[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1992-1993, Book II)]
[September 7, 1992]
[Pages 1496-1498]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks to the Community in Hamtramck, Michigan
September 7, 1992

    Thank you, Paul. And thank you, Governor Engler. Thank you very, 
very much. I love this sign, of all the signs out there: ``These are the 
Poles that count.'' You are the Poles that count.
    Early this morning the Governor and his wife, Michelle, and Barbara 
and I all joined about 80,000 for a walk across the great bridge up in 
northern Michigan. He didn't mention it, but I beat the Governor across 
the bridge. But he says he was just being polite and hanging back with 
the First Lady.
    Today I don't want to talk about politics. I want to talk about 
something else, something that's near and dear to the hearts of 
everybody: freedom. May I recognize some of the outstanding leaders who 
are with us today: Monsignor Milewski; your great Mayor, Robert Kozaren; 
my friend the president of the Polish General Council who introduced me, 
Paul Odrobina; parade chairman Ted Koltowicz; and the grand marshal, 
Walter Budweil. Thank you all very much.
    My fellow Americans, this past Independence Day I traveled to the 
heartland of Poland to bury a treasure. In the crypt of an ancient 
cathedral, I stood with President Walesa as the remains of the great 
patriot and artist Ignacy Paderewski were finally laid to rest in the 
rich and free Polish soil that conceived and sustained him. And the 
ripples from that moment, as his remains were consecrated to the earth 
on that warm summer day in Warsaw, are passing through this crowd here 
and now. Sons and daughters of Hamtramck, your forebears

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came to this great country because they too could not countenance a 
Poland shackled by repression. Rather than cling to native soil bled dry 
by empty promises, they chose instead to flourish free on foreign soil 
and to make it their own. Today you are part of the great family that is 
America.
    Fellow Americans, I am proud to be with you in Hamtramck on Labor 
Day. You are the blood and bone of Copernicus and Chopin and Curie. You 
are the sweat and sinew that built this city and this industry. And you 
are the voice and vision of your parents who struggled to be heard and 
won that struggle, that labor's voice may be heard always, always. You 
are the inspiration for Americans who watched and prayed and cheered 
through recent years as the great nation of Poland, racked by the 
rhythms of war and oppression, rose like a phoenix, a free nation once 
again.
    We watched this new force, not pushing down from a tyrant but up 
from the people. We prayed for the nation of Poland, reborn, brimming 
with a new and different fluid of life, inspired by a Pope and by a 
passion for freedom, for freedom at last. We cheered a Gdansk 
electrician who electrified the world with the charge that all people 
should be free and be heard. We stood proud as American labor took to 
the forefront during the struggle, standing with Solidarity in its 
darkest hour, firm in the belief that the dream was real.
    I stood before you right here in Hamtramck, right here 3 years ago, 
with this message: Communism has left an ugly scar on Poland. It will 
heal, but with pain, the pain of insecurity and insolvency. I pledged 
America's help. Today I return to you to say that this country and our 
allies have responded forcefully.
    First, our concern for Poland's security. On that day here 3 years 
ago, I called for an end to the cold war. Thank God, the cold war has 
ended, and thank God, freedom won. America will do what's right to make 
certain Poland never again braves the chilling tomb of communism.
    And second, our concern for Polish solvency. It's been said that 
communism is not a form of economics, it's the death of economics. So 3 
years ago, I called for all to rally 'round with economic efforts to 
help pull Poland from an economic grave. I called for giving Poland 
preferred trade treatment so she can reach out to the world through 
exports. I called for reducing Poland's debt to ease her burden. I 
called for investors to help unleash the explosive entrepreneurial 
energy of the Polish people. I called for loans so the Polish private 
sector can help her economy blossom. I called for international 
financial agreements so Poland can build a financial base worthy of a 
great nation.
    In 1989 these and other major initiatives marked a radical new 
direction for our foreign policy toward Poland and other democracies. In 
1992 I've returned to tell you, Democrat or Republican, whoever you're 
for: All these predictions and pledges have come true, every single one 
of them.
    There are those who tell me that foreign policy doesn't matter, that 
with our internal challenges America has no business paying attention to 
the world anymore. I say, tell that to the immigrants of America. Tell 
that to our children who are free of nuclear nightmare and can dream the 
sweet dream of peace. I am proud that we helped change the world. Tell 
that to the American workers who have a new world of consumers eager for 
the fruit of your labors. On this Labor Day, let me be clear: No one can 
outproduce, outthink, outcreate the American working man and woman, no 
one.
    So we recognize that the noble experiment taking place in Poland and 
other nations today is in fact an inspiration and an opportunity for us 
and the rest of the world. We pledge our support for Poland's security. 
We pledge our support for Poland's solvency. We pledge to work for a 
democratic peace, an enduring peace anchored in economic and political 
freedom. Most of all, we pledge to keep our word. We pledge to keep 
Poland free.
    My friends, we stand today in the twilight of one millennium and the 
dawn of the next. Never before has humankind beheld such a view. Never 
before has our Nation been pressured by such deep energies of change and 
growth reshaping America like the strong hands of a potter on wet clay. 
But we will survive, and we will thrive. Why? Because the American 
people are like

