Administration of William J. Clinton, 1998 / June 12

Remarks at a Reception for Representative Darlene Hooley in Portland, June 12, 1998

Thank you. Thank you very, very much. Stand thinking person who also has a heart I believe up here, Darlene. You know, on my body clock we need more of in politics. She does a great it is 1:35—[laughter]—and Alexis and Darlene credit to all of you. are hard acts to follow. [Laughter] I must say, Because we have a number of important races I’m sorry that Alexis had to miss the Shania in Oregon this year, I’d just like to say a few Twain concert, but if Shania Twain had heard things briefly. I know the hour is late. But every her sing, she might have thought it was the day I get up, and no matter what the challenges other way around. She was great. You have a of the day are—and we’ve had a number lately, great gift, young lady, and I wish you well with the financial challenges in Asia, the difficulties it. of the nuclear testing between India and Paki- I thank the Rose City Brass Quartet for play- stan, the new trouble in the Balkan region in ing ‘‘Hail To The Chief.’’ It sounded great— Kosovo, a number of things—but I just—I give thought the Marine Band had come across the thanks for the fact that compared to the day country to be here. Thank you. I was inaugurated, and Darlene said something I want to thank Governor Kitzhaber and about this, but I just want to read this off to Senator Wyden and Congressman Blumenauer you because you can take a lot of credit for for being here; and my old friend and classmate this, but your country now has the lowest crime John Platt; and the candidates for the House, rate in 25 years. It has 16 million new jobs and Kevin Campbell. I admire your and the lowest unemployment rate in 28 years. public officials here. They are visionary and It has the lowest percentage of its people on practical, principled and pragmatic. They get welfare in 29 years. We are about to have the things done, and they’re a joy to work with. first balanced budget and surplus in 29 years. And I especially am proud to be here with Dar- We have the lowest inflation in 32 years, with lene Hooley. My only regret is that as President, the smallest Federal Government in 35 years I do not have her courage in footwear. [Laugh- and the highest rate of homeownership in the ter] history of the United States. That’s pretty good I got to thinking the other day that if Speaker for America. Gingrich wore shoes like that, he might be in And when I ran for President in 1992, and a better humor. [Laughter] We might change came and asked the people of Oregon to sup- the whole psychology of the Republican caucus port me, I was deeply disturbed because our in the Congress—[laughter]—if they just had country was not moving forward and because comfortable shoes every day. Maybe that’s what our political leadership seemed trapped in a de- the matter is. Maybe their shoes hurt them all bate that had very little relevance to ordinary the time. [Laughter] people in places like Oregon or in my home I also want to say how profoundly indebted State of Arkansas. And I thought to myself, if I feel to the people of Oregon who have been we would think more about the future, if we so good to me and to my wife and to the Vice would imagine what we wanted America to look President and Mrs. Gore, to our whole adminis- like for our children in the 21st century and tration. You’ve given me your electoral votes work back from that, we’d make more sense twice and have unfailingly supported policies to in what we said and what we do would be move this country forward. And I just thank better. you from the bottom of my heart. I’m very And I know that sounds sort of simplistic, grateful, more than you know. but that’s actually what I tried to do. And before I wanted to come out here for Darlene to- I ever ran for President, I sat down and asked night for a number of reasons, not the least myself, what do you want your country to look of which is on occasion she has stood up with like when we cross that bridge to the 21st cen- me and for our country when it was not easy tury? What do you want your country to look to do so. And she’s the sort of independent- like when your daughter is your age?

