[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book II)]
[September 25, 1994]
[Pages 1616-1620]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at the Bethel A.M.E. Church in New York City
September 25, 1994

    The President. Thank you so much.

[At this point, the President was interrupted by the sound of a siren.]

    The President. That's my introduction there, you hear it? [Laughter] 
Pastor Mackey, thank you. Thank you very much. Pastor Mackey, first let 
me say on behalf of my family, we are glad to be here in this church 
with its great history going back to 1819, running the Underground 
Railroad to help people to freedom. I'm also glad to be here in this 
African Methodist Episcopal church because your church has a long 
history with my home State, Arkansas, and my hometown, Little Rock, 
where Bishop Allen came a long time ago as part of his effort to found 
this church. I also want to thank you, if I might, for just letting us 
come here and worship. And I would like to say that for Hillary and for 
Chelsea and for me, this has been a great morning. And I'm sure I can 
say that all three of us are very grateful to all of you just for 
letting us come in here and to be with you.
    I got a good lesson out of the briefest sermon I've heard in a long 
time. [Laughter] And I got a good lesson out of one of the most 
beautiful songs I have heard in a long time. I loved all the music. You 
know, I like music and even as I get older and I can't sing quite in 
tune anymore--I heard that fine man singing, ``Work

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on Me.'' [Laughter] So I need to be here, and I need to hear that. And 
then I heard your pastor say, ``There is always a word from the Lord.''
    I am grateful to be here with all these people who are my friends, 
with the Governor, about whom I will say more in a moment, and Carl 
McCall and my dear friend Ruth Messinger and Mark Green and Denny 
Farrell and Senator Paterson, Assemblyman Wright, and Karen Burstein who 
wants to be your attorney general. That's the best job I ever had. I was 
attorney general of my State, and you don't have to hire people or fire 
them. You don't have to raise taxes or cut programs. And if she ever 
does anything unpopular, she can just say the constitution made her do 
it. [Laughter] I hope you'll give her the chance to do it. And I want to 
say a special word of thanks about my friend Charlie Rangel, for what he 
said. You know, Charlie talked about Haiti. Let me say that for Hillary 
and for me, for both of us, he has been a wonderful friend and partner 
in so many ways. But I want to use him today in a way to get into what I 
want to talk about briefly.
    Charlie mentioned Haiti and how the people were defenseless and poor 
and how hard it is for me to convince some people that our interest is 
at stake there, although I think more and more Americans are seeing that 
what we are doing there is good and supports democracy throughout our 
hemisphere--which is nothing more than saying our neighborhood--helps to 
end human rights violations that we find intolerable everywhere but 
unconscionable on our doorstep, and offers them a chance at stability.
    But it is an example of what I ran for President about. I thought I 
had two jobs to get us into the next century. One is to move this 
country forward, just to get us to face our problems again--jobs, 
education, drugs, violence, crime, health care--just to face the 
problems and go to work on them instead of just talking about them all 
the time. And the other was to bring this country together instead of 
letting it drift apart and to try to bring the world together across the 
lines of race and region and income and religion.
    I have just finished reading, late last night, a book about World 
War II and President and Mrs. Roosevelt. And I am reminded, as I think 
of our brave soldiers from all over the country and all their 
backgrounds doing their work today in Haiti, that in World War II, 
African-Americans were kept segregated in units in the Army until the 
Battle of the Bulge at the end of the war, when they had so many 
casualties that blacks and whites had to fight together. And they didn't 
do it very long before they found out they liked it very well. And the 
only complaint recorded in this book I read was that some of the white 
officers said that their black comrades were so ferocious they could 
hardly get them to quit fighting even when they needed to rest. I am 
reminded that in World War II we put Japanese-Americans in concentration 
camps, and then we let their children serve. And a Japanese outfit had 
the highest casualties of any American outfit in World War II. And in 
this book, I saw the picture painted by the author of the military 
people going to the concentration camps to give the parents of the dead 
boys their medals while they were keeping them behind bars because we 
were fighting Japan, a country they had given up.
    When I was fighting to build an economic partnership with Mexico, I 
was reminded in so many of our endeavors, Mexican-American soldiers have 
had the highest rate of casualties. I look at Charlie Rangel who served 
his country in uniform bravely and his son who served as a United States 
Marine, and I think to myself, this is a country that, if we can figure 
out how to live together, will be strong all the way through the next 
century; because the world is getting smaller, and if people who are 
different can find oneness, there is nothing that can stop them.
    That is why the South Africans wanted the United States to help run 
the election and spend a few million dollars for an honest election that 
produced the President, Nelson Mandela, who is coming here to see me in 
a few days. That is why the people in Ireland, having fought for 800 
years against one another, wish the people of the United States to be 
involved in trying to bring an end to their conflict. That is why the 
Israelis and the Arabs wish the United States to be involved in bringing 
an end to that horrible, horrible period of violence in the Middle East. 
This is a very great country.
    Even in the moment of great tension one week ago today in Haiti, 
when I did not know whether we would actually have to shoot our way in 
there, the de facto military leaders told our delegation there, 
President Carter, General Powell, and Senator Nunn, ``Well, if the 
President is determined to do this, if the United

