[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 38 (Wednesday, March 10, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E393-E394]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         CHARTER DAY CLOSING AT THE COLLEGE OF WILLIAM AND MARY

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. HERBERT H. BATEMAN

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, March 10, 1999

  Mr. BATEMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to share with you a speech I 
recently heard at my alma mater, the College of William and Mary. It 
was delivered by the President of the

[[Page E394]]

College, Timothy J. Sullivan, at the college's Charter Day ceremonies 
on February 6, 1999 in Williamsburg, Virginia. Charter Day, which is 
held annually, commemorates the anniversary of the granting of the 
royal charter by King William III and Queen Mary II for the 
establishment of the college in 1693.

                          Charter Day Closing

           (President Timothy J. Sullivan, February 6, 1999)

       ``I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is 
     just.'' So wrote Thomas Jefferson--about slavery--the great 
     stain on our national story. Might we not today--for 
     different reasons--borrow Jefferson's words. Should not we 
     ``tremble for our country when we consider that God is 
     just?''
       Our President has broken a bond of precious trust. He has 
     degraded the great office that was our gift to him. He has 
     embarrassed his country. And if that were all, it would be 
     tragedy enough.
       But this is not a one-man show. The full dimensions of this 
     sad tale verge on the operatic--with principal players--
     secondary figures--extras by the hundreds--and multiple 
     story-lines.
       And no matter how many times the tenor gets stabbed, he'll 
     sing loud enough to reach the cheap seats.
       It is as sickening as it is astounding--an American epic 
     that most wish would just go away.
       But it will not. Nor should we delude ourselves that 
     closure beckons with the end of the impeachment process. It 
     may take a long time to fully measure what this means for our 
     Republic or to discover what we have done to ourselves.
       For in the end, it is to ourselves that we must turn. 
     Leaders do not spring from the ground in full flower. We grow 
     them, water them, allow them to bloom--we the people--we bear 
     the ultimate responsibility for the Republic. Whatever it 
     becomes says much about what we have become. So--yes--the 
     impeachment debacle is cause for pain. But what really 
     worries me--what causes me to ``tremble for my country''--is 
     the almost certain accelerating effect that this sorry 
     spectacle will have upon an already cynical popular view of 
     politics, of politicians and of the making of public policy.
       For at least a generation we have borne the burden of 
     politicians--some in office--some merely hungry for office--
     who have based their campaigns--indeed their careers on the 
     crackpot notion that our government--the American 
     government--is the mortal enemy--of our liberty--of our 
     honor--of our legitimate aspirations.
       It is one thing--and a right thing--to argue about the cost 
     of government--about its scope--about its competence. These 
     are legitimate--these are vital issues. It is quite another 
     to suggest that by its very nature our freely elected 
     government is evil. That idea--in our America--is 
     historically inaccurate--constitutionally unimaginable--and 
     profoundly dangerous.
       Dangerous because the growth of such a distorted notion was 
     first a cause--and later a justification--for the damaging 
     flight of so many from the vital duties of active 
     citizenship.
       There are other forces which have degraded our public life 
     and fueled public cynicism about our elected leaders. Perhaps 
     the most potent of these is a stunning popular ignorance 
     about our constitutional system and the defining events in 
     our national history. In a 1996 Washington Post national 
     poll, only 24% of those surveyed could name their United 
     States Senators, just 26% knew the length of a United States 
     Senator's term, and 6% could identify the Chief Justice of 
     the United States.
       We have all read the full results of these surveys. They 
     need no further repetition.
       But here is the terrible truth. Our founders created a 
     government that will survive as a guardian of liberty only 
     with the active support of citizens who are both engaged and 
     informed. Those honored with the power to govern must be 
     accountable to voters who care about the vitality of our 
     public institutions--and who understand what is required to 
     preserve that vitality.
       Last November, 36% of eligible voters participated in 
     congressional elections. In 1996, barely 49% of our fellow 
     citizens voted in the presidential elections. These are signs 
     of sickness--not of health--these are clear warning signs 
     that the foundation upon which our representative government 
     depends is weakening and growing weaker.
