[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 54 (Wednesday, April 30, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H2054-H2059]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     THE NATIONAL PRAYER BREAKFAST

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Nebraska [Mr. Barrett] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BARRETT of Nebraska. Mr. Speaker, earlier this year I had the 
distinct pleasure and the great honor of chairing the 45th annual 
National Prayer Breakfast here in Washington.
  Now, this is an annual event that is hosted by the Senate prayer 
group and the House prayer group, and it represents an effort by many 
thousands of people to come together once a year here in our Nation's 
Capital in prayerful reflection. The breakfast was initially founded as 
an opportunity for Members of Congress to express spiritual support for 
the President, for the leaders of our Nation and, of course, for each 
other.
  This year more than 4,000 people came to the breakfast from all 50 
States and from over 140 countries. The personal contacts we all had 
from across the Nation, from around the world, were something that were 
impressions that will last a lifetime.
  Mr. Speaker, on behalf of my colleagues on the congressional 
committee that planned this most recent breakfast, I provide a copy of 
the transcript of that breakfast to be inserted in the Record so that 
everyone might read the uplifting and inspirational messages we heard 
that day.

    The National Prayer Breakfast, the Washington Hilton, Thursday, 
                            February 6, 1997

       Representative Bill Barrett: It's a special privilege for 
     me to be able to welcome each and ever one of you here this 
     morning to the 45th annual National Prayer Breakfast, 
     especially our friends from around the world, as well as 
     those of you who are attending the prayer breakfast for the 
     first time. God created us at different times and in 
     different places, and with the flesh of a hundred different 
     hues, but he did set us forth with a very common purpose; to 
     love the Lord, our God, and to love our neighbor as ourself.
       We're gathered here today from six continents. I don't 
     believe the Antarctica delegation has arrived yet. Ladies and 
     gentlemen, there are nearly 170 countries represented here 
     today--all 50 states are represented here today--here in this 
     ballroom and in auxiliary rooms in which people who could not 
     get into the ballroom are seated, viewing this on television.
       We have nearly 4,000 people gathered for the 45th annual 
     prayer breakfast. There are literally hundreds and hundreds 
     of Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives, 
     people from all professions, all fields of service. We have 
     laborers, we have prison parolees here, we have street people 
     here. We have people of considerable wealth; we have people 
     with little material wealth. There are people from all levels 
     of society, all backgrounds, religiously and politically. 
     There is represented here today truly a cross-section or our 
     world.
       Who we are is not the important point. The point is that we 
     all come together to let each other know that we care. We 
     come here to humbly beseech guidance; to further the building 
     of humankind, recognizing and acknowledging the reliance that 
     each of us has on Divine Providence. What a happy time it is 
     that so many have chosen to join us this morning in the 
     spirit of Jesus of Nazareth and to share this time together.
       From the reports that we hear, read and observe, it's 
     probably difficult to believe that members of Congress can 
     ever agree with one another or find it possible to be 
     perfectly united in mind and thought, as St. Paul admonished 
     us to do. But it's my pleasant duty to bring to you greetings 
     from the House of Representatives' Prayer Breakfast.
       One of the most meaningful experiences for me since I've 
     been a member of Congress has been to attend that prayer 
     breakfast, in which we gather every Thursday morning in the 
     Capitol at 8:00, in a time of fellowship and prayer with our 
     colleagues. On these mornings, 40 to 50 Democrats and 
     Republicans, without guests, with the exception of an 
     occasional parliamentarian from another nation who is a 
     member of a prayer group in that nation, or perhaps a 
     parliamentarian who wants to come and observe our prayer 
     breakfast, with the thought in mind of going back to his or 
     her country and establishing a similar prayer breakfast. We 
     meet simply to find fellowship in the spirit of Christ and to 
     share burdens with each other.
       We leave our differences outside the door. Labels remain 
     outside the door. We get to know each other on a basis of 
     something that transcends the labels that often divide us 
     during the rest of the week. As a result, many special and 
     many unlikely friendships have been born and even nurtured 
     during that time together.
       Our speaker each week--one week a Republican, one week a 
     Democrat--is always a member of Congress, but no necessarily 
     a member of our prayer group. We hear from that person, in 
     which they share with us something that they want to talk 
     about--perhaps some of the trauma in their life, some of the 
     problems, some of the joys, some of the satisfactions, some 
     of the triumphs. We've had some wonderful messages and, with 
     each one, inspiration, better understanding and, of course, 
     close friendships. And because of the seeds that were planted 
     by the House and the Senate fellowship groups 45 years ago 
     the National Prayer Breakfast, this prayer breakfast, has 
     grown to include people from so many countries that we have 
     to wonder today if we should perhaps rename the National 
     Prayer Breakfast to ``the International Prayer Breakfast.''
       So on behalf of both the Senate and the House prayer 
     groups, who are hosting this breakfast, we thank you for 
     sharing with us. We also acknowledge the hundreds of groups 
     that are meeting simultaneously around the world as we meet 
     here together at this particular moment--meeting around the 
     world to praise the Lord.
       Many of you know that Billy Graham has been a steadfast 
     member of this national prayer group--I believe he has missed 
     only three National Prayer Breakfasts in 45 years. Dr. Graham 
     had hoped to be with us today, but his health prevents it. 
     And I'd like to share with you a message that I received from 
     Dr. Graham.
       ``I hear constantly the impact that the Prayer Breakfast is 
     having throughout the world. Since this is one of the few 
     times I have every missed being at a breakfast since its 
     beginning, I will certainly be in prayer that God will make 
     this gathering one of the most significant prayer breakfasts 
     we've ever had. Give my warmest greetings and affection to 
     all of those in attendance, especially the president, Mrs. 
     Clinton, the vice president, and Mrs. Gore.
       ``With warmest affection in Christ, I am cordially yours, 
     Billy Graham.''
       The gentleman from Missouri, the minority leader of the 
     House of Representatives, the Honorable Richard Gephardt, 
     will now read from the Old Testament.
       Representative Gephardt: Our Old Testament reading this 
     morning is from Psalms. ``Make a joyful shout to the Lord, 
     all your lands. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before His 
     presence with singing. Know that the Lord He is God. It is He 
     who has made us, and not we ourselves. We are His people, and 
     the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with 
     thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to 
     Him, and bless His name for the Lord is good. His mercy is 
     everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations.''
       Representative Barrett: Thank you, Mr. Minority Leader.
       It's a tradition of the National Prayer Breakfast that a 
     person of very special talent is chosen to present a solo at 
     our breakfast. This morning we are thrilled to be able to 
     present a young opera star of unparalleled prospect, a mezzo-
     soprano who has made a number of important debuts both here 
     and in Europe. Please welcome Ms. Denyce Graves.
