    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book II)]
    [September 8, 1994]
    [Pages 1520-1522]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at the Presentation Ceremony for the All-American Cities Awards
    September 8, 1994

        The President. Thank you very much, and welcome to the Rose Garden
    on this beautiful day. I want to acknowledge the presence of Secretary
    Cisneros, who was once director of the National Civic League and whose
    city, San Antonio, a few years ago was an All-American City under his
    leadership. Congresswoman Johnson, Congressman Borski, Congressman
    Blackwell, Congressman Thomas, and Congressman Sharp are here.
        I also want to say a word of special appreciation for the National
    Civic League because this is its centennial year. When the league was
    founded, Theodore Roosevelt said, ``There are

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    many ways in which a man or a woman can work for the higher life of
    American cities.'' Well, judging by what the mayors here and their
    citizens have shown us, that is just as true if not more true today than
    it was 100 years ago. We know, given the complex challenges that our
    cities face, we need that kind of commitment now even more than we
    needed it 100 years ago.
        We are here to celebrate success on many fronts. Some of the cities
    are being honored for designing programs to get our children off the
    streets and into better lives. Others have expanded downtown business
    areas, opened free health clinics for the poor, smoothed the economic
    impact of a base closure. These 10 cities represent regions all over
    America, and they're of different sizes, with different problems and
    different challenges and different opportunities. They do teach us,
    however, one thing in common: when our citizens work in partnership,
    when they work business and labor and government, when they find ways to
    come together instead of being divided, they can do miraculous things.
        The partnerships we celebrate here are a reminder that government
    can and must help, that businesses and volunteer organizations working
    with citizens themselves must do the hard work of restoring America's
    communities. Each and every one of us must be personally responsible for
    working in our communities and making a difference. No one else will
    ever care about a community half as much as those who live there and
    raise their children there, who look forward to growing old there and
    being remembered there. And who knows how to solve the problems of a
    place better than those who call it home?
        That's not to say that you should do all the work on your own. Our
    Federal Government must and will continue to help. Everything we do,
    even here, should ultimately be about empowering people at the
    grassroots to assume responsibility for their own lives, their own
    communities, their own families; to be able to compete and win, to
    succeed in the complicated but exhilarating world toward which we are
    moving in the next century.
        We've worked hard over the last 19 months to create that kind of
    framework, in strengthening our economy, in reforming our education
    system, in following some of the initiatives Secretary Cisneros has set
    out for cities and for communities within cities all across America.
        We have another great opportunity for partnership now that the crime
    bill has at last passed. If ever there was an example of the Federal
    Government reaching out to empower people at the grassroots level, the
    crime bill is it. It's paid for by reducing the size of the National
    Government by 270,000 over the next 6 years, giving all the money back
    to local communities to hire police, to build prisons, to build
    prevention programs, to reach out to young people, to give people
    something to say yes to, to put people to work and put people in
    responsible play as well.
        These things can work in miraculous ways, but we're going to depend
    upon you to make them work. Getting the crime bill through Congress was
    difficult, all right. It took 6 years. But you don't have 6 years to
    make it work at the grassroots. The money is flowing in this fiscal
    year, and we have to depend upon all of you to reduce crime and violence
    and to increase the number of young people who have a better future.
        The partnerships that we celebrate today and the ones our
    administration is committed to creating tomorrow, all of them are the
    backbone of our future. The cities are leading the way, and those of you
    who are being honored today are truly outstanding. I can't wait to
    present the awards. I have already read the reasons why all of you are
    being acknowledged. It reminded me of a lot of the things that I did as
    a Governor. It reminds me, too, here in Washington that very often the
    most important things we do receive the least publicity, especially if
    we do them hand in hand instead of fist against fist. But you keep on
    doing it, because in the end the results will be the ultimate reward.
        Now I'd like to introduce a person that it's my great honor to
    present, one of our country's most distinguished citizens, the chairman
    of the National Civic League, John Gardner.

    [At this point, Mr. Gardner and Wayne Hedien, chief executive officer,
    Allstate Insurance Co., sponsor of the awards, each made brief remarks.
    The awards were then presented.]

        The President. Thank you very much. Let me just say a word of thanks
    to Allstate and to its chairman for their leadership. And thanks again
    to John Gardner. Thanks to all the Mem-

    [[Page 1522]]

    bers of Congress for coming here. And thanks to all of you.
        The most important thing I think we can take away from here is what
    John Gardner said: This is a can-do country. This is fundamentally an
    optimistic country. Just 2 days ago the international economic experts
    who every year rank the countries of the world in terms of how
    productive they are, ranked the United States number one again for the
    first time in nearly 10 years.
        That happened because of what people are doing in the heartland and
    because we're getting our act together up here. And you should feel very
    hopeful about the future because of what you have done and because of
    what you have done.
        Thank you, and God bless you all. We're adjourned. Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 2:10 p.m. in the Rose Garden at the White
    House.