[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1992, Book I)]
[February 28, 1992]
[Pages 347-350]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo Dinner in Houston, Texas

February 28, 1992
    Thank you very much, Don. Let me just say how pleased Barbara and I 
are to be back here. You have a wonderful way of making people feel at 
home, those involved in the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. Let me 
first salute last year's winners of the Scramble, of the Houston Calf 
Scramble, now celebrating its 50th year, and also the 1991 livestock and 
dairy judging contests. Congratulations on using your $800 certificate 
to help buy a heifer; what's more, to help pay for a year-long animal 
project.
    To Tom Glazier and Bill Ruckelshaus and his wife, Jill, over here, 
and Judge Lindsay and our great new commissioner of agriculture, Rick 
Perry, and fellow Houstonians and Texans. As I say, it is a joy to be 
back here for a lot of reasons. It's a joy to be out of there; that's in 
Washington.
    But first let me just thank Dick Graves. The first thing when we 
arrived here that was on our table was a beautiful book commemorating 60 
years of the rodeo. And typical of him, his thoughtfulness, there it was 
awaiting us when we arrived. I want to thank him, and obviously thank 
him for these two very special commemorative belt buckles. In this tough 
political season I can't think of a more pleasant way to get belted. And 
once again, it is a pleasure to be with you.
    I went to the first, I think, my first show when Bar and I just 
moved down here from Midland in 1960. And there we got the feeling of 
what was going on, seeing the whole community coming together to back 
these young would-be ranchers and farmers. And I've been back to the 
show many times.
    The spirit of this show has obviously not changed since then or 
really since it started. Nor has the courage and the heroism of the 
cowboys, nor the titanic size of the cattle. Seven years ago, as I think 
Don mentioned, I first attended, a first for me, the Houston Calf 
Scramble banquet--steak and eggs was what I thought it was when I got 
going, ``calf scramble''--[laughter]--but here we are once again 7 years 
later, and I see that Barbara and I are holding up the meal.
    I want to tell you why we were a couple

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of seconds late walking in here. We were presented a replica of this 
magnificent bronze that I understand you can see it from the freeway, 
Dan Gattis and Joe Ainsworth showing us a model of this. And I just 
can't wait to see the real thing, time and a half as big as the real 
horses and just a fabulous bronze. So if any of you haven't seen it, I 
expect most everyone here has, why, you're in for a treat. From what 
we've seen, it is really spectacular.
    In 1988, I was the grand marshal of the rodeo parade. I would like 
everybody to know that; that was a great honor. It was only equalled by 
being the grand marshal a year before of the Daytona 500. I think I was 
going up, though, when I got to be the grand marshal of this one. And I 
just wish we were going to be able to be with you for one of the shows. 
But again, many, many thanks.
    A couple of things pleased me. First, I liked the show's timing. 
Maybe I can pick up some tips on how to herd Congress my way. And if 
that doesn't work, there's always roping and tying. I'm looking forward 
to being back in this Astrodome, I might say, this summer very much. 
We're going to bring a lot of people with us, and I hope that's good for 
Houston. But I think they're in for a treat as well.
    The reason I'm most glad to be with you, though, is a feeling that 
eclipses time and place. It's the feeling that we share as Americans, a 
feeling we share as Texans, and the feeling when you see the bluebonnets 
or spot the cattle grazing in the distance or see a landscape that 
causes a catch in the throat or a tear in the eye. Ours is a great 
State, and we don't like limits of any kind.
    Ricky Clunn is one of the great bass fishermen. He's a Texan, young 
guy, and he's a very competitive fisherman. He talked about learning to 
fish wading in the creeks behind his dad; he in his underwear, wading in 
the creeks behind his father. And he said, as a fisherman he said, 
``It's great to grow up in a country with no limits.'' And I've always 
remembered that wonderful statement by this young kid who has gone on to 
be one of the champion fishermen in our country and a proud son of 
Texas.
    We don't like limits of any kind. And we know that sustained by the 
big things like family, home, school--and thank you, Reverend Payne--
church, community, and country, we can remake a lot of our country in 
this image that I think of as Texas: generous, self-reliant, 
enterprising, proud, patriotic.
    Here's a story that I think shows what I'm talking about here. It's 
a favorite of Phil Gramm's. Phil tells of a friend of his named Dickey 
Flatt who owns his own printing press, lives in Mexia, Texas, population 
of about, what, 7,000. And he's Phil's barometer of what is right and 
what is true. He says whether Dickey works 12 hours a day, 6 days a 
week, whether he's at church on Sunday or a Boy Scout meeting or the 
chamber of commerce, he can never quite get the blue ink off his 
fingers. So when a bill comes up in Congress, Phil asks, ``Is it worth 
taking money out of the pocket of Dickey Flatt to spend on this program? 
And let me tell you, there are a lot of programs,'' he says, ``that 
don't stand up to that test.'' And to that, I would simply say Amen. 
That's the kind of way I think we ought to look at some of the things 
that are going on in Washington.
    Ask yourself or your neighbor: Wouldn't we all be better off if all 
of us, executive branch and the Congress, thought a little more about 
people like Dickey Flatt who is out there working his heart out? And 
wouldn't our lives be better, our Nation greater if, instead of 
Government, we put the individual first?
    This guy Dickey Flatt is like a lot of Texans. We do believe in good 
schools and good streets. We believe in less Government and keeping 
taxes down. And we still believe, I think, in a strong defense.
    I am very proud that since I've become President, the Berlin Wall 
has come down and the Soviet Union isn't anymore. Imperial communism, 
the aggressive communism that wanted to take over the world, doesn't 
exist anymore. And I think these young kids here today probably go to 
sleep at night without the fear of nuclear weapons and nuclear war that 
maybe their mothers and dads did, not so many years ago. So, we have a 
lot to be grateful for in terms of the changes that are taking place 
around the

