcasting of the truth had meant to those who were fighting for freedom. And then he visited the Voice of America and met the employees of its Czech division. It was a very poignant encounter, for though Havel did not recognize any of them by face, he knew them all by name the instant he heard them speak. I am determined that America will continue to bear witness to the truth. America must never lose its voice. Just as President Havel and others who were once under Communist domination have thanked us, I am convinced that the people of Cuba will thank us when they, too, win the liberty they yearn for. Still, we can envision a time when the purpose of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty could be utterly fulfilled. But for now, these networks, along with USIA's WORLDNET and VOA, must continue in Eastern Europe until change is complete. We are still seeing the struggle for freedom, and this must continue until all that struggle is won by the forces of freedom. Free stations and newspapers are still struggling to take root. Their access to their Western colleagues is still erratic. We need to be there now more than ever before to describe and explain our own two centuries of experience in building a democracy. We can also assist the Eastern Europeans in sharing among themselves their own experience in democracy. they need to know how the process of reform is working with their neighbors. So, if one nation adopts a novel path to reform, pollution control, or currency law, the others need to be able to benefit from that experiment. And we must also look ahead to the challenges of a new century. To prepare for our future role, I have directed that an interagency review be conducted of U.S. Government international broadcasting. And of course, we will be looking for advice from many outside the Government. After all, when it comes to setting an example of a free press, the best example must come from you.