       (Ms. Graves sings ``Swing Low, Sweet Chariot'' and ``Every 
     Time I Feel the Spirit'')
       Representative Barrett: What a thrill, right? Thank you, 
     Ms. Graves.
       The Scripture from the New Testament will be brought to us 
     by the speaker of the House of Representatives, the gentleman 
     from Georgia, the Honorable Newt Gingrich.
       Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA): Let me just say that I think 
     all of our hearts, I hope, were touched by Ms. Graves just 
     now. It was truly a wonderful moment.
       I'm going to read from John 3, verses 12 to 21.
       ``If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, 
     how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things? And no 
     man has ascended up to heaven but He that came down from 
     heaven, even the Son of Man, which is in heaven. And as Moses 
     lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son 
     of Man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in Him should 
     not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world 
     that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth 
     in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God 
     sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but 
     that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth 
     on Him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is 
     condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name 
     of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the 
     condemnation: that light is come unto the world, and men 
     loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were 
     evil. For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither 
     cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 
     But he that doeth truth cometh in the light, that his 
     deeds made be made manifest, that they wrought in God.''
       Representive Barrett: Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for that 
     reading from the New Testament.

[[Page H2055]]

       Vice President Al Gore was a very faithful member of the 
     House prayer group when he was a member of the House. And 
     when he entered the Senate, he became a very faithful member 
     of the prayer group as well. And as a result, the Senate 
     prayer group has asked him to represent them in delivering 
     remarks of the Senate. And it's encouraging to know, Mr. Vice 
     President, that one of our own can occasionally succeed.
       It is with great pleasure that I present to you the vice 
     president of the United States, Mr. Albert Gore Jr.
       Vice President Gore: Thank you. Thank you very much, Bill.
       Mr. President and Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Speaker; leader 
     Gephardt, other distinguished guests at the head table; and 
     senators, congressmen; heads of state from other countries; 
     thank you very much for your attendance; distinguished 
     guests, ladies and gentlemen, including those in the overflow 
     room, we're so proud that you are here. And among those at 
     the head table, allow me just a brief personal word.
       Dr. Ben Carson--I had nothing to do with the invitation to 
     Dr. Carson to be the main speaker this year. But after Tipper 
     and I found out that he was going to be our speaker, we 
     recalled that when one of our children was seriously injured 
     and in Johns Hopkins Hospital, he was part of the medical 
     team that consulted with us. We are among the thousands of 
     families who are grateful to you and the others healers among 
     us, Dr. Carson. It was a pleasure to meet your sons, Murray, 
     Den, and Royce, in the other room.
       Bill said that I was invited to bring greetings from the 
     Senate prayer breakfast group because I was a faithful member 
     of it. The truth is that with my travels on behalf of the 
     president and the White House schedule, they invited me to 
     give greetings on their behalf so that I will definitely 
     become a faithful member of the Senate prayer breakfast. I 
     know what they're doing. And it's true that my schedule has 
     taken me away from it. But your ploy is going to work.
       May I also refer to the many thousands of prayer groups 
     around the United States that are represented by many of you 
     here, and around the world. I want to acknowledge a group 
     represented here--the Religious Partnership for the 
     Environment. I am proud to have had a chance to meet 
     frequently with them.
       Since we met here last year, something has happened that I 
     wanted to briefly comment upon: Churches were burned, 
     synagogues and other houses of worship were burned, and a 
     great outpouring of national concern took place.
       Many wondered, ``How could we respond to this?'' I know the 
     president gathered spiritual leaders from various 
     denominations to talk about this issue. The House and the 
     Senate took action. There was no dissent. I forget the vote 
     in the House, but it was 100 to nothing in the Senate. It's 
     rare that you get a vote of that kind. And the country began 
     to come together to respond to this challenge.
       Churches were rebuilt. Some of them that had been burned to 
     the ground left the congregations just devastated. I remember 
     visiting one, looking at the ashes covering the timbers, and 
     the congregation expressed its determination to come back 
     together and rebuild.
       On August 19th, the president and the first lady, Tipper, 
     and I went to a church that had been burned in Tennessee and 
     joined in rebuilding the church. When we got there, we 
     learned that there had been two churches burned--one with a 
     white congregation, one with a black congregation. When the 
     church with a white congregation burned, the first donation 
     to rebuild it came from the black congregation just two miles 
     away. About a year later, when the church with the black 
     congregation burned, the first donation to rebuild it came 
     from the church with the white congregation. On that day when 
     we gathered with hammers and nails and paint brushes to 
     rebuild it, all of the community leaders came. The African 
     American pastor of this congregation made note of the fact 
     that some of the county leaders who were present were 
     individuals he had never met before, and the members of the 
     white congregation who came had never met their counterparts, 
     in many cases, before. He cited a verse from Genesis 50: 
     ``Man intended it for evil, but God intended it for good.'' 
     The president spoke and said, ``You can burn the building, 
     but you cannot burn out the faith.''
       I was reminded of the examples in the Bible of fires that 
     burned but do not consume. In Exodus Chapter 3, Moses is 
     confronted with a burning bush. ``Though the bush was on 
     fire, it did not burn up.'' Moses thought, `` `I will go over 
     and see this strange sight, why the bush does not burn up.' 
     God called to him from within the bush: `Moses!' And Moses 
     said, `Here I am.' ''
       In the book of Daniel, Chapter 3, verse 19, Nebuchadnezzar 
     orders his furnace heated up seven times hotter than usual, 
     and commanded some of the strongest soldiers in his army to 
     tie up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and throw them into 
     the blazing furnace. They had refused, of course, to bow down 
     to graven images and idols. And when they were thrown into 
     the furnace--you know the story well--the soldiers were 
     burned. But Nebuchadnezzar looks into the flames, and in 
     amazement asked his advisers, ``Weren't there three men that 
     we tied up and threw into the fire?'' They replied 
     ``Certainly, o king.'' He said ``Look, I see four men walking 
     around in the fire, unbound and unharmed. And the fourth 
     looks like a son of the gods.''
       The three were taken out, and they saw that the fire had 
     not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of their head singed. 
     Their robes were not scorched, and there was no smell of fire 
     on them.
       In response to such challenges, we are called to be present 
     with those who are persecuted.
       Finally, when we saw the rebuilt church brought--the image 
     of it brought in the photograph when this minister revisited 
     the White House earlier this year, I was reminded of the 
     famous chapter in Ezekiel 37, when Ezekiel is placed in the 
     valley.