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Nations is determined to do this, we want the Americans here because we 
trust them.'' I say that because if we can just face our challenges and 
move forward and come together, we're going to be all right.
    Now, when the pastor said, ``There is always a word from the Lord,'' 
I looked at the program and I saw the word from the Lord, Isaiah 40:31, 
``They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They will 
mount up with wings as eagles.'' But I want to talk to you about the 
rest of the verse, ``They shall run and not grow weary. They shall walk 
and not faint.''
    Now, I have a simple message for you today. The people who don't 
want us to get together and who have a very different idea about moving 
forward than most of us do are hoping and praying that you will grow 
weary, that you will not run, that you will not walk, that you will just 
grow weary.
    Look at Mr. McCall here. How many times do people all over America 
say, ``If only our children had more role models, if only men would take 
responsibility for their families and their communities and set a good 
example and lift our children up.'' Oh, how many times do you hear it 
said? Well, folks, you've got a chance to send a message to this entire 
country that people who make something of themselves and who stand for 
something good and who work for what is right will be rewarded without 
regard to their background, that we are going to go forward and we are 
going to do it together. And if you will not grow weary, you can do it.
    And let me say something about Governor Cuomo. His greatest failing 
is he speaks about me better than he speaks about himself. [Laughter] By 
the time he got through nominating me for President in New York, he had 
me convinced I ought to have the job. [Laughter] I grew 3 inches sitting 
out there in the pew today just listening to him talk.
    They say, ``Well, the Governor will have a hard time getting 
reelected; after all, he's running for a fourth term.'' I know about 
that. I did that one time. And I was out in a little booth in the State 
fair in Little Rock--I want you to listen to this, this could be about 
him instead of me, this is how it happened--and every year at the State 
fair in my little rural State, I would go to the fair and have a 
Governor's Day. And anybody could come up and talk to the Governor and 
say whatever they wanted. And I lived in a rural State where most people 
call me by my first name, including my enemies, and they said whatever 
they wanted. [Laughter] And so I listened to this all day. And I was 
having to decide whether I would run for reelection. I had been Governor 
a long time. And along toward the end of the day, an old man in overalls 
came up to me, and he said, ``Bill, you going to run again?'' I said, 
``I don't know. If I do, will you vote for me?'' He said, ``Yes, I will. 
I always have.'' And I said, ``Well, aren't you sick of me after all 
these years?'' He said, ``No, but everybody else I know is.'' [Laughter] 
And then he said, ``But what do you expect? All you have done is nag us. 
You're always trying to get us to do something else, always pushing us 
on jobs and education and taking care of kids.'' And he said, ``You 
know, it's just hard to take all that. But you know something? It's 
beginning to work, and I'm going to stick with it.'' And I went all 
across my State and told that story on myself. But I told the last part, 
too, and the people sent me back.
    How many times in the Bible--I think two or three times--does our 
Saviour say, ``A prophet is not with honor except in his own land''? 
Most places would give anything to have a leader like Governor Cuomo. 
And you can say, ``Well, he's been there a long time.'' Let me tell you 
something: In a lot of ways, this is his first term and it just started, 
because it's the first time we've had a chance to work together as 
partners.
    I ask you to consider the problems of America, the breakdown of 
community, the breakdown of family, the rise of drugs and violence and 
gangs, the things that grip you here every day. Do you think that just 
started yesterday? That's been going on for 30 years. I told my wife and 
daughter as we were coming up here today that when I was a young man 
living in England, I used to come back to the United States when I was 
sent over there for a couple of years, and I would land in New York. And 
unlike most people like me, I mean, here I was--and I had an even bigger 
accent back then--I took the transportation, and I got off at 125th and 
Lennox--[laughter]--every time I came back here, and I walked alone 
through Harlem because I was fascinated by it. I wanted to see the 
people. I wanted to talk to the people. I wanted to see what they were 
up against. Even then I can remember some people, back