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world.
    Having said that, I have proposed substantial defense cuts based on 
the recommendation of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and of our very able 
Secretary of Defense. But people say to me, ``What is the enemy?'' And 
the enemy is unpredictability. The enemy is surprise. And I am 
determined as long as I am President to keep the muscle of our defense 
intact so that we can guarantee the national security for these young 
kids that are here today. And that's an awesome responsibility and one 
that I hope I can fulfill.
    We believe that trapping people in dependency is wrong. There's an 
awful lot of people that need help. They need help from community, as 
our able judge knows, my friend Jon Lindsay. They need help from 
Government. And the Government should be compassioned and try to help. 
But when we have a system that assigns people, because of its 
inadequacy, to generation after generation of welfare, there's something 
wrong. And we're trying to change it, and we ought to change it because 
we need people to have a little more dignity and a little less 
dependence on a system that regrettably has let them down.
    We believe that America is divinely blessed. I still feel this, and 
I still think that we ought to have voluntary prayer in our schools. I 
don't think anybody is hurt by that. And I think our Nation was weakened 
when that was removed from the classrooms of this country.
    And so I've tried to highlight some of the values. You know, we 
had--I mentioned this in my State of the Union Message--several of the 
leading mayors, I think it was the executive committee from the National 
League of Cities, came to the White House. And they made a real 
impression on me--Mayor Tom Bradley of the sprawling city of Los Angeles 
and others from large cities; one Republican mayor from a tiny town in 
North Carolina; the Mayor of Plano, a woman from up in Plano, Texas--and 
all of them said, ``We have met, and we believe that the major problems 
in the cities stem from the decline of the American family.''
    And so that night in the State of the Union Message, I appointed a 
commission to be headed by Governor Ashcroft and by Mayor Strauss, 
former Mayor Strauss, Annette Strauss of Dallas, to take a look at every 
single piece of legislation to see if in some devious way it weakens 
family and then to make proposals for legislation that can help keep our 
families together. The more I think about the problem, the more I think 
those mayors are right. And I hope as President we can demonstrate not 
only love for our own personal family but the fact that we think family 
is very, very important to the heartbeat and to the strength of our 
great country.
    This is America. This is what we are and why we live. And these 
things are worth fighting for, as Texans have shown that from San 
Jacinto until just a year ago today, I believe it was, when that war in 
the Persian Gulf wrapped up with many volunteers, many reserves, many 
regulars coming from our great State in that war as they have in so many 
in the past.
    There are also things which don't change from one year to the next 
in our neighborhoods, in our churches, in our families, and in 
ourselves. And I think these values show why the American way of life is 
the greatest way of all.
    We're in some tough times now. I happen to think there's a little 
too much pessimism around because we are Americans, all of us here, we 
are Texans, and we're not going to be defeated. We're going to prevail 
as this economy comes back. And as we once--we will keep the position we 
have in the world as number one. I hear people talk about, `Well, we 
want to be first.'' Well, we are first. You have to go to some foreign 
country, and there's never been more credibility or respect for the 
United States of America around the world than there is today.
    So I think we've been a little too apologetic and a little too 
pessimistic in these tough economic times. And I hope I'm the one to 
lead us out of that pessimism into the kind of days that this State 
knows and knows well.
    We are delighted to have been here today. And I might--listen, can I 
make one other family observation? I am very 
proud--Barbara's--I'm having difficulty living with her because this 
morning they named a school for her right here in--Bar-

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bara Bush School, and she's been on Cloud Nine since she got back. But I 
think she's doing a superb job in emulating and speaking for these 
values that I've talked with you a little bit about today.
    I don't know why I've inflicted such a philosophical lecture on you 
at such an upbeat time as this. But maybe it's just because we feel 
we're among friends.
    Thank you all very, very much.

                    Note: The President spoke at 4:07 p.m. at the 
                        Sheraton Astrodome Hotel. In his remarks, he 
                        referred to Don Jordan, master of ceremonies, 
                        Tom Glazier, vice president, Dick Graves, 
                        president, Dan A. Gattis, general manager, and 
                        Joseph T. Ainsworth, M.D., executive committee 
                        member, Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo; 
                        William D. Ruckelshaus, former Environmental 
                        Protection Agency Administrator, and his wife, 
                        Jill; Jon Lindsay, county judge, Harris County, 
                        TX; Senator Phil Gramm; and Claude Payne, rector 
                        of St. Martin's Episcopal Parish, Houston, TX, 
                        who gave the invocation.