    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book II)]
    [September 17, 1994]
    [Pages 1568-1571]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Dinner
    September 17, 1994

        Thank you. Thank you so much, Cardiss Collins, for your
    introduction, your support, and your two decades in the United States
    Congress, making you the longest serving African-American woman in the
    history of the Congress. Congressman Payne, thank you for your
    leadership here and for so much that you do, but especially for
    cochairing, along with C. Payne Lucas, our mission to Rwanda to see the
    fine work done by the United States in that beleaguered land. And thank
    you, Congressman Mfume, for your brilliant leadership of the
    Congressional Black Caucus. It has been an honor and a privilege to work
    with you to move this country forward and to bring this country
    together.
        There are so many distinguished Americans here tonight. But I can't
    help acknowledging the presence here--and to say I am so glad to see her
    able to be here tonight--of Rosa Parks. Thank you, ma'am. I also want to
    say I'm a little jealous that I didn't see the rest of the program, also
    all the things for the young people, and especially Reverend Flake's
    sermon this morning. The Vice President came in this morning when we had
    our meeting, and he said, ``You know that verse in Ezekiel about the dry
    bones?'' And I said to him, I said, ``Can there be life in these dry
    bones?'' He said, ``Yes, that one. Floyd Flake just gave one of the
    three or four best sermons I ever heard in my entire life about that.''
    So I would like a tape or a transcript next week, if I could.
        I want to congratulate you, too, on your message, embracing our
    youth for a new tomorrow. You know, when I ran for President, I did so
    out of a sense of obligation to the next generation. I often said in
    1992 I did not want my daughter to grow up in a country in which she was
    part of the first generation of Americans to do worse than her parents
    and in which her beloved land was coming apart when it ought to be
    coming together.
        The theme song of our campaign was ``Don't Stop Thinking About
    Tomorrow.'' In order to do that, this country needs a clear mission and
    a good spirit. Our mission clearly has been to strengthen our economy
    and to preserve our security, to empower our people to seize the
    opportunities the future offers, to rebuild our American sense of
    community, to find strength in all this diversity we have rather than
    division and weakness, to try to make our Government work for ordinary
    citizens again, not as a savior but as a sure partner, to try to summon
    Americans to the idea that we can do better and that we are doing
    better.
        Now, in just a year and a half or so, we have seen over 4 million
    jobs come into this economy, a 20 percent drop in the African-American
    unemployment rate. We have seen 3 years of reduction in our terrible
    national deficit in a row for the first time since Mr. Truman was
    President of the United States. We have seen investments in new
    technologies and dra-

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    matic increases in trade. And just a few days ago, a distinguished panel
    of international economists for the first time in 9 years said that the
    United States was once again the number one productive economy in the
    entire world.
        We have begun the hard work of empowering our people, everything
    from increasing the quantity and quality of Head Start programs to
    apprenticeship programs for young people who don't go to college, to
    dramatic increases in the availability of lower interest college loans,
    to job training programs for those who lose their work.
        We have begun the work of rebuilding our community. By 1996 we
    should be able to immunize every child in America under the age of 2. We
    passed the family leave bill and gave 15 million working families just
    above the poverty line a tax break so that people could be successful
    workers and successful parents.
        We dealt with all aspects of the crime problem and tried to give our
    young people something to say yes to as well as something to say no to.
    We banned assault weapons against enormous odds, passed the Brady bill
    after 7 years of delay.
        We began to rebuild our communities and pull ourselves together.
    Just last week, we kicked off AmeriCorps, the national service program,
    with now 15,000 and soon to be 20,000 young Americans all over this
    country like this young lady here, Erika Lomax, who's a teacher in the
    Teach For America corps. We can revolutionize this country from the
    grassroots up if we just give more people like Kweisi was when he was 16
    or 18 or 20 something to do that is good and wholesome and pure and true
    that will lead to a better tomorrow. And we are making a beginning at
    that. Now our young people will be working in everything from helping
    our elderly people to be more secure, to improving our environment, to
    tutoring kids, to keeping our streets safer, to dealing in drug
    prevention and education and treatment programs.
        We passed the empowerment zone proposal, and we're about to finish
    the process of reviewing those. It's been the most remarkable thing I
    have ever seen, how communities have come together across racial and
    economic lines to try to find a way to get investment in jobs to those
    people who have been totally left behind in every economic recovery for
    the last 20 years. We are making a beginning at that.
        And I want to say a special word of thanks for one proposal to three
    of your members. Soon we will have ready for my signature the community
    development bank proposal, thanks in no small measure to Congressman
    Rush, Congressman Flake, and Congresswoman Waters. And I thank them for
    that.
        We're also trying to pull this country together in other ways,
    proving that an administration can be both diverse and excellent. One of
    the things I am proudest of is that as of this night, it has been my
    privilege as your President to appoint more than twice as many African-
    American judges to the Federal bench than the last three Presidents
    combined and more than twice as many Hispanic judges to the Federal
    bench than the last three Presidents combined. The really important
    thing is that the American Bar Association has given ``well-qualified''
    ratings to a higher percentage of this administration's appointments
    than in any of the last five Presidencies.
        I say that because unless we can find a way to go forward into the
    future together, all of our particular successes will not have the
    general result we want. Still it is so easy to see the glass as half-
    empty instead of half-full. And it is the spirit that burns within each
    of us that tells us we can get up every day and do a little better that
    really keeps this country going. Our Nation has always been made great
    because of the efforts of its people, the spirit of its people.
        Yesterday Congressman Mfume and Congressman Rangel and others
    invited me over to the Capitol, where we gave awards to a large number
    of African-American veterans of World War II. And I couldn't help
    thinking as I looked out at those fine people the extraordinary lengths
    to which some of them had to go simply to serve their country. The
    Tuskegee Airmen flew nearly 1,600 missions, and they were the only
    fighter group never to lose a bomber in Europe in World War II.
        Well today, we need all of our people, and we do not have a person
    to waste. And yes, we can do better. We must, and we will. But it is
    important to know that democracy is on the move in this country in no
    small measure because of the contributions of the members of the
    Congressional Black Caucus.
        Before I go, I have to say a few words about Haiti. As you know, I
    had looked forward to being here tonight in a more jovial mood. I

