[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1992, Book I)]
[July 21, 1992]
[Pages 1150-1153]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks to Religious and Ethnic Groups in Garfield, New Jersey

July 21, 1992
    May I thank you, Governor Kean, for that warm welcome back. May I 
salute our assemblyman, Chuck Haytaian, our senate president, Don 
DiFrancesco, and our House candidate, Pat Roma. I'm delighted to see you 
all. May I ask that we pay our respects to His Beatitude, Metropolitan 
Theodosius, the Archbishop of Washington, the Primate of the Church; and 
Archbishop Peter, Bishop Paul, Father Alex, and members of

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the Three Saints parish. Thank you for welcoming me and so many 
thousands of your neighbors in New Jersey. Good afternoon to 
Congresswoman Marge Roukema, that's out there somewhere, and the 
wonderful people in this audience that represent the rich diversity of 
New Jersey.
    Your heritage is Cuban and Vietnamese and Jewish and Christian and 
Irish and African and Polish and Chinese and Armenian and so many, many 
others, and you're Americans all. You are Americans. Your spirit 
enriches our country, and it fuels the flame of freedom all over the 
world.
    These gleaming church domes remind me of the skyline of a great 
city. Since my last trip to Moscow, the Russian people have toppled the 
idols of Soviet communism. They have begun renewing the Russian nation. 
And just consider the signs of the times: In Red Square this Easter, the 
gigantic picture of Lenin was gone, and in its place was a massive icon 
of the Risen Lord, a powerful symbol of the new birth of freedom for 
believers all around the world.
    Today Germany is free and united. Ukraine is free and democratic. 
Poland is free. And the rollcall of freedom includes Hungary and 
Armenia, the Czech and Slovak Republic, Bulgaria, Byelarus, Lithuania, 
Estonia, Latvia, and many, many more. At long last, the captive nations 
of the old Soviet empire are free.
    But our work is not finished. In Asia, in Latin America, in other 
regions, some nations still suffer oppression. Some people are still 
struggling to be free. That's why, one of the reasons, I want your 
support to serve 4 more years as President, to complete the job of 
freedom around the world. We've got to use our energy, we've got to use 
our experience to solidify the historic changes that have given birth to 
these new democracies abroad and made us secure at home.
    These events benefit every American. The free world's triumph in the 
cold war, brought about by the steadfast efforts of America, of the 
American people, of her allies, gives us a chance to establish for these 
kids here a lasting peace. The momentous arms agreement that I reached 
last month with President Yeltsin, this reduction with its sweeping cuts 
in nuclear weapons, will make us more secure than at any time since the 
dawn of the nuclear age. These kids can go to sleep without worrying 
about nuclear war because of the changes we have brought to this 
country.
    Little more than 2 years ago, I welcomed to the White House Poland's 
then--the first non-Communist prime minister since Stalin's conquest of 
Eastern Europe. This brave man, Tadeusz Mazowiecki, spoke some of the 
clearest and wisest words about the times we live in. He said, ``History 
is accelerating.'' And with those words, he foretold the fall of the 
Soviet empire.
    This wave of history, this surge of hope is not confined to Europe. 
The Afghan people have won back their homeland. In Angola and in other 
African countries, people are digging out from under the rubble of 
tyranny. Mark my words: During my second term as President, the 
probability is high, it is very high that greater freedom will come to 
more than a billion people in Vietnam, in North Korea, and in China.
    Closer to home, we also have more victories for freedom. The Castro 
dictatorship is on its last legs. Here's what I envision: Within the 
next 4 years, I will be the first President of the United States to set 
foot on the soil of a free and democratic Cuba, and that's good for all 
of us. I am determined to keep America the leader in the struggle for 
world freedom.
    I am every bit as determined to protect the sources of our strength 
right here at home in the good old U.S.A. During the next 4 years, I'll 
keep helping American workers and entrepreneurs carry us to new heights 
of achievement. I will fight for the rights of American parents and 
American families. We must restore respect for the American family. The 
family is under siege. The choices in this election are clear: On one 
side, the advocates of the liberal agenda; on the other side are you and 
I and those values of family that we share.
    They want to tighten the monopoly on our kids' education. I am 
fighting on your side, as Tom said, for parents' rights to choose their 
children's schools, public, private, or religious. And our ``GI bill'' 
for children gives middle- and low-income families more of the same 
choices of all schools that