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And my answers are fairly straightforward: I It would be a mistake for two reasons. Num- want the American dream to be alive and well ber one, we have big long-term challenges ahead for every person who is willing to work for it. of us—big long-term challenges ahead of us. I want America to still be the leading force That’s why I say, don’t spend any of that surplus in a smaller and smaller world for peace and that we’re going to accumulate this year until freedom and prosperity and for meeting the we know that we have fixed Social Security for challenges that we face together, whether it’s the 21st century. We have to reform Medicare from terrorists or weapons of mass destruction for the 21st century. or from global environmental destruction. And We’ve opened the doors to colleges to vir- I want America to be able to enjoy this dramati- tually all Americans now, with our tax credits, cally increasing racial and ethnic and other di- our scholarships, our student loan program im- versity in our country and still be able to live provements, our work-study increases, our na- together as one community with shared values, tional service scholarships. But nobody thinks where we respect our differences but we have that we have the best system of public education some core things in common that are most im- uniformly in the world yet. And we’ve got things portant of all. That’s what I want. And that’s to do. We’ve got an agenda there, of smaller what I’ve worked for. That’s what I’ve asked classes, better-trained teachers, more charter people to join me in doing. schools, technology in every single classroom, And the first point I’d like to make is that no matter how remotely rural or how poorly I certainly can’t claim full credit for all those urban, in America. And I want to see that imple- statistics I just read off, but I do believe that mented. our administration and those in Congress who We still have too many kids in trouble; Dar- have helped us have contributed to those good lene talked about that. The after-school pro- results, the lion’s share of which belong to the gram—we have offered to the Congress a pro- American people. gram to hugely increase after-school programs Ideas matter. And actions based on ideas have and summer school programs to give not only— consequences. That’s why it’s important to keep not only say, well, we’re going to find these people like Darlene Hooley in the Congress. kids that do bad things and punish them but That’s why it’s important to give us a few more to keep more kids out of trouble in the first people who are more interested in progress than place. politics, more interested in unity and moving Let me just tell you one story. A lot of you forward than being divided for short-term polit- know that Hillary comes from Chicago, and we ical power advantage. That’s why it’s important, spent a lot of time there. When I was a Gov- because ideas and policies matter; they make ernor, the Governor of Illinois—the then-Gov- a difference. ernor of Illinois was a friend of mine, and he And it is very important that in this election and I both have one daughter. And I knew season the American people say, ‘‘We want an that there was one picture I could see in the honest debate about where we are, where we’ve newspaper once a year, when his daughter was come from, and where we’re going, because with him in the Governor’s office on the day ideas and actions matter. We are not going to that the teachers went on strike in Chicago. be diverted. We are not going to be divided, Every year it happened, whether they needed and we are not going to be little. We are going to or not. [Laughter] And there was this great to be large, and we are going to look to tomor- estrangement, and everybody thought the row, to our children’s future.’’ If we do, we’ll schools were dysfunctional. have more people like Darlene in Congress. Today, in Chicago, there has been unbeliev- We have big issues still to deal with. That’s able harmony between the teachers and the ad- the other thing I want to say. The temptation ministration. Every school has a parent council. is to say, ‘‘Well, I ought to just vote for a bunch No child can be promoted that doesn’t perform of people who tell me what I want to hear to a certain level. They have mandatory summer and hope they won’t do anything, because things school and a massive after-school program. are going well and I don’t want to mess it up.’’ There are literally tens of thousands of children [Laughter] And we have often done that. Soci- now in the inner-city neighborhoods of Chicago eties everywhere often do that. That would be who get three hot meals a day at school because a mistake. their parents work. And their summer school,

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the Chicago summer school, is now the sixth This is a huge issue. We must come to grips largest school district in America. with it. It is also closely related to the issue Now, what is the consequence? The juvenile of greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, crime rate has plummeted. Even better, more which is, in the near term, an even bigger issue. kids are learning more; more kids are having But they feed on each other, because the more the opportunity to work; more children are greenhouse gases we emit into the atmosphere, going to have the chance to live the American the more the polluted particles drift over the dream. That’s what we have to be mindful of. ocean, find their way into the ocean, and com- You know, we will never reach a time when promise the ocean’s ecostructure. we can solve every problem for every child, Now, this may not be a burning issue in the when there will never be any tragedy, when election, but it’s really important that you vote there will never be any kind of thing that goes for somebody who will make some mental and wrong in any family in this State or this country. emotional space to think about what your grand- But there’s not a soul here that doesn’t know children are going to be facing if we don’t deal we can do a lot better. We can do better with with climate change, what your children and our schools, and we can do better with our grandchildren are going to be facing if we don’t children. deal with the deterioration of the oceans. So I just give you those things as an example. Ideas We have huge environmental challenges. I matter. just flew up here from Monterey, California, In the other party, they just passed a budget where we had the first-ever national conference in the House which has, as nearly as I can on the state of the oceans today, and particularly tell, not very much money at all for our climate ours, the oceans that embrace our coasts all change policy; would eliminate our policy of put- over America. And I announced a number of ting 100,000 community police on the street be- steps to try to improve our capacity to protect fore it’s finished, when it has been the most and recover the environmental quality of our successful anticrime strategy in modern Amer- oceans, the fishing stocks, and to preserve them ican history; and would cut back on our invest- into the future. ments generally in education and the environ- This is a huge deal that most people don’t ment at a time when we ought to do more. ever even think about. You know, one of the Ideas matter. There are consequences to this. most common phrases in our vernacular is, ‘‘Oh, And there are big issues out there—lot of others what I did was nothing. It’s just a drop in the I could talk about. ocean.’’ Nearly all of you have used it if you’ve But the second point I want to make is this: lived any number of years. [Laughter] And— We feel good about our country now. You all that’s another way of saying I’m getting older. clapped when I gave you all those numbers. [Laughter] And it may have been true at one [Laughter] The question is, what do you do time, but once there are millions and billions when you feel good? You can go sit in the of drops in the ocean, we run the risk of chang- sun and wait for something to go wrong and ing the entire ecostructure of the planet, even enjoy it while it’s good, or you can say, ‘‘Boy, in Monterey, which is a pretty pristine place. when we have all this confidence now, when I met with young graduate students at Stan- we finally have got some resources, when we ford today, and we walked out into the ocean. finally have got the—literally, the space to We looked at the sea otters and the harbor breathe, to think about the long-term, that is seals and the pelicans and a lot of the small the time to act.’’ You don’t wait to repair the ocean life there. And these young people told roof until there’s a rainstorm. We have a chance me that they were studying it, and they con- to build the right kind of house for America. cluded two things: number one, that even there And yes, it’s important who’s President, and was a demonstrable warming of the ocean; and because of the 22d amendment, you’ll get a number two, that a lot of the small examples chance to make another decision next time of life in the sea there were things that had about that. [Laughter] But it really matters moved from the south and that all the life was who’s in the Congress, who the Governor is, moving north. Anybody that is involved with what kind of decisions are made, what values salmon in Oregon or Washington or Canada they reflect, and whether you honestly believe knows that they’re moving north. that we ought to be doing everything we can