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the great Statue of Liberty that stands in New York Harbor. We're like 
that great statue, brought over in pieces from the Old World, strapped 
together with bolts of steel right here on our own American soil, 
assembled, raised, and anchored on a rock in our own American waters. 
And we are like that statue because the family that is America came over 
in pieces as well.
    We came as Poles and Hungarians and Chinese and Germans; Japanese, 
Irish, Swedes, and French; Italians, Russians, Spaniards, Cubans, 
Koreans, Hondurans, Lithuanians, and Finns; Ukrainians, Latvians, 
Bulgarians, and Mexicans; Israelis, Albanians, Czechs, Macedonians. And 
that roster of new Americans goes on and on and never ends. Like that 
great statue, we came over in pieces. Our cultures were bolted together 
by hope. Our cross-struts are many. Our strengths are eternal. Our hopes 
unite us. And our vision is one: a vision of prosperous peace for our 
children. And the last best hope for that vision is you, the American 
people.
    It's now time to take those same heartfelt urges that made us become 
the statue and put them to work here at home. This fight for freedom 
isn't fought on the dark, treacherous borders far from home. This fight 
for freedom is fought on the economic battlefield by creating new jobs, 
opening new markets, building new American strengths right here, here 
and abroad. And this fight is fought with creativity, determination, and 
investment in the hearts and minds of the American people.
    Here in Hamtramck and across this Nation, these are the forces 
Americans must bring to bear on our future so every American's human 
potential is stretched to its God-given best. Hamtramck, you can change 
the world with a gift your mothers and fathers left behind. And today I 
challenge you to redeem the struggles they endured. Make their labors 
mean something. Redeem the struggles Solidarity suffered. Redeem the 
struggles Kosciuszko and Pulaski and, in fact, all the Kowalskis and 
Janowskis who lived and died and aimed at one simple thing: to be heard, 
to have a voice, to vote.
    Come November 3d, I challenge you to breathe life into the meaning 
of Labor Day and into the meaning of Solidarity and into the hopes and 
the dreams of the thousands who have died for the precious right we so 
often ignore. I challenge you to vote your conscience. I would hope you 
would vote for me, of course, but only you can know your heart. As you 
cast that vote, observe how easy it is. And remember how costly, how 
terribly costly this great gift was to win and to earn and to pass down 
to us here today.
    Ladies and gentlemen, that is the legacy of Hamtramck. That is the 
legacy of your ancestors' homeland. And that is the legacy of the family 
of America. Make her proud.
    Thank you all. God bless you for this wonderful support. And may God 
bless a free, an always-free Poland. Thank you very much.

                    Note: The President spoke at 4:18 p.m. after 
                        participating in the Polish Festival parade. In 
                        his remarks, he referred to Monsignor Stanley 
                        Milewski, chancellor of Orchard Lake St. Mary's, 
                        and Paul Odrobina, city councilman and president 
                        of the Michigan chapter of the Polish American 
                        Congress.