[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

[[Page 557]]

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.