Remarks in Lexington, Kentucky November 4, 1996
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Nov. 4 / Administration of William J. Clinton, 1996 get that done. Let every American deduct up bed about what you want this great country to to $10,000 a year for the cost of any college look like. We are better off than we were 4 tuition, undergraduate or graduate, no matter years ago. When we cross the bridge into the what the age of the student. Will you help us 21st century, if we stay on this course, we'll do that? Will you seize the opportunity tomor- be better off still. And we will do it together. row to do that? [Applause] Look at your children; think of your future. Now, this election is about more than person- Seize the day to keep your country moving in alities and more than parties, it is about the the right direction. future of America. And you have to decide. You Thank you, and God bless you all. Thank you. have to decide whether in the end it will be an election of your hopes or your fears, whether NOTE: The President spoke at 1:05 p.m. in the it will be an election that will bring us closer Convocation Center at Cleveland State University. together or drive us further apart. I have done In his remarks, he referred to Mayor Michael R. everything I could. The responsibility now shifts White of Cleveland; Jane Campbell, Ohio State to you, my fellow Americans. It is your country, representative; musician Joe Walsh; and Dennis your children, your future. Kucinich and Thomas J. Coyne, Jr., candidates for I thank you for giving me the chance to serve. Ohio's 10th and 19th Congressional Districts, re- I ask you to think tonight before you go to spectively. Remarks in Lexington, Kentucky November 4, 1996 The President. Thank you. opponents down, too, but I hope not. I hope Audience members. Four more years! Four not. more years! Four more years! So we've had enough smear and smear and The President. Thank you. Hello, Kentucky! smear, and why don't we just take a few minutes Thank you very much. Thank you. Mayor Miller, on this beautiful, beautiful fall night in Kentucky Governor Patton, Senator Ford, Lieutenant Gov- to think about our future. And if we get inter- ernor Henry, Mayor Abramson, Chairman rupted, let's just keep thinking about our future. Babbage, and Steve BeshearÐÐ I want to thank all the young people who came here tonight, especially, because the elec- [At this point, there was a disturbance in the tion is more about you than anyone else. I want audience.] to thank all the entertainers who came: Kevin The President. Let me ask youÐwait, wait, Cronin, the Central Kentucky Youth Orchestra, folks. If you pay attention to him, you're just Carol and Vanessa Det, Black Voices, and the rewarding him. So why don't we make a deal marching bands of Harrison County, Nicholson and we'll ignore him. I have a totally different County, Mercer County, and Lafayette County. attitude about this than a lot of people do. I Thank you very much. Thank you, Ashley Judd, always welcome people from the opposition to for coming. Thank you. Now, Coach Pitino, our rallies, because unlike them, my America we're both defending our titles, and maybe I'll includes everybody who's willing to work hard. see you in the White House again next year. And I'm always glad to see them. Let me say on this beautiful day, what is I'm always even willing to sort of be quiet really at stake here, clearly, beyond any doubt, and let them talk, but they never want to stop, is what this country will look like when we cross because what they really want is to stop me that bridge just 4 years from now into a new from talking and you from hearing. And if I century and a new millennium. And all of you was running against the record we've established who are students here and probably everybody and the ideas for the future, and I had to carry who is in this audience understands that we're that budget I vetoed around on my back the going through a huge change in how we work way they do, maybe I'd be trying to shout my and live, how we relate to each other and the 2062 VerDate 29-OCT-99 11:11 Nov 17, 1999 Jkt 010199 PO 00001 Frm 01016 Fmt 1240 Sfmt 1240 C:\96PUBP~2\PAP_TEXT txed01 PsN: txed01 Administration of William J. Clinton, 1996 / Nov. 4 rest of the world. And the real issue here is thanking me for our police program that Wen- whether we're going to make a decision to do dell Ford voted for to put 100,000 more police things together that will help each other have on the streets of America because they were a chance to make the most of our own lives, getting 5 more. live up to our God-given capacities, and build And then I met a young man who told me together stronger families and communities and that he was a dropout and had given up on States and nations or whether we're better off his life, but he heard me talking about the im- being told that we're on our own. portance of going back to school. He found out Now, all these issues have been debated to about the changes that we've made in the stu- death, I guess, so let me just give you some dent loan program and what we were trying personal examples out of my life. A couple of to do, and he said, ``I got one of those new nights ago I was in Denver, Colorado, and we loans and now I'm going back to school and had a rally like thisÐit wasn't as big; it was I'm going to get a degree in microbiology. I at night and in a littleÐin an inside placeÐ didn't just get in, I got in in a big way,'' he but I was going along the row like this, shaking said. hands. Here's what happened to me in about Now, that's just one ropeline. Every issue I 5 minutes. In each case, I want you to listen talk to you about, every single one, my opponent and see if you identify with it. and the leaders of the other party opposed us I met a young woman who was a victim of on the initiatives which made those things pos- domestic violence who thanked me for setting sibleÐevery single one. That is what is at stake up the violence against women section at the here. When I said we ought to pass a crime Justice Department and working to stop violence bill that puts 100,000 police on the street, they against women and children and setting up that said, ``It won't do any good, and you'll never hotline. do it.'' Then when they passed their budget, I met a man who was doing ground-breaking they must have been worried about us doing research against Parkinson's disease who got a it because they tried to stop me from doing research grant because of an initiative of our administration. And he had fire in his eyes when it. But we've only funded about half those police he said, ``We are going to cure this disease; officers. It's a 5-year program; you will decide we're going to whip it; we're going to get to whether we finish the job. the point where we have 100 percent cure rate.'' Now, here are the facts. The crime rate has And then I met a man who told me that gone down 4 years in a row. We have a 10- he and his wife had just adopted a young child, year low in American crime. If we bring it down and because of the family and medical leave for 8 years in a row we might make our streets, law she was home with the child, getting the our schools, our neighborhoods safe for all of child accustomed to being in a new environment America's children. I believe we're right and and they were not going to lose her job and they're wrong. But you have to decide. her income because of it, because of the family You have to decide so many of these issues. and medical leave law. But if you strip them all away, you look at And then I met three women who were what is really at stake: What is it that we should breast cancer survivors who thanked me for be doing together to help each other make the fighting hard for the research funding in the most of our own lives? Now, we have had some budgets of the last 4 years that include more time to see whether this approach works or not. women and more research. We've uncovered Compared to 4 years ago, we have 10.7 million two of the genes that cause breast cancer, and more jobs, record numbers of new small busi- we may well be able not only to cure it but nesses, incomes are going up again, the lowest prevent it in the next few years. rates of unemployment and inflation in 27 years. And thenÐjust walking down the line nowÐ I met a womanÐwe were just in Cleveland, and then I met a young person who went back Hillary and I wereÐI met a woman who was to school on the AmeriCorps program after serv- crying and had a picture of her house because ing in his community and then got some money she had been able to buy a house because we to pay his way to college.