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people with a lot of money already have. Two years ago, they tried to 
create a new bureaucracy, this one for child care. I won my fight to let 
parents choose their children's care, including church-based care. I 
will keep on fighting for that kind of choice for the American family.
    They want public schools to hand out birth control pills and devices 
to teenaged kids. They believe it's no business of the parents and that 
it's strictly a matter between our children and the Government. They 
even encourage kids to hire lawyers and haul their parents into court. I 
believe kids need mothers and fathers, not Big Brother bureaucracy. The 
bond between the parent and the child is sacred, and it is fundamental.
    The big government, liberal approach to welfare has failed. That's 
why, just yesterday, I enthusiastically approved New Jersey's request to 
try a new approach to make parents in the welfare system more 
responsible, to put parents back to work.
    And I'm ready to fight 4 more years to protect the traditional 
rights of parents and families. Families are central to any 
civilization. More than a century ago, Dostoyevsky imagined a nightmare 
world, a place where an all-powerful state crushed the natural rights of 
individuals and families. ``And if God is dead,'' he wrote, ``then 
everything is permitted.''
    Well, looking out over this magnificent audience, I can feel it: I 
know that your faith is alive, and family is the most important thing we 
have here on this Earth. And we take to heart the words of ``America the 
Beautiful'': ``Confirm thy soul in self-control...'' We know that the 
America we love, the America that's such a powerful beacon to the entire 
world, will not stay strong if the culture and the Government teach our 
kids that anything goes.
    Think about it. If we can tear down the Berlin Wall, we can build a 
strong economy. If we can lift that Iron Curtain, we can bring the 
curtain down on immorality and indifference and lawlessness. If we can 
help people walk free through the streets of Europe, there's no reason 
we cannot take back our streets right here in our neighborhoods in the 
United States of America.
    You know, being here reminds me that next month marks the first 
anniversary of that attempted coup in Moscow, of those fateful days in 
August when Russia's democratic future was laid on the line, when world 
peace hung in the balance. I'm sure each one of us has indelible 
memories of those days. I certainly do, and I am proud that we had the 
courage and the leadership to stand by Russia's democrats in their hour 
of need. I am grateful for what Boris Yeltsin said about American 
leadership and making it possible for democracy to come to Russia.
    You know, earlier this year, I had the privilege of hearing Slava 
Rostropovich recount his memories at the National Prayer Breakfast in 
Washington. He'd flown to Moscow at the first news of the coup, and he 
stood 3 days and nights with President Yeltsin and the defenders of 
freedom and democracy, protecting what the Russians call their White 
House. He told us that deep in the night the only sound was from the 
movement of the tank treads. And he said, ``The aura of faith was almost 
palpable. In that moment the salvation of us all and of the future of 
the country came only from God.''
    My fellow Americans, we have the good fortune not to live in the 
shadow of machine guns and tanks. America will be safe so long as the 
United States of America stays strong, so long as we continue to lead 
around the world.
    Let me repeat it: Barbara and I count it a great blessing that when 
your kids and our grandchildren go to bed at night they don't have the 
fear, that same kind of fear, that fear of nuclear threat that we faced 
until just a few months ago. This is momentous. This is important to the 
entire world. I am proud that our leadership brought it about.
    Of course, we've got hard work ahead. We've got to keep our national 
security second to none. We've got to prove the pessimists wrong about 
America's ability to compete and to create jobs and to expand America, 
to expand opportunity for all. We must protect and renew our most 
precious resource, America's families.
    Now, to meet these challenges, to lead the Nation, to fight on your 
side of the values we share--put party politics aside--but to fight on 
your share for these values,

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on your side, that's why I'm asking you to help me win another 4 years 
as President of the United States of America. I will not let you down. I 
will fight for the faith. I will fight for the American families. We are 
one Nation under God, and never forget it. We can overcome any problems 
we face.
    Thank you. And may God bless this great country, the freest, the 
fairest, the greatest country on the face of the Earth. Thank you all. 
Thank you very, very much.

                    Note: The President spoke at 3:22 p.m. at Three 
                        Saints Russian Orthodox Church. In his remarks, 
                        he referred to Metropolitan Theodosius (Lazor), 
                        Primate, Orthodox Church in America; Archbishop 
                        Peter (L'Huiller), Orthodox Diocese of New York 
                        and New Jersey; Bishop Paul (Ponomarev), Vicar 
                        Bishop of the Patriarch of Moscow and 
                        administrator of the U.S. patriarchal parishes; 
                        the Very Reverend Alexander Golubov, rector, 
                        Three Saints Church; and Mstislav Rostropovich, 
                        National Symphony Orchestra director.