Oct. 12 / Administration of William J. Clinton, 1993 wanted; they voted for it. We know that Presi- to be advisers. That's it. Meanwhile, we're going dent Aristide has now honored his part of the to push for democracy. Governors Island Agreement. I still think we can get the others to honor it. But the way NOTE: The exchange began at 4:08 p.m. on the to do it is to press for the sanctions, to show South Lawn at the White House, prior to the total intolerance of this kind of behavior and President's departure for Chapel Hill, NC. In his  not to get into a position where the Canadians, remarks, he referred to Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras, the French, the United States, anybody else's commander of the Haitian armed forces, and Lt. motives can be misunderstood. We are waiting Col. Joseph Michel FrancËois, chief of the Haitian to go there as we were invited by all the parties: police. Remarks at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill October 12, 1993 Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you a scientist who discovered the gene for cystic very much, President Spangler, President Fri- fibrosis; and journalists like Charles Kuralt and day, Chancellor Hardin, my good friend, Gov- Tom Wicker and Deborah Potter and my Pul- ernor Hunt, and other distinguished platform itzer Prize-winning friend, Taylor Branch; and guests, ladies and gentlemen. leading business men and women like the head I must say I have thought for a long time of the Small Business Administration in our ad- about what it might feel to be in a vast crowd ministration, Erskine Bowles, who's here with of North Carolinians and have them do some- me tonight and who, I dare say, is the ablest thing besides root against one of my athletic person ever to hold his position, probably be- teams from Arkansas. [Laughter] cause of the education he got here at the Uni- I began to think of this moment in August versity of North Carolina. These are just a few when I was on vacation, and I spent an evening of the many thousands of lives who have been with a person who used to be one of your great brightened by what Mr. Kuralt so warmly re- sons, James Taylor. And I asked him to sing ferred to as the light and liberty this great uni- ``Carolina in My Mind'' so that I could begin versity offers. to think about what this day might mean to There are few certainties in this life, but I've all of us. Five other Presidents have come to also learned that when March madness rolls this great university to speak. None has ever around, I'll be hoping my Razorbacks are there, had the opportunity to speak to a crowd like but I know that Dean Smith's Tar Heels will this, on this occasion of your 200th birthday always be there. as a university. As one who grew up in the South, I have I'd like to begin by thanking the students long admired this university for understanding whom I have met and especially those who gave that our best traditions call on us to offer that me this beautiful leather-bound book of essays, light and liberty to all. Chapel Hill has always three of them, about the theme for this bicen- been filled with a progressive spirit. Long before tennial celebration that the students chose, com- history caught up with him, as Mr. Kuralt just munity. For it is in many ways what ought to said, your legendary president, Frank Porter be America's theme today, how we can be more Graham, spoke this simple but powerful truth: together than we are apart. ``In the South, two great races have fundamen- This university has produced enough excel- tally a common destiny in building a nobler civ- lence to fill a library or lead a nation, in novel- ilization, and if we go up, we go up together.'' ists like Thomas Wolfe and Walker Percy; in What a better life we might have had if more great defenders of the Constitution like Senator had listened to that at a single time. Sam Ervin and Julius Chambers, now one of Your great State has also understood that edu- your chancellors; and Katherine Everett, a pio- cation goes hand-in-hand with the expansion of neer among women lawyers; and Francis Collins, democracy and the advancement of our own 1732 VerDate 11-MAY-2000 08:07 Oct 23, 2000 Jkt 010199 PO 00000 Frm 00436 Fmt 1240 Sfmt 1240 C:\93PAP2\PAP_TEXT txed01 PsN: txed01 Administration of William J. Clinton, 1993 / Oct. 12 economy. Under the leadership of men like Lu- humanity as a changing scene, in which nothing ther Hodges and Terry Sanford and Bill Friday, is or ought to be permanent, and they admit this university joined with your other State's that what appears to them today to be good, great universities, the State government, and the may be superseded by something better tomor- corporate community to begin building an ad- row.'' vanced research center to attract new businesses For two centuries now, we've held fast to and jobs. Now the Research Triangle has more that faith in the future. For two centuries we've than 60 companies, more than 34,000 employ- kept the courage to change. And for two cen- ees; it is the envy of the entire Nation about turies we've believed with Frank Porter Graham what we can do if we strive to make change that we must go up together. Our Founders our friend. pledged their lives, their fortunes, their sacred Tonight we celebrate the day this university honor to a common cause. We fought a vast began, the laying of a cornerstone that marks and bloody Civil War to preserve that common a milestone in the entire American journey, be- cause. Every battle to expand civil rights has cause on this day, near this place, 200 years been to deepen and strengthen that common ago, the cornerstone was laid for the first build- cause, our ability to go up together. ing in the first university in a Nation that had Now, after 200 years, and after 200 years of only recently been born. this university, we find ourselves a people of It was, to be sure, a time of hopeful and more than 150 different racial and ethnic groups historic change, when the future was clear to confronting a challenge in this new era which those who had the vision to see it and the cour- tests our belief in the future, tests our courage age to seize it. It was a time of heroes such to change, and tests our commitment to commu- as William R. Davie: a fighter in the Revolution, nity, to going up together. Tonight we can best a framer of the Constitution, a Princeton grad- honor this great university's historic builders and uate who wanted a State university here to make believers, a dozen generations after our Nation education accessible to more than the privileged and this university began, by meeting those few. On October 12th in 1793, when General tests. Davie laid the foundation for this university, he The cold war is over. The threat of nuclear laid a foundation for two centuries of progress annihilation is receding. Democracy and free in American education. markets are on the march. Mandela and Historians tell us now that there was then de Klerk, Rabin and Arafat have given people a joyous ceremony, that ``the maple leaves hope that peace can come out of any conflict. flamed red in the eager air.'' Great joy there A global economy is taking shape in which was, but remember now, it was in the face of information and investment move across national great uncertainty. The wounds of the Revolu- borders at stunning speed. And competition for tionary War had yet to heal. The debts had jobs and incomes is intense. Expanding trade yet to be repaid. And the new democracy is critical to every nation's growth, and our seemed still untested and unstable. Yet, in spite greatest asset is no longer natural resources or of all these problems, the Americans of that material structures. It is the strength, the skills, time had the courage to build what had never the mind, and the spirit of our people. before existed, a great new republic and a public This is a world America has done a very great university. deal to make through two World Wars, the Civil In spite of the obstacles, they decided to bet War, the cold war, the establishment of global on the future, not cling to the past. That is economic and trading missions, through the at- the test for us today, my fellow Americans. Alex- tempts to build the United Nations and other is de Tocqueville carried this uniquely American instruments of peace and harmony, of progress optimism, this faith in education, this commit- and democracy. It is full of hope. But as we ment to change, when he wrote in his wondrous all know, it is not without its heartbreak. ``Democracy in America'': ``The Americans have There is less danger of a nuclear war between all a lively faith in the perfectibility of man. two nations but more danger of the proliferation They judge that the diffusion of knowledge must of weapons of mass destruction in the hands necessarily be advantageous, and the con- of people irresponsibly prepared to use them.