[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1992, Book I)]
[May 14, 1992]
[Pages 767-768]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



[[Page 767]]

Remarks to the Take Pride in America Volunteers

May 14, 1992
    Let me first salute Derrick Crandall, who had a lot to do with this 
event and who does so much for the great outdoors, not just here but all 
across--whoops, look at this gigantic thing--[laughter]--all across the 
country. But I really wanted to thank the volunteers from the Recreation 
Coalition, members of the Recreation Roundtable for the good work you do 
for public lands all across our wonderful country. And I was pleased 
earlier to see the former Governor, Mike Hayden, Assistant Secretary for 
Fish, Wildlife and Parks; my old friend, John Turner, son of Wyoming 
here, Director of our Fish and Wildlife Service; Jim Ridenour, the 
Director of the National Park Service; and Bob Stanton, who's the Parks 
Director of the National Capital Region; and then all the other parks 
and officials here with us today. A very special greeting to Pervis--
where did he go? You can't miss him. But there he is way back there--who 
does so much with the Bullets, but does so much to help the kids. And a 
special hello to all of you.
    Let me just tell some of you kids that 70 million Americans enjoy 
fishing every year. And I understand that some of you were out on the 
river, I hope you were, trying out this sport. Of course, I didn't show 
up too well on the casting, but that's an important part of it and a fun 
part of it out there. But we have this Pathway to Fishing program that I 
think is a very good one.
    Many of you from the Recreation Coalition were with Barbara and me 
when we visited some of this country's greatest fishing holes, camping 
sites, and hiking trails as well. We were out at Mount Rushmore, Glacier 
National Park, the Grand Tetons. And I hope every kid here gets a chance 
one day to see some of those great spots in the West. We have many other 
beautiful parklands across the country.
    But we've got to remember that the great outdoors--and one of the 
things that's symbolic about this event is that the great outdoors isn't 
miles away and unreachable, it's close to home. And here we are in this 
great park right here in Anacostia. So whether you're from right here in 
DC or from Spirit Lake, Iowa, the great outdoors is yours for the 
asking, and each of you is a coowner. As coowners you've got to preserve 
our great parklands, keep them clean.
    Since the beginning of our administration, we've added over $1 
billion to help our national parks, forests, wildlife refuges, and other 
public lands. In this effort to preserve our environment, public-private 
partnerships are so important, and they help us all do our part. 
Practically every day, people sit and fish on the river dock just behind 
me, one funded by what Derrick talked about, that Wallop-Breaux Trust 
Fund, a program that was started in 1984 to bring together the efforts 
of both the fishing and the boating industries. I think he was quite 
generous about that, but I did have a small role in its creation and am 
prouder still that this year we're providing more than $240 million for 
this fund to aid the fishing and boating improvements. Last year we had 
a fight; Congress, I think, wanted to cut the Wallop-Breaux in the 
appropriations process. But we just can't let that happen.
    Then there's our Scenic Byways program, a 6-year effort to improve 
some of our Nation's most traveled highways, not just the highways that 
you've got all across the country but roads that wind through the hearts 
of our cities. And we call them ribbons of green, the roads America 
loves. Here in Washington, our Scenic Byways program beautifies roads 
like the George Washington Parkway and Rock Creek Parkway. We're also 
helping to support the creation of greenways, those combinations of 
bicycles and hiking paths that are springing up throughout our cities 
and countrysides.
    Then there are programs like the one that this banner celebrates, 
Take Pride in America, a program that generates tens of millions of 
volunteer hours each year from communities all across the country, 
people coming together to preserve the parks and public lands within 
their communities, pick-

[[Page 768]]

ing up litter, planting trees, and building playgrounds for these kids.
    Right now one of our public land initiatives is receiving favorable 
attention in Congress, the America the Beautiful Passport. This replaces 
that old wallet card style with a passport that would include such 
things as park information, helpful phone numbers, motor decal, and 
many, many more things. And the best part, sales proceeds could generate 
up to $30 million in additional revenue which would then go to fund 
other recreation and wildlife projects.
    So as we enter summertime, and I know the kids here are counting the 
days until school gets out, we'll see more kids enjoy the benefits of 
this cleanup project today. We'll see them running off to this park, 
playing around on the new playground, casting the fishing lines the way 
John and Tom and other fishing experts taught them and shooting a few 
hoops the way Pervis told them to do, and learning from him and learning 
from the volunteers how important it is for one citizen to help another.
    It's not just a kid's life, though, I'm talking about. The outdoors 
is a perfect playground for the entire family and this country's 
greatest natural resource. This summer can also be a time for lots of 
families, for whole communities to come together.
    We all saw what happened out there in Los Angeles a couple of weeks 
ago, a community that was divided and torn apart and then turning on 
itself in despair. Already the communities within that south central 
L.A. are coming together. They're rebuilding; they're renewing. They're 
leaving the war zones behind to embrace the heart of what makes Los 
Angeles such a special place.
    Beyond our urgent emergency aid, we've got to take action to bring 
hope and opportunity to Los Angeles. I don't want to go into a lot of 
detail here, but I met with the leaders of both sides of the aisle. 
We're trying to get nonpartisan or bipartisan approaches to solve the 
problems. We've put out a six-point program that included a ``Weed and 
Seed,'' weed out the drugs, seed the neighborhoods with hope; our 
homeownership initiative; enterprise zones that bring businesses into 
these communities that are hard hit, these cities; education reform; 
welfare reform; and then a strong jobs program. These six points, we're 
going to keep pressing for them, and I think they'll bring immediate 
relief to some of our cities. And I think it's a wonderful thing, if 
we're successful in them, to what it can mean for the lives of some of 
the kids right here today.
    So, we've got to come together. We've got to rebuild the hearts of 
our Nation's cities, and we've got to renew that spirit of community. So 
I am just delighted to be here, very appreciative, once again, of the 
volunteers, those who live by that feeling one American must help 
another, hold out the helping hand to another. And the volunteers do it, 
and the result of that is cleaner and better parks, more and more hope 
and opportunity for the young people.
    So thank you very, very much for what you're doing. It's a pleasure 
to be out here. I have only one regret, and that is that I can't stay 
out here all afternoon to do a little better in the fishing-casting 
tournament out there and to get to see you kids enjoy this lovely park. 
Thank you all very much for being with us. And again, my thanks to all 
the volunteers.

                    Note: The President spoke at 1:22 p.m. in Anacostia 
                        Park. In his remarks, he referred to Derrick 
                        Crandall, president of the American Recreation 
                        Coalition; Pervis Ellison, Washington Bullets 
                        basketball player; and Thomas Bedell, president 
                        of Berkeley, Inc.