       ``And I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, 
     bones that were very dry. And the Lord asked me, `Son of man, 
     can these bones live?' And then he said to me, `Prophesy to 
     these bones, and say to them, ``Dry bones, hear the word of 
     the Lord,'' ' So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I 
     was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the 
     bones came together, bone to bone. Tendons and flesh appeared 
     on them, and skin covered them. But there was no breath in 
     them. And then he said to me: `Prophesy to the breath. 
     Prophesy, son of Man. And say to it, ``This is what the 
     sovereign Lord says, `Come from the four winds, oh breath, 
     and breathe into these slain that they may live.'' ' So I 
     prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them. They 
     came to life and stood up on their feet a vast army.''
       These houses of worship have been lifted back up, and the 
     breath of the Spirit has been breathed into them. May the 
     same thing happen to our hurting nation.
       Representative Barrett: Thank you, Mr. Vice President.
       To deliver our prayer for the national and international 
     leaders, I would like to recognize the senator from Indiana 
     Senator Dan Coats, who is a very faithful member of the 
     Senate prayer breakfast. It's my pleasure to introduce the 
     senator for the most basic purpose of this breakfast, to let 
     our leaders know that we are praying for them.
       Senator Dan Coats (R-IN): Please bow your heads with me in 
     prayer and join your hearts with me in prayer.
       Our Lord and our God, we have set aside this day of prayer 
     to acknowledge you and you alone, as the God of men and 
     nations; to thank you for your loving kindness toward each of 
     us, and to humbly ask for wisdom and discernment as we seek 
     to serve the people of our land. We ask for your mercy and 
     divine forgiveness for our sins, for we often rely on our 
     ways and not on yours.
       We are divided by barriers of anger and suspicion. We are 
     shamed by the commonplace violence in our nation. We have 
     failed to protect the innocence of our children, and we have 
     left them to moral confusion and early despair. We have 
     misunderstood both the cause and the cure of our troubles. We 
     see social and political problems; You see our failures of 
     love and duty and commitment. We talk of politics and laws; 
     You weigh the desires of our hearts. We propose solutions for 
     others; You ask us to examine ourselves.
       Lord, each of us in some way has set out to change our 
     society. But now, today, we humbly ask you to change each of 
     us. We are thankful, Lord, that Your mercy does not depend on 
     our merit. We are grateful that the Gospel is a story of 
     failure forgiven.
       Lord, we pray for the leaders You have brought to this 
     room. Preserve us from the pride of power. Guard us from 
     self-interest and selfish ambition. May we build careers of 
     honorable service, obeying Your command to do justice, to 
     seek mercy, and to walk humbly with You.
       We pray above all for inward surrender to Your guidance, 
     hearts transformed by an encounter with the living God, and 
     lives marked with Your meaning. We pray these things in the 
     confidence and comfort given by Jesus Christ. Amen.
       Representative Barrett: Thank you so much, Senator Coats, 
     for those words.
       It's now my pleasure to present to you our featured speaker 
     at this prayer breakfast, Dr. Benjamin Carson, who is 
     director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins 
     University. Dr. Carson is well renowned in his field--most 
     notably, perhaps, the 1987 separation of the Binder twins in 
     Germany, which of course were attached at the head.
       Dr. Carson has led a life of struggle as well as triumph, 
     and I know that you're going to find his remarks both 
     interesting and very inspiring. He brings us his love for 
     children. He's a living example of caring and compassion. 
     Please welcome Dr. Ben Carson.
       Dr. Benjamin Carson: Thank you very much. It's a real 
     pleasure and an honor to be here before so many distinguished 
     people. I don't feel that I really belong here under these 
     circumstances. But the nice thing is, when it comes to love 
     that is inspired by Jesus Christ, we're all equal. And it 
     makes you feel good. You begin to realize that He's the one 
     who empowers us to do whatever we do and to go wherever we 
     go.
       I want to give you some little vignettes from my own life 
     and how my relationship with God developed. Let me set my 
     stopwatch here because I understand that if I go overtime, 
     the Secret Service will take me away.
       I always wanted to be a missionary doctor. I used to listen 
     to the mission stories in church, and they frequently 
     featured missionary doctors--people who, at great personal 
     expense, would go to foreign lands and bring not only 
     physical but mental and spiritual healing to people. It 
     seemed like the

[[Page H2056]]

     most noble thing a person could do. I harbored that dream 
     from the time I was 8 years old until I was 13, at which 
     time, having grown up in dire poverty, I decided I'd rather 
     be rich. So at that point, missionary doctor was out and I 
     decided I wanted to be a psychiatrist. Now I didn't know any 
     psychiatrists, but on television, they seemed like very rich 
     people. They lived in these big fancy mansions and drove 
     Jaguars and had these big plush offices, and all they had to 
     do is talk to crazy people all day. It seemed like I was 
     doing that anyway, so I said, ``This should work out quite 
     well,'' and started reading Psychology Today. I was the local 
     shrink. I majored in psychology in college, did advanced 
     psych when I went to medical school.
       But that's when I started meeting a bunch of psychiatrists. 
     Now, some of my best friends are psychiatrists. Actually, on 
     a serious note, some of the smartest people I know really are 
     psychiatrists and I'm a little bit miffed, as a medical 
     professional, as to why the insurance companies and HMOs are 
     giving psychiatrists such a hard time. I hope we'll do 
     something about that.
       I discovered that I wasn't going to be a psychiatrist and I 
     had to stop and ask myself ``What are you really good at?'' I 
     discovered I had a lot of eye-hand coordination, the ability 
     to think in three dimensions. I was a very careful person, 
     never knocked things over and said ``oops!'' and I enjoyed 
     the brain. So I put all that together and that's how I came 
     up with neurosurgery.
       If you had seen me as a youngster, and someone had told you 
     that I was going to grow up to be a neurosurgeon, much less 
     chief of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins, you would 
     have laughed until you died, because there was unanimous 
     agreement amongst my classmates, my teachers, and myself that 
     I was the dumbest person in the world. I was always the first 
     one to sit down in a spelling bee, got big goose eggs on 
     everything that dealt with academics.
       I remember one time we were taking this math quiz, and I 
     had a major philosophical disagreement with my math teacher 
     who seemed to think it was important to know your time 
     tables. As far as I was concerned, why waste my time learning 
     those when I could look them up on the back of the notebook? 
     So you can imagine what kind of grades I got in math. But 
     that particular day I'd been having a discussion with some of 
     my classmates about lack of intellectual agility, one might 
     say. In fact, they were saying I was the dumbest person in 
     the world, and I was disputing that. We had a math quiz that 
     day. I had about thirty questions. And in those days you 
     would pass your test to the person behind you, and they would 
     correct it as the teacher called out the answers, give it 
     back to you. The teacher would call your name out loud and 
     you would report your score out loud.
