[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 77 (Monday, June 15, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Page S6327]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     LEADERSHIP TRAINING INSTITUTE

  Mr. ASHCROFT. Mr. President, it is with great pleasure that I rise 
today to recognize the Leadership Training Institute (LTI), a summer 
camp being held in Bolivar, Missouri this week. LTI is challenging 
America's youth to reach for personal excellence and to lead their 
generation to an ever higher standard of morality and achievement than 
the generation before them. The United States has seen success because 
individuals have the opportunity to set standards that define their 
highest and best.
  Leaders have the opportunity to be both ``intensive'' and 
``extensive.'' Intensive leadership is influencing towards excellence 
those that are closest to you--your family and friends. Extensive 
leadership is reaching beyond to your community, culture, and even the 
world. My hope for today's youth--and those participating in this 
week's leadership training--is that they will take the opportunity to 
be leaders close to home and beyond.
  Programs that guide youth in setting the highest standards for their 
lives are essential to the continuity of morality in our culture and 
the setting of our sights on the noble. God has given principles which 
turn our eyes from the temporal, the physical, and the menial to the 
eternal, the spiritual, and the noble.
  The Leadership Training Institute is headquartered in Arkansas and 
its staff and participants come from many communities across America, 
including from my home state of Missouri. LTI is committed to training 
youth in the virtues which leaders such as Thomas Jefferson considered 
to constitute the moral fabric of our society: ``With a firm reliance 
on the protection of the Divine Providence; we mutually pledge to each 
other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.''
  LTI educates youth in the lessons of our Nation's founders --their 
experiences, wisdom, and legacies. Youth learn that good leaders are 
people of faith as well as people of science. This training in American 
heritage and ingenuity prepares today's youth to set an excellent 
example in their homes, schools, communities, and government.
  I am proud to see the staff and supporters of the Leadership Training 
Institute challenging America's youth to lead by personal standards of 
excellence. Hopefully, the participants of the program this week in 
Bolivar, Missouri, will set goals to become the leaders that remind us 
of all that is good in our country by advancing those values in their 
own lives.

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