[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1992-1993, Book II)]
[September 5, 1992]
[Pages 1484-1485]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Exchange With Reporters During a Visit With the Harris Family in 
Asheville, North Carolina
September 5, 1992

    Q. Now that you've got him here, what do you hope to tell the 
President?
    Mr. Roy Harris. Well, we're going to talk about this neighborhood 
here. I want to make sure that he understands our neighborhood and the 
neighborhood that he's in right now and how it affects us in policies 
and decisions that are made. We have a mixed neighborhood here. 
Therefore, he'll get a chance to see a typical neighborhood.
    Q. Are you a registered Republican or Democrat, sir?
    The President. These guys, I'll tell you what they want to do----
    Mr. Harris. Registered Democrat. [Laughter]
    The President. A very hospitable one at that, and we are very 
grateful--[laughter]--for their hospitality, I'll tell you. It 
transcends any of these other things. They invited us, and here we are. 
They really made us feel at home. We've only been here 5 minutes.
    Mrs. Bush. But you ought to tell them a little bit about what the 
Harrises do for their community.
    The President. You tell them.
    Mrs. Bush. Well, you do Little League and----
    The President. Coaches. She teaches.
    Mrs. Bush. Well, she started the Girl Scout troop. They're active in 
their church. Their children get good marks because their parents care. 
I mean, just by chance they turned out to be an extraordinary family, 
and they sort of know what family

[[Page 1485]]

values are.
    The President. Great citizens of their community.
    Q. Are you going to try to twist his arm, Mr. President?
    Mrs. Bush. You're darn right. [Laughter]
    The President. I'll leave that to Barbara. [Laughter] No, we're not 
here on that. We're just here because they invited us here, and we're 
proud to be here and very pleased.
    Mr. Harris. It was an invitation for him to come and talk with my 
two daughters. That was the invitation.
    The President. Yes, we had a chance to talk a little on those 
issues, their education, some of those things. But we'll have a chance 
to visit.
    Q. Well, Mr. Harris, do you think there in the White House that the 
President really doesn't get a feel for what many neighborhoods are 
like?
    Mr. Harris. The typical example is I went down the street a few 
minutes ago, and the neighborhood is really happy that this is happening 
in their neighborhood. They're saying it's not here often that we get a 
President into our neighborhood, and so everybody is pleased. The church 
has opened their doors for us; friends across the street, we had to do 
certain things for them. This is a community. Believe it or not, it's 
going to be a community effort here, from the food to people loaning us 
a bread basket, to a number of things that are happening. The community 
has really participated in this process, and I think they feel very good 
about it.
    The President. That's just wonderful. Well, you're a great spokesman 
for your community, too.
    Thank you all very much.
    Q. What do your daughters want to tell the President?
    Mrs. Bush. Maybe they want to tell us privately. [Laughter]
    Mrs. Diantha Harris. Lisa, what did you say you were going to tell 
Mrs. Bush?
    Lisa Harris. Can we play--[inaudible].
    Mrs. Bush. Sure. [Laughter] I'd like that.
    Q. Mr. President, what would you like to convey to the Harrises?
    The President. Well, we'll have a wide array of things to talk 
about, the gratitude that we feel in our hearts for their invitation, 
that's the first thing. When you're welcomed by a family, why, that's 
what you do, that's what you feel. And I want to know more about their 
community. Certainly be glad to share with them the views I have on 
education, family, community itself; try to help others. I mean we were 
greeted out there by what we call some of the Points of Light, people 
that are designated; it's so hard, but we have this thousand Points of 
Light, people helping each other. Well, you do that in your daily lives 
here. So we can talk about that, plus everything else.
    Barbara and I were down in Florida. And a lot of people from South 
Carolina who had been helped in Hurricane Hugo were there.
    Mrs. Bush. North Carolina.
    The President. Then we went over to Jeanerette, Louisiana, and there 
was a whole group from around here, as a matter of fact, in North 
Carolina. They had just pitched in because people had been over helping 
on the North Carolina coast.
    Mrs. Bush. They had ``Remember Hugo'' signs.
    The President. Remember Hugo. And they were reaching out, helping 
people halfway across the country. It's just wonderful.
    Mr. Harris. There's, I think, 37 churches in the Mud Creek 
Association that want to do the same thing.
    The President. Right from here? Is that right?
    Mr. Harris. Want to raise money to help the people in Florida this 
weekend. It's going to happen in the Mud Creek Association churches 
tomorrow. So we're all part of it, and I wouldn't be surprised if they 
end up wanting to bus or truck down there.
    The President. Heading down there? A lot of volunteers are pouring 
in. It's really good, and they're really helping. They're helping 
reconstruct. I talked to the guy yesterday, Andy Card, and a lot of that 
debris that was just there has been moved away, cleared out. Military 
doing a good job, but also the volunteers.

                    Note: The exchange began at 1:35 p.m. at the Harris 
                        residence.