       Well, I had gotten my usual zero. But, on this particular 
     day, having had those discussions, I was looking for a way to 
     hide that fact from my classmates, so I schemed and I said, 
     ``When the teacher calls my name, I'm going to mumble. And 
     maybe she will misinterpret what I said.''
       So when she called my name, I said, ``Nnngn.'' And she 
     said: ``Nine?'' Benjamin, you got nine right? Oh, this is 
     wonderful. This is the greatest day of my life. I told you 
     you could do it if you just applied yourself.'' She ranted 
     and raved for about five minutes. Finally, the girl behind me 
     couldn't take it any longer. She stood up and said, ``He said 
     none.'' Of course the kids roared with laughter, and the 
     teacher sat down quite embarrassed. If I could have 
     disappeared into thin air, never to be heard from again in 
     the history of the world, I would gladly have done so, but I 
     couldn't.
       The thing that really hurt was when I got my report card at 
     mid-term, and my poor mother saw it, and she was just 
     distraught. There I was failing almost every subject, and 
     there she was, working two or three jobs at a time as a 
     single parent, trying to raise her young sons in inner-city 
     Detroit, realizing what a difficult time she had because of 
     her lack of education, having had only a third-grade 
     education herself. Then there I was going down the same path; 
     my brother also doing quite poorly.
       She did not know what to do, and she prayed and asked God 
     to give her wisdom. What could she do to get her young sons 
     to understand the importance of intellectual development so 
     that they could have control of their own lives? And you know 
     something? God gave her the wisdom, at least in her opinion. 
     My brother and I didn't think it was all that wise because it 
     was to turn off the TV set and let us watch only two or three 
     TV programs during the week. With all that spare time, we 
     read two books apiece from the Detroit Public Library and 
     submit to her written book reports which she couldn't read, 
     but we didn't know that. So she had pulled a fast one on us.
       I was in no way enthusiastic about this program. All my 
     friends were outside having a good time, and there I was, 
     inside, reading. A lot of times parents come to me today, and 
     they say: ``How was your mother able to get you and your 
     brother to turn off the TV and read? I can't get my children 
     to do that.'' I have to chuckle and I say, ``Back in those 
     days, the parents were in charge of the house. They didn't 
     have to get permission from the kids how to run it.''
       Interestingly enough, because of the reading--always 
     reading, I learned how to spell, so I wasn't the first one to 
     sit down in a spelling bee. I learned grammar and syntax 
     because I had to put those words together. I learned to use 
     my imagination because I had to take those sentences and make 
     them into concepts. Within the space of a year and a half, I 
     went from the bottom of the class to the top of the class, 
     much to the consternation of all those people who called me 
     ``dummy.'' The same ones were coming to me now and saying, 
     ``Hey, Benny, how do you work this math problem?'' I would 
     say, ``Sit at my feet, youngster, while I instruct you.'' I 
     was perhaps a little obnoxious but it sure did feel good to 
     do that.
       The fact of the matter is, what am I talking about? I'm 
     talking about a person's image and self-concept. When I was 
     in the fifth grade, I thought I was dumb, and I acted like a 
     dumb person, and I achieved like a dumb person. When I was in 
     the seventh grade, I thought I was smart, and I acted and 
     achieved accordingly. Does that say a lot about the human 
     brain, about the potential that our Creator has given us?
       Think about it. There is no computer on Earth that comes 
     close to the capacity of the normal human brain. How many 
     people here remember your home telephone number? Okay, that's 
     pretty good for a bunch of people in Washington. What did 
     your brain have to do for you to react to that question? 
     First of all, the sound waves had to leave my lips, travel 
     through the air into your external auditory meatus, travel 
     down to your tympanic membrane, set up a vibratory force, 
     which traveled across the ossicles of your middle ear to the 
     oval and round windows, setting up a vibratory force in the 
     endolymph, which mechanically distorted the microcilia, 
     converting mechanical energy to electrical energy, which 
     traveled across the cochlear nerve to the cochlear nucleus 
     at the ponto-medullary junction, from there to the 
     superior olivary nucleus--wait a minute, we've got a ways 
     to go--ascending bilaterally up the brain stem to the 
     lateral lemniscus, to the inferior colliculus and the 
     media janicular nuclei, across the thalamic radiations to 
     the posterior temporal lobes to begin the auditory 
     process; from there to the frontal lobes, coming down the 
     tract of Vicq d' Azyr, retrieving the memory from the 
     medial hippocampal structures of the mammary bodies, back 
     to the frontal lobes to start the motor response at the 
     Betz cell level, coming down the corticospinal tract, 
     across the internal capsule into the cerebral peduncle, 
     descending down to the cervicomedullary decussation into 
     the spinal cord gray matter, synapsing, going out to the 
     neuro-muscular junction, stimulating the nerve in the 
     muscle so you could raise your hand. Due to our limited 
     time, I didn't want to get into the complexities. But the 
     fact of that matter is, you could do that, and you barely 
     had to think about it. Can you imagine what the human 
     brain is capable of if people actually put some time and 
     thought into things?
       This is the thing that is so disturbing to me. When I see 
     surveys about how our young people are doing in school vis-a-
     vis other industrialized nations--notwithstanding the 
     outstanding individuals that the president pointed out the 
     other day in the State of the Union address. That's the 
     exception and not the rule. We have to change that as we 
     enter the information age. We have to change the tremendous 
     emphasis on sports and entertainment, and life-styles of the 
     rich and famous. Because there are other great nations that 
     went that pathway: Egypt, Greece, Rome. They were all at the 
     pinnacle, just like the U.S.A., and then they forgot about 
     the things that made them great, and they became enamored of 
     the things that weren't so important. Where are they today? 
     Some people think that that can't happen here, but it can. We 
     have a real obligation to do something to change that.
       You would think that having realized that, life was going 
     to be wonderful for me. But it wasn't. You see, I had this 
     problem with my temper. I was one of those people who thought 
     I had a lot of rights. Have you ever met anybody like that? 
     It's like when you're driving in your car and somebody gets 
     in your lane--the one you own and paid for and you begin to 
     dictate to them how they should be driving? Well, this was 
     me. I thought I had a lot of rights.
       I remember one time a kid hit me with a pebble. It didn't 
     hurt. I was so incensed, I grabbed a big rock and I threw it 
     at him and broke his glasses, almost put his eye out. Another 
     time, a kid was trying to close my locker at school. I didn't 
     want it closed, and I hit him in the head. Unfortunately, I 
     had my lock in my hand and put a three-inch gash in his 
     forehead. Another time, my mother was trying to get me to 
     wear something. I didn't want to wear it. I picked up a 
     hammer and tried to hit her in the head with it. Other than 
     that, I was a pretty good kid.