       A public culture crippled by apathy and infected by 
     ignorance spawns other enemies of freedom. As more and more 
     reject the idea of active citizenship, many who remain 
     engaged embrace intensely focused but narrow views. These 
     activists are passionate about a single issue and indifferent 
     to all others. They are one-cause citizens, and they see the 
     complexities of our time through the distorting prism of a 
     glass that makes balance impossible and context irrelevant. 
     Name of subject--you will find a ``one-cause caucus'' eager 
     to impose what are inevitably minority views upon an 
     indifferent--and thus unrepresented--majority.
       We have--to take one example--seen the rise of preacher-
     politicians or politician-preachers who seem convinced that 
     God is a politician with views just like their own. Does God 
     really have a firm opinion about the right number of rest 
     stops on interstate highways? I hope He doesn't. In the 
     American system, you cannot make a religion of politics and 
     you should not make religion political. But we are in danger 
     or doing both.
       Our founders took measured--determined steps to insure that 
     our country would never be constitutionally a Christian 
     nation--that we would never be a nation with a state religion 
     of any kind. But they took equally measured--determined steps 
     to guarantee that the private right to worship would be 
     meticulously protected. Understanding that critical 
     constitutional difference demands a thoughtful and engaged 
     electorate. That so many of our fellow citizens manifestly do 
     not understand is yet another of the dangers we confront.
       The rising tide of constitutional and historical ignorance 
     is exacerbated by the popular media's increasing abdication 
     of its responsibility. The columnist, Russell Baker, has 
     written about
       ``Our dependence on entertainments that are almost 
     ritualistic in their repetitious shootings, capers, chases, 
     carnal congresses and witless humor--thought is almost 
     entirely absent from these entertainments. Their producers 
     clearly assume that there is no audience for thought.''
       And thought is not the only thing absent. Also nearly 
     invisible is any serious attention to important matters of 
     public policy. The capers--congresses--and chases--are 
     dominant almost to the point of exclusion.
       Mine is a somber message. Many--even those who share some 
     of these concerns--will argue that I have missed the larger 
     point--the larger point being that America has never been 
     richer--safer--or more content. We do enjoy unprecedented 
     prosperity. As journalist Greg Easterbrook reminds us, ``Even 
     home runs are at an all-time high.''
       To those who argue that proposition--and I respect them--I 
     reply that you have missed an even larger point. Economic 
     progress, social stability, the true happiness of our 
     people--none can be long sustained if our public life is 
     impoverished by citizen neglect--if our constitutional system 
     is left to the mercy of accidental leaders unaccountable to 
     an informed electorate. Political liberty--economic freedom 
     both depend upon citizens who understand and who care and who 
     are passionate about the discharge of their duties as free 
     men and women. Upon this proposition our founders staked 
     their ``lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor.'' What 
     was true for them--remains true for us.
       The citizen leaders who imagined and created our government 
     were not afraid to remind us of its demands. As the delegates 
     to the Constitutional Convention left Independence Hall for 
     the last time, the crowd that met them was anxious and 
     concerned. One in that gathering shouted out above the din, 
     ``What have you given us?'' To that question, Benjamin 
     Franklin replied,--``a republic--if you can keep it.'' A 
     republic--if you can keep it.
       And throughout our history, our greatest leaders have been 
     those who knew that government's purpose is far more than to 
     preserve public ease--it is also to promote public service. 
     And so these leaders--true leaders--were not afraid to remind 
     us of our public obligation. More than 60 years ago, in the 
     midst of the great depression--in the shadow of the Second 
     World War, Franklin Roosevelt spoke words that still stir--
     and still shine:
       ``There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some 
     generations much is given. Of other generations much is 
     expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with 
     destiny.''
       To my generation and the one which follows, much has been 
     given. But not much has been expected. We turn now to face 
     our destiny--a destiny I believe that will depend upon 
     whether--we have the will--the intelligence--the civic soul--
     to place safely into later hands the glorious republic it has 
     been our honor to inherit.
       Of our destiny, what would we have history say?

       

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