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    even like to--I've gotten finally to the point in my life where I like
    to wear one of those tuxedos. When I used to complain about it, my mama
    used to tell me that I came from a family where she could still remember
    the first time anybody ever had a necktie. And I was not to complain
    about wearing a tuxedo; I should be proud to have the opportunity to do
    so. So I look forward to doing that sort of thing. And I always love to
    be with you, and there are hundreds of my friends here. But I came late
    and a little out of style because, as you might imagine, I have been
    preoccupied today with the events in Haiti and the preparations we have
    been making at the Pentagon.
        I just want to say a word or two about that and how it relates to
    everything I have said before. Just because the cold war is over does
    not mean the United States can withdraw from the world. Just because it
    is almost always not necessary to resort to force, and we must always do
    everything we can to avoid it, does not mean there are never
    circumstances in which it might be necessary.
        What I want to say to you tonight is this: Our security interests in
    the world are many and varied. We must first finish the work of the cold
    war and remove the nuclear threat from our children's future. And we are
    making real progress there. We must try to limit the spread of all
    weapons of mass destruction and contain terrorism and the truly
    astonishing new threat of global organized crime. We must also try to
    spread a system of free economies and open trading so that as people
    work together and deal with each other, their suspicions and animosities
    and hatreds go down, and their sense of the practical benefits of being
    more open and more free and more democratic come to them.
        But we also have a special responsibility here in our own
    neighborhood, even as other countries do in their own neighborhoods, to
    deal with things which the world community condemns. And that is why we
    have sought for 3 years to restore democracy to Haiti, to end violence
    and terrorism and human rights violations, to see that all parties lived
    up to their commitments, to keep democracy on the move in our hemisphere
    and encourage those fledgling democracies to be brave and to go forward,
    to stabilize the borders and the territorial integrity of all countries,
    including ours.
        I have done everything I could to that end, along with the United
    Nations, the Caribbean community, and the Organization of the American
    States. Now there is an international coalition committed to
    implementing United Nations Security Council Resolution 940. Twenty-four
    other nations from around the world, with more to come, have already
    said they would come here to be with us to help to bring democracy back.
    I have great pride and confidence in our troops. And we are honored to
    have the support of these nations and of the United Nations.
        Yesterday the international coalition gathered at the White House
    and heard a very moving address by President Aristide in which he said
    that there should be no violence; there should be no retaliation; there
    should be no recrimination; everyone should simply lay down their arms
    and go to work at building a country that has suffered for too long from
    hatred and violence and recrimination. If it can be done in South
    Africa, surely it can be done in Haiti.
        And then yesterday evening, as all of you now know, I asked
    President Carter and General Powell and Senator Nunn to go to Haiti and
    try our last best effort to have a peaceful transition, to follow the
    will of the international community to end the bloodshed, to restore
    democracy.
        Tonight, whatever your feelings and wherever you're from, I ask you
    to remember this simple statement made by Prime Minister Arthur of
    Barbados yesterday when he said, and I quote, ``The Haitian people have
    wished for democracy. They have suffered for it. They have voted for it.
    And now they are dying for it.'' The time for idle discussion has ended.
    There is still a little time for serious discussion.
        Tonight, as we move toward Sunday, our worship day for those of us
    who are Christians, I ask all of you to say a prayer for all the people
    of Haiti, for the members of our Armed Forces, and for the cause of
    peace. We are doing our duty, and I am doing mine, as I believe it to be
    plain and evident. But we all must hope every day and every way that we
    can go forward in peace.
        My decisions are firm and clear. The mission is still in Haiti. Let
    us hope for its success. But whatever happens, let us resolve that we
    will stand against violations of human rights and terrorism in our
    neighborhood. We will stand for democracy, and we will keep our commit-

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    ments and expect those who make commitments to us to keep theirs.
        I ask you now as I leave to remember these things and each in your
    own way, as hard as you can, say a prayer for peace and for the success
    of our effort there. It is a part of the future we wish to build for our
    young people and for our country into the 21st century.
        Thank you, God bless you, and good night.

    Note: The President spoke at 9:45 p.m. at the Washington Convention
    Center. In his remarks, he referred to civil rights activist Rosa Parks,
    who had been hospitalized after having been attacked in her home.