       But it all sort of culminated one day when another kid did 
     something I didn't like. I had a large camping knife and I 
     tried to stab him in the abdomen. Fortunately, under 
     his clothing, he had a large metal belt buckle and the 
     blade struck it with such force that it broke, and he fled 
     in terror and I ran to the bathroom and started thinking 
     about my life.
       A few years ago, I was in San Quentin--as a speaker--and I 
     was looking out over those hardened faces, and realizing 
     that, except for the grace of God and our Lord and Savior, I 
     could easily have ended up in a place like that myself. 
     Sometimes it does us good to think about that when we believe 
     how high and mighty we are, that except for certain 
     circumstances, things might have been quite different for us.
       We need to learn how to be compassionate and how to put 
     ourselves in other people's

[[Page H2057]]

     places. As I was in that bathroom, thinking about my life, 
     having turned things around academically, I realized that 
     with that temper there was no possibility of me ever 
     achieving my dream of becoming a physician. I fell on my 
     knees and I began to pray. I said: ``Lord, I cannot control 
     this temper.'' I said: ``It's up to you. I am giving it over 
     to you.''
       I picked up my Bible. I started reading from the Book of 
     Proverbs. There were so many verses in there about anger, the 
     trouble that people get into: ``If you deliver an angry man, 
     you're going to have to keep doing it''; Proverbs, 19:19. 
     ``Like a city that is broken down and without walls is the 
     man who cannot control his temper''; Proverbs, 25:28. Also 
     verses about how God admired people who could control their 
     temper; Proverbs, 16:32: ``Mightier is the man who can 
     control his temper than the man who can conquer a city.'' It 
     seemed like, verse after verse, chapter after chapter, they 
     were all written for me. After three hours in that bathroom, 
     I came out of there, and the temper was gone. I've never had 
     another problem with it since that day.
       I knew that it was our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who 
     did that for me. I began to understand that we have not only 
     a heavenly Father, but I adopted God as my earthly Father; 
     somebody that I could go to, somebody who was a nice guy; 
     somebody who didn't force himself upon you but someone who, 
     if you allowed him to be in your life and to control your 
     life, would make it something special, something wonderful, 
     would give you perspective and understanding; the ability to 
     look at things from other people's points of view, rather 
     than castigating people who disagree with you putting them in 
     a corner and throwing stones at them, like so many people are 
     prone to do. I think the more highly civilized a society is, 
     the less likely they are to do that; the more likely they are 
     to be able to engage in intelligent conversation, discussing 
     their differences and arriving at common solutions.
       There is a segment of our society that I am particularly 
     concerned about; who seem to be affected by the things that 
     I've talked about; the temper, the outrage, the lack of 
     intellectual development. It's the young black males in our 
     society in America. We've all heard the young black male in 
     this society is an endangered species. Why do people say 
     that? Because there are more young black males in jail than 
     there are in college.
       And you know the interesting thing? My good friend Wintley 
     Phipps told me that 90 to 95 percent of those people in 
     prison grew up in homes without fathers. Does that tell 
     us something? Something about what we need to be doing as 
     a society in terms of reaching out and providing 
     appropriate role models for individuals?
       Why do we have this dismal situation occurring? Some people 
     say: ``I am not a black male, so it doesn't affect me. It's 
     not my problem.'' I beg to differ with you because all of our 
     ancestors came to this country in different boats. But we're 
     all in the same boat now. And if part of the boat sinks, 
     eventually the rest of it goes down, too. We have to 
     understand that.
       The interesting thing is that young black males never had 
     to become that way. Those of you who are in education know 
     that young black males in the kindergarten, first grade, 
     second grade, are as good a students as anybody else. Then 
     something happens along the way. What happens? They start 
     reading in American history about this great nation of ours 
     and they discover that there's nobody in there who looks like 
     them who did anything of significance. They say, ``Well, 
     maybe next year, when I take world history.'' Then they 
     discover there's nobody who looks like them who did anything 
     of significance. then they come home and they turn their TV 
     on, and they say, ``Oh! There I am. Playing football and 
     basketball and baseball, and rapping in these baggy pants 
     that look like you could fly in them, and acting a fool on 
     some sit-comedy.''
       You begin to develop certain self-images, certain concepts: 
     ``That's how I'm going to make it. I'm going to become the 
     next Michael Jordan.'' The media doesn't tell them that only 
     seven in one million will make it as a starter in the NBA; 
     that only one in ten thousand make it in any lasting way in 
     sports and entertainment.
       We need to emphasize the right things. I wish we had a 
     program that came on television every day, called 
     ``Lifestyles of the Formerly Rich and Famous,'' so that they 
     could find out what happens to many of these people, because 
     it's not as glamorous as we make it out to be. We need to 
     emphasize the intellect.
       But, they don't have that emphasis. And then they find out 
     later on that they're not going to be a sports star or in 
     entertainment. What's left? Up drives this big black BMW with 
     tinted glass, out steps this tall gentleman, jewels and furs 
     and women, and he says ``Wouldn't you like to have some of 
     what I have? That society sold you a bill of goods. Let me 
     show you how you get it.'' Hence, we have people who do some 
     things that none of us can imagine that a human being would 
     do, because they feel betrayed by society.
       That's part of it, part of the sociology. That's not all of 
     it, but it's part of it. It's something that should give us 
     pause, but it never had to happen. Any of us could have taken 
     that young man at age 6, and walked down the streets of 
     Washington, D.C., and given him a lesson that would have 
     thrilled his heart, a black history lesson that could have 
     started by pointing to his shoes and saying ``It was Jan 
     Matzlinger, a black man, who invented the automatic shoe-
     lasting machine which revolutionized the shoe industry 
     throughout the world.'' Step on that clean street, they can 
     tell him about Charles Brooks, who invented the automatic 
     street-sweeper. Down that clean street comes one of those big 
     refrigerated trucks and you can tell him about Frederick 
     Jones, who invented the refrigeration system for 
     trucks, later adopted for airplanes and trains and boats. 
     It stops at the red light, and you can tell him about 
     Garrett Morgan, a black man who invented the stop sign, 
     the stop signal, and also invented the gas mask, saved 
     lots of lives during the war.
       You can tell him about Henrietta Bradbury, a black woman 
     who invented the underwater cannon, made it possible to 
     launch torpedoes from submarines. And a black woman is 
     walking down the street--a black man did not invent her--but 
     you can take that opportunity to talk about Madame C.J. 
     Walker, a black woman who invented cosmetic products for 
     women of dark complexion, was the first woman of any 
     nationality in this nation to become a millionairess on her 
     own efforts.
