    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1991, Book I)]
    [May 24, 1991]
    [Pages 556-557]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at the Dedication Ceremony for the Khalil Gibran Memorial Garden
    May 24, 1991

        Please, those who have chairs be seated, and the rest of you, thank
    you for the warm welcome, really. I told them to leave Millie at home
    over here. I don't know what the barking is. [Laughter] But let me first
    salute my old friend, my dear friend Bill Baroody, and thank him for his
    leadership; to Sheryl Ameen and Colonel Tannous, Adelaine Abercia, our
    friend Ambassador Lahoud, and, of course, our distinguished
    Representative, Congresswoman Oakar. To all of you I would say, without
    your sponsorship we wouldn't be standing here today. I want to single
    out Flip Wilson for his help in making this possible; it's greatly
    appreciated. Salute another old friend, Jamie Farr.
        And ladies and gentlemen, it's an honor--I mean this from the
    heart--it is an honor to be asked to dedicate this garden to a man who
    has done so much for poetry and, through poetry, for all of us. Barbara
    and I were pleased when Bill asked us, and others asked us, to serve as
    honorary cochairmen of the dedication committee. And now that I see--
    Barbara's seen it--the beauty of this place, I'm struck by the
    committee's dedication.
        They and all who contributed to this memorial offer it as a real
    tribute to Gibran's legacy--his belief in brotherhood, his call for
    compassion, and perhaps above all, his passion for peace.
        The spot where we now stand holds a special place in my heart
    because, as most of you know, for 8 years I lived up the street with my
    family. And this memorial renders this place so much more special by
    honoring a man who enlivened candor with cadence and lent song to truth.
        Gibran once wrote that ``remembrance is a form of meeting.'' So, in
    this garden, we meet this man again. The graceful symmetry and the slope
    of these grounds lead the eye in a sweep that is, indeed, poetry in
    motion. The cedars of Lebanon that will someday canopy the poet's
    memorial remind us of those which once sheltered his birth. His words
    carved on these benches--and they are so beautiful--echo those he has
    etched on our memory. And as the entrance's footbridge brings us into
    his garden, so his work ``leads us to the thresholds of our own mind.''
        Perhaps his greatest bequest was the key by which we opened our own
    imaginations. His was not poetry for the passive but for the
    participant. He wrote that the wisest teacher reveals ``that which
    already lies half asleep in the dawning of your knowledge.'' And his
    poetry sounded that reveille with a song of beauty and truth.
        When Gibran said that ``work is love

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    made visible,'' those weren't just words that he wrote; they were words
    that he lived. Part poet, part philosopher, he extracted ``the secret of
    the sea from a drop of dew.'' Poetry was the language in which he
    explored his soul and taught us about ours. And when he spoke of the
    realm of the spirit, his words pressed the veil we cannot see, yet
    cannot see beyond. He drew us where we were unused to climb and shared
    what he saw--the promise of a kinder, gentler world.
        And as we survey today's world, we see progress towards Gibran's
    vision, but we also see promise unfulfilled. And we see the need to
    renew Gibran's message of tolerance and compassion for a world too often
    at odds rather than at peace. Perhaps nowhere is this more important
    than in the Middle East, Gibran's homeland where peace still wanders as
    the region's prodigal son.
        That region gave us a symbol of peace in Gibran. It is cruel irony
    that those lands now suffer the strife and hatred and fear. Our
    administration's efforts are premised by those words Bill just quoted,
    that ``We are all children of the same supreme being.'' And that's why
    we must strive to turn this bitter cycle of demanding an eye for an eye
    into one of offering a hand for a hand. We shall continue our efforts to
    help bring peace back home to this vital and historic part of the world,
    so that someday ``its bread of affliction'' may become ``bread cast upon
    the waters.''
        Gibran once wrote, ``Love is a word of light written by a hand of
    light upon a page of light.'' The hand is his; and the page, our hearts.
        May I say to those who follow on this program, I apologize. I would
    like to be a full participant, but we're scooting off to New England on
    a long-established event. But I salute those who are participating in
    the program, ask their forgiveness and yours. And thank you very much,
    because it is Barbara and I who are honored by what has happened here
    today, inviting us to be participants.
        Thank you very much.

                        Note: The President spoke at 8:59 a.m. in the Khalil
                            Gibran Memorial Garden. In his opening remarks,
                            he referred to William J. Baroody, Jr., Chairman
                            of the Board of Trustees of the Woodrow Wilson
                            International Center for Scholars and president
                            of the Khalil Gibran Centennial Foundation;
                            Sheryl Ameen, member of the board of directors
                            of the foundation; Peter S. Tannous and Adelaine
                            Abercia, chairman and vice chairman of the
                            dedication committee; Ambassador Nassib S.
                            Lahoud of Lebanon; Representative Mary Rose
                            Oakar; and entertainers Flip Wilson and Jamie
                            Farr. Following his remarks, the President
                            traveled to Boston, MA.