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to create opportunity for everybody responsible guishable what the faith of the Irish-Americans enough to work for it, to maintain our leadership were committed to Ireland. in the world, and to live together as one people. We have to build one America for these chil- I’m going to talk at Portland State tomorrow dren if we expect America to be able to lead about immigration and this new wave of immi- to a safer, more peaceful, more prosperous, grants and how they’re changing America. And more responsible, sustainable planet. That is I’m going to say that they all now are more very important. likely to be different colors and different races, So I say to you, I’m honored to be here but they’re not much different than when the with Darlene. I’m honored to be here with your Irish came over, when my people came over other leaders. I respect them more than I can here. I got a letter the other day—I mean, a say. I respect Senator Wyden and Congressman book the other day, from a friend of mine who’s Blumenauer. I respect Governor Kitzhaber. I got a terrific sense of humor, that talked about respect Congresswoman Furse, and I regret that how unfortunate it was that a lot of my fore- she’s leaving. And I hope you’ll replace her with bears turned reactionary, because when we first a good Democrat who will help us keep going came here, we were treated just like the re- forward. But not because of party but because cently freed slaves. And the title of this book our party has embraced these ideas; our party is ‘‘How the Irish Became White’’—[laughter]— has embraced the future; our party has resisted tongue in cheek. You may have seen it. It’s the politics of division and getting in office for in the bookstores. the sake of holding power, and we’re more in- But the point I want to make is, this is impor- terested in what we’re going to do with it if tant. You look at the whole rest of the world. we get it. And we want to build that kind of Look at what I’m worrying about: the struggles future for our country. between India and Pakistan, between the Hin- So I’m glad you’re here. I’m glad so many dus and the Muslims; in Kosovo, the struggle young people are here. But you remember what between the Albanians and the Serbs. What was I’m telling you. There’s a long time between the Bosnian war about? People that were bio- now and November. And I want you to go out logically indistinguishable, who were Serbs and of here committed to talking to your friends Orthodox Christians, Croats and Roman Catho- and neighbors about the nature of American lics, Bosnians and Muslims. Eight hundred thou- citizenship at the close of the 20th century and sand people killed in Rwanda in a matter of about this incredible opportunity we have. Yes, weeks because they were two different tribes— we’ve done a lot of good things, and yes, the and they had lived for 500 years on the same country is in good shape, but I want you to land. They weren’t part of some artificial con- be grateful for that, pocket it, and ask yourself, struct of colonialists. That was a distinct country. now what am I supposed to do for my country And if you want your kids to live in a world and my children’s future? that is moving beyond that, America has got Thank you, and God bless you. to set an example. If you want me to be able to say—you know, it wasn’t the only reason, perhaps not even the principal reason, but I NOTE: The President spoke at 10:30 p.m. at the can tell you it was a significant factor, when Tiffany Center. In his remarks, he referred to 8- the Irish people voted for peace recently, that year-old singer Alexis Ebert; singer Shania Twain; so many Irish-Americans were involved and Gov. John A. Kitzhaber of Oregon; John C. Platt, committed, and they were Protestant, and they husband of Representative ; and were Catholic, and after a time of going over David Wu and Kevin M. Campbell, Democratic there and working year-in and year-out and try- candidates for Oregon’s First and Second Con- ing to get people together, it became indistin- gressional Districts, respectively.

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