       You walk past the hospital, and you can talk about Charles 
     Drew and his contributions to blood banking, blood plasma, 
     and Daniel Hale Williams, the first successful open heart 
     surgeon. You look up at the surgical light, Thomas Edison--
     you didn't know he was black, did you? He wasn't, but his 
     right-hand man, Lewis Lattimer, was. Lewis Lattimer came up 
     with the filament that made the light bulb work, pioneered 
     research in fluorescent lighting, diagrammed the telephone 
     for Alexander Graham Bell. People don't even know who Lewis 
     Lattimer was.
       You walk by the railroad tracks: Andrew Beard, automatic 
     railroad car coupler, helped spur on the industrial 
     revolution. Elijah McCoy had so many great inventions, like 
     the automatic lubricating machine for engines, that people 
     were saying when something big in the industrial era came up, 
     ``Is that a McCoy? Is that the real McCoy?'' You got racist 
     people like David Duke running around talking about ``the 
     real McCoy,'' don't even know who they're paying homage to.
       And I'm just scratching the surface. I'm barely scratching 
     the surface.
       Here's what's interesting: I can take that same walk down 
     the street for any group, any ethnic group in this nation, 
     and point out tremendous contributions, because the fact of 
     the matter is we have all made enormous contributions to this 
     nation. That's how this nation got to be number one faster 
     than any other nation in the history of the world, because we 
     have people here from every place, from all corners of the 
     earth. This is not a problem, this is a good thing.
       Think about it. How many people here would want to go to 
     the National Zoo and pay money to get in there if every 
     animal was a Thompson's Gazelle? It wouldn't be that 
     interesting would it? How many people would go downtown 
     Baltimore to the National Aquarium, pay to get in there, if 
     every fish were a goldfish? How many people want a bouquet of 
     flowers if every one was identical? And how many people would 
     want to get up in the morning, if everybody looked exactly 
     like you? Think about it. In some cases, it would be a 
     disaster.
       I think we should praise our Heavenly Father for giving us 
     diversity, and please, let's not let those people with small 
     minds make that into a problem. We don't have to do that.
       Let me close quickly by saying I really feel that we have 
     to get this into our young people, this idea about our 
     diversity being our strength, this ideal about developing 
     ourselves intellectually. What if everybody in this room, 
     with all your influence, wrote a letter to Kellogg's and 
     General Mills, when you went home, and said, put on your 
     cereal boxes Nobel Prize winners and people of intellect 
     instead of just people who use sports and entertainment, and 
     our young people could read about them when they were eating 
     their cereal in the morning.
       Just those kinds of things will make a big difference. It 
     helped me to have a very rapid rise in my career, and it came 
     up with my philosophy for success in life: Think big.
       The ``T'' is for talent, which God gave to everybody--not 
     just the ability to sing and dance and throw a ball. Don't 
     get me wrong; I love sports and entertainment. I love sports 
     stars and entertainers, but it's not the most important 
     thing. Intellect--we need to develop that. We need to 
     emphasize it.
       Honesty--lead a clean and honest life. You won't have to 
     worry about skeletons in the closet coming back to haunt you 
     just when you don't want to see them. If you always tell the 
     truth, you don't have to try to remember what you said three 
     months ago. What a difference that makes.
       The ``I'' is for insight, which comes from listening to 
     people who have already gone where you're trying to go. 
     Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, said, ``Wise is the 
     person who can learn from someone else's triumphs and 
     mistakes.'' He said, ``The person who cannot is a fool.''
       The ``N'' is for nice. Be nice to people, because once they 
     get over their suspicion of why you're being nice, they'll be 
     nice to you. If you're not nice, try it for just one week. 
     Try for one week not saying something bad about anybody and 
     being nice to everybody. You'll see it makes a big 
     difference, and you won't go back.
       The ``K'' is for knowledge, which is the thing that makes 
     you into a more valuable person.

[[Page H2058]]

       You ask--do I have a big house? Yes. Do I have many cars? 
     Yes. I grew up in Detroit. I like cars. Do I have a lot of 
     things that ``Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous'' thinks are 
     important? Yes, I do, but they're not important. Guess what: 
     If somebody comes and takes all those things away from me 
     today, it's no big deal. Why? Because I can get them all 
     right back with what's up here--at least I could before 
     managed care. That's what Solomon was talking about when he 
     said gold is nice, silver is nice, rubies are nice, but to be 
     cherished far above those: knowledge, wisdom, and 
     understanding, because he knew with knowledge, wisdom, and 
     understanding, you could get all the gold and silver and 
     rubies you wanted. More importantly, he knew, with knowledge, 
     wisdom, and understanding, you would come to understand that 
     they--gold and silver and rubies--aren't important, that the 
     important thing is developing your God-given talents to the 
     point where you become valuable to the people around you.
       The ``B'' is for books. I've already talked about the 
     importance of reading.
       I want you to know that my mother did eventually teach 
     herself how to read. She finished high school. She went on to 
     college. And in 1994 she got an honorary doctorate degree. 
     It's never too late. It's never too late.
       The second ``I'' is for in-depth learning, learning for the 
     sake of knowledge and understanding, as opposed to 
     superficial learners who cram, cram, cram before an exam, 
     sometimes do okay, and three weeks later know nothing. I am 
     sure no one here knows anyone like that.
       The ``G,'' the most important letter for for God. Don't 
     ever get too big for God, and don't be ashamed of a 
     relationship with God. We live in a country where some people 
     say that you're not supposed to talk about God in public; 
     that somehow, that's a violation of the separation of Church 
     and State; what a bunch of hogwash! Do they know that Thomas 
     Jefferson had 190 religious volumes in his library? Do they 
     know that the preamble to our Constitution talks about 
     certain inalienable rights that our Creator endowed us with? 
     Have they ever said the Pledge of Allegiance to that flag, 
     which says we are one nation under God? In every courtroom in 
     our land, on the wall, it says, ``In God, we trust''; every 
     coin in our pocket, every bill in our wallet says, ``In God, 
     we trust.''
       So tell me something, if it's in our Constitution, it's in 
     our pledge, it's in our courts, and it's on our money, but 
     we're not supposed to talk about it, what is that? That's 
     schizophrenia. does that not explain some of the things going 
     on in our society today?
       We've got to get it across to our young people that it's 
     okay to be nice to people, to care about your fellow man, to 
     develop your God-given talents to their utmost; to have 
     values and principles in their lives. If we do that, I 
     believe we in this country can lead the world to the type of 
     civilization that this world should know. We should not be 
     castigating each other; we should be loving each other. We 
     should follow the example of our Lord, Jesus Christ. We 
     should make sure that in all things we honor him. The way we 
     honor him is by honoring each other.
       Thank you, and good luck.
       Representative Barrett: Thanks. Dr. Carson, thank you so 
     much for those words, for that inspirational message. We're 
     grateful to you.
       Ladies and gentlemen, it is now my great privilege and high 
     honor to introduce to you William Jefferson Clinton, the 
     president of the United States.
       President Clinton: Thank you very much.
       Congressman Barrett, I want to thank you for making it 
     possible for me to follow Dr. Carson. That business about 
     worrying about whether the Secret Service would take you away 
     if you talked too long--if that were true, I wouldn't be here 
     today; I'd be long gone.
       That biochemical description--I've got a real problem; I 
     can't remember my home phone number anymore.
       Senator Akaka, Mr. Speaker, Congressman Gephardt, to all 
     the members of Congress and the governors who are here, and 
     our leaders and visitors from other lands, and ministers and 
     citizens from the United States, I've had a wonderful day 
     today.
       I would like not to pour cold water on the day, but just as 
     you go through the day, I would like to ask all of you to 
     remember the heartbreaking loss that our friends in Israel 
     have sustained in the last couple of days, with 73 of their 
     finest young soldiers dying in that horrible accident in the 
     air.
       I would like to also say that, like all of you, I was very 
     elevated by this experience, as I always am. I thought Dr. 
     Carson was wonderful. I thought the Scriptures were well-
     chosen. I appreciate all the people who work on the prayer 
     breakfast so much.
       I would like to just say a couple of things very briefly.
       In my Inaugural Address and again in my State of the Union, 
     I've quoted Isaiah 58:12, which Reverend Robert Schuller sent 
     to me a few days before I started my second term, to remind 
     us that we should all be repairers of the breach. It's a very 
     moving thing. Basically, the political press here read it in 
     the proper way. They said that Clinton wants the Republicans 
     and Democrats to make nice to each other and do constructive 
     things. But then I got to thinking about who is it that's in 
     the breach. Who has fallen between the cracks? If we repaired 
     the breach, who would we be lifting out of the hole? Very 
     briefly, I'd like to just mention three things, and to ask 
     you not only to pray for these three groups of people but 
     also to do something about it.
       I don't know about you, but whenever I hear somebody like 
     Dr. Carson speak, I can clap better than anybody in the 
     audience; then the next day when I get up and try to live by 
     what he said I was supposed to do, it turns out to be harder 
     than it was to clap. So I would like to ask you to think 
     about who is in the breach if we're supposed to be repairers 
     of the breach.
       The first group of people that are in the breach are the 
     poor in America. They're different than they used to be. When 
     I was a boy, most poor people were old. In 1995, we learned 
     last year, we had the lowest rate of poverty among older 
     Americans in the history of the country. We have succeeded in 
     taking them out of poverty, virtually, all of them. We should 
     be proud of that, and grateful. Today almost all the poor are 
     young. Very young people without much education. A lot of 
     mothers like Dr. Carson's mother, struggling, doing the 
     best they can to raise their kids.
       We just passed this welfare reform bill, which I signed and 
     voted for because I believed it, and we did it because we 
     believed that the welfare system had gone from being a system 
     that helped the poor to help themselves to move off welfare 
     to a system that trapped people because the family unit has 
     changed and there are so many single parents out there having 
     children, and there isn't the stigma on it there used to be. 
     A lot of people now seem to be stuck on that system from 
     generation to generation. So we changed it.
       We didn't change it; we tore it down; we threw it away. We 
     said there's no longer a national guarantee that you can 
     always get a check from the government just because you're 
     poor and you've got little babies in your home. Now, the kids 
     can have health care and we'll give them food, but you don't 
     get an income check every month. You've got to go to work if 
     you're able to.
       So the people that are in the breach are the people that we 
     say have to go to work, who want to go to work, who can go to 
     work. You have to help us repair the breach. Two and a 
     quarter million people moved off of welfare rolls in the last 
     four years. A million of them, more or less, were adults who 
     went to work; the others were their children, a million out 
     of 11 million new jobs created. In the next four years, 
     there's more or less 10 million more people left on welfare; 
     about 3\1/2\ million adults, maybe 4 (million), most of them 
     able-bodied. All of them are supposed to lose their benefits, 
     if they're able-bodied, after two years unless they go to 
     work. Where are they going to get the jobs? You're going to 
     have to give them; private employers and churches, community 
     nonprofits.
       I see the governor of Michigan, the governor of North 
     Dakota here. They can actually take the welfare check and 
     give it to you now as an employment or a training subsidy or 
     to help you deal with transportation or child care or 
     whatever. But you better hire them. If you don't, this whole 
     thing will be a fraud, and we will not have repaired the 
     breach. All that we dreamed of doing, which is to create more 
     Dr. Carsons out of those children of welfare recipients, will 
     go down the drain because we come to places like this and 
     clap for people like him, and then we get up tomorrow 
     morning, and we don't repair the breach and do what we're 
     supposed to do. I need you to help us.
       The second people who have fallen between the cracks are 
     people around the world who are in trouble that we could help 
     without troubling ourselves very much. I am proud of what our 
     country has done in Bosnia and the Balkans--you should be 
     too--in the Middle East and Haiti; to help our neighbors in 
     Mexico. The impulses of the American people are generous. I 
     want to thank the speaker for supporting me when only 15 
     percent of the American people thought we were right when we 
     tried to help our friends in Mexico. Thank goodness they 
     proved us right, Mr. Speaker; otherwise, we might be out on 
     the south 40 somewhere today.
       But still our county has this idea that somehow it demeans 
     us to pay our dues to the United Nations or to participate in 
     the World Bank, or there's lots of things more important than 
     that; or just to give Secretary Albright this year the basic 
     tools of diplomacy. this is an interdependent world. We can 
     get a long way with having the finest defense in the world, 
     but we also have to help people become what they can be. So I 
     ask you to think about that.
       We're not talking about spending a lot of money here. It's 
     only 1 percent of our budget. But we can't walk away from our 
     obligations to the rest of the world. We can be a model for 
     the rest of the world, but we also know that we have to model 
     the behavior we advocate, which is to give a helping hand 
     when we can.
       The third people who are in the breach and in a deep hole 
     and need to be lifted up are the politicians. We need your 
     help. Some members of the press, they're in that breach with 
     us, too. They need your help. This is funny, but I'm serious 
     now. I want you to laugh today and wake up and be serious 
     tomorrow.
       This town is ripped with people who are self-righteous, 
     sanctimonious, and hypocritical. All of us are that way 
     sometime. I plead guilty from time to time. We also tend to 
     get--we spend an enormous amount of time here in Washington 
     trying to get even. It doesn't matter who started it.
       I remember when I came here one time, I got so mad at our 
     friends in the Congress and

[[Page H2059]]

     the Republican Party because they were real mean to me over 
     something. I went back to the White House and I asked 
     somebody who'd been there a while in Washington, I said, 
     ``Now, why in the world did they do that?'' They said, ``It's 
     payback time.'' I said, ``What do you mean?'' They said, 
     ``Well, they think the Democrats in Congress did this to the 
     Republican Presidents.'' I said, ``I didn't even live here 
     then. Why are they paying me back?'' They said, ``Oh, you 
     don't understand. You just got to pay back.'' So then pretty 
     soon I was behaving that way. I'd wake up in the morning, my 
     heart was getting a little hard. I thought ``Now, who can I 
     get even with?''
       You think--this happens to you, doesn't it? Who can I get 
     even with? Sometimes you can't get even with the people that 
     really did it to you, so you just go find somebody else 
     because you got to get even with somebody. Pretty soon 
     everybody's involved in this great act.
       You know how cynical the press is about the politicians. 
     They think we're all--whatever they think. What you should 
     know is that the politicians have now become just as cynical 
     about the press, because cynicism breeds cynicism. We are in 
     a world of hurt. We need help. We are in the breach. We are 
     in the hole here.
       This country has the most astonishing opportunity we have 
     ever had. We happen to be faced with this time of great 
     change and challenge. We're going into this enormous new 
     world. Instead of going into it hobbled with economic 
     distress or foreign pressures, we are free of any threat to 
     our existence and our economy is booming. It's like somebody 
     said, ``Here's this brave new world, and I'm going to let you 
     prepare for it and walk into it in the best shape you've 
     ever been in.'' Instead of doing that, half of us want to 
     sit down and the other half of us want to get into a fight 
     with each other. We are in the breach. We need you to help 
     us get out of it.
       The United States is better than that; we owe more than 
     that to our people, to our future, and to the world. We owe 
     more than that to our heritage, to everybody from George 
     Washington on that made us what we are today. Cynicism and 
     all this negative stuff--it's just sort of a cheap excuse for 
     not doing your best with your life. It's not a very pleasant 
     way to live, frankly--not even any fun.
       I try to tell everybody around the White House all the 
     time, I have concluded a few things in my life, and one of 
     them is that you don't ever get even. The harder you try, the 
     more frustrated you're going to be, because nobody ever gets 
     even. And when you do, you're not really happy. You don't 
     feel fulfilled.
       So I ask you to pray for us.
       I went to church last Sunday where Hillary and I always go, 
     at the Foundry Methodist Church. The pastor gave a sermon on 
     Romans 12:16-21, and a few other verses. But I'm going to 
     quote the relevant chapters: ``Do not be wise in your own 
     estimation.'' It's hard to find anybody here that can fit 
     that. ``Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. If possible, 
     so far as it depends upon you, be at peace with all men. 
     Never take your own vengeance. If your enemy is hungry, feed 
     him. If he is thirsty, give him a drink. Do not be overcome 
     by evil, but overcome evil with good.''
       Pray for the people in public office, that we can rid 
     ourselves of this toxic atmosphere of cynicism and embrace 
     with joy and gratitude this phenomenal opportunity and 
     responsibility before us.
       Do not forget people in the rest of the world who depend 
     upon the United States for more than exhortation. And most of 
     all, remember that in every scripture of every faith, there 
     are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of admonitions not to 
     forget those among us who are poor. They are no longer 
     entitled to a handout, but they surely deserve--and we are 
     ordered to give them--a hand up.
       Thank you, and God bless you all.
       Representative Barrett: Thank you, Mr. President, for those 
     words. And thank you for, again, scheduling the prayer 
     breakfast. We're grateful to you for taking the time to be 
     with us, as I believe all of your predecessors for 45 years 
     have spent time at this National Prayer Breakfast. Thank you 
     so much.
       Senator Daniel Akaka from Hawaii has been a dedicated 
     member of the Senate prayer-breakfast group and the House 
     prayer-breakfast group, as well. He's renowned on Capitol 
     Hill as a man of kindness and a man of great faith. He'll 
     also serve, incidentally, as the chairman of next year's 
     prayer breakfast. Please recognize Senator Dan Akaka to 
     lead us in our closing hymn.
       Senator Daniel Akaka (D-HI): Thank you very much, Bill. May 
     I ask all of us to stand, please; open our hearts, and raise 
     our voices to the Lord.
       (Senator Akaka leads in singing of ``Amazing Grace.'')
       Representative Barrett: Thank you so much, Senator.
       I would like to, at this time--to deliver our closing 
     prayer--to recognize a man who has distinguished himself both 
     in public and private life, the governor of the state of 
     North Dakota, the Honorable Edward Shafer.
       Governor Edward T. Shafer (R-ND): As we gather here this 
     morning in Washington, DC, I am reminded of greatness. This 
     is a great city, and we are here as great leaders. We are 
     leaders of great governments and nations, leaders in great 
     business and industry. We are here as leaders of our faith.
       But we gather here not in greatness, but in humbleness, and 
     to give thanks. To remember that it is only through the grace 
     of our Almighty God that we serve our fellow man.
       On this occasion, I hear again the words of Abraham 
     Lincoln. He said ``I have been driven many times to my knees 
     by the overpowering conviction that I had nowhere else to go. 
     My own wisdom and that about me seemed insufficient for the 
     day.''
        Mr. President, First Lady Hillary, Congressman Barrett, 
     Mr. Vice President, Mr. Speaker, all distinguished guests, 
     let us open our hearts and minds and bow our heads in prayer.
       God Almighty, Lord of all mercy, we your servants from 
     around the world thank you for your goodness and loving 
     kindness. As our lives burst with meaningful events, large 
     and small, help us remember patience and compassion. We 
     cannot live by scoring who wins or who loses, or by getting 
     even or paying back. Let us live as neighbors looking out for 
     one another, as friends caring for each other, and as family 
     loving one and all.
       Encourage us to respect, honor and serve each other. Help 
     us remember it is not the words from our mouths but the 
     actions we take that will command your final judgment.
       As we depart from this special occasion, we pray that you 
     will give each of us your directions for the decisions that 
     lie before us, that we might govern wisely and lead well 
     those who are in our care. May we have insight and wisdom in 
     our search for justice, mercy and peace.
       I pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
       Representative Barrett: Thank you, governor. This will draw 
     to a close the 45th Annual National Prayer Breakfast. We 
     again thank you for your presence, and we ask that you go 
     wherever with God's love.

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