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when the drug of choice was heroin, leaning in corners with needles in 
their arms. This didn't just happen overnight, friends.
    And these economic problems that we've got, they've been going--the 
social problems, 30 years. What are the economic problems? Not only do 
we have a lot of people out of work, we've got a lot of people working 
like crazy never getting a raise, right? And they are worried about 
losing their health care, or they're worried about losing their 
pensions. How long has that been going on? Twenty years. Twenty years we 
have been struggling to organize ourselves and to educate ourselves and 
to be competitive in a global economy.
    And then our governmental policies, how long did we hear from our 
Government that the real answer was, to all of our problems, bad-mouth 
the Federal Government, lower taxes on the wealthiest of Americans, 
burden the middle class, reduce investment in our future, and explode 
the debt? And all the time, the people that were in cussed the 
Government as they were doing their best to stay in the Government and 
keep drawing those checks. That happened for 12 years, right?
    I have been President for 20 months, not 30 years, not 20 years, not 
10 years. When Mario Cuomo became Governor, it was all he could do to 
stand up against the tide of walking away from the States, walking away 
from the cities, walking away from the people. And in 20 months, because 
we're working together--my partner Mr. Rangel and I, my partner Governor 
Cuomo and I, we're all working together with people in the private 
sector--we brought our national deficit down for 3 years in a row for 
the first time since Mr. Truman was President. We've done something the 
other party said they were for, but never did: We have reduced the size 
of the Federal Government. It's going to be as small as it was when Mr. 
Kennedy was President, at the end of my term. But we gave all the money 
back to you to pay for the crime bill the Governor talked about. We 
empowered the communities and the States to hire the police, to build 
the prisons, to have the drug education, the drug treatment, the other 
programs for the kids, the job programs. We at least got the health care 
debate into both Houses of Congress and on the floor for the first time 
in American history, and we've got to keep doing that.
    We've had 4.3 million new jobs, manufacturing jobs increasing for 
almost a year now, the longest period they've increased in a decade. Our 
country was voted the most productive country in the world by a panel of 
international economists just the other day for the first time in 9 
years. Just this week, I signed a bill that will help Harlem, that will 
help New York City, that will point $4.8 billion into special banks to 
loan money to poor folks who can't borrow money to go into business, 
just this week, something I specifically pledged to do when I ran for 
President.
    Now what's happening? We're having an election in which there are 30 
years of social problems, 20 years of economic problems, and 12 years of 
politics bad-mouthing the Government. And we've done more in any 20-
month period than anybody has in a month of Sundays. But a lot of people 
have not felt it yet, and they cannot know it, as the Governor said, 
because there's no way for them to get the information except in an 
election where we tell people.
    So we now find a situation in which the people may actually go out 
and vote for the very things that they are against, because they don't 
know what has happened in 20 months and they see the wake of the last 30 
years; an election which depends largely, on its outcome, on those same 
people's ability to bad-mouth those of us that are trying to move the 
country forward and bring the country together, so you will be weary and 
stay home and not mount up with wings as eagles, not run or walk without 
growing weary or fainting.
    One day a long time ago, I suffered a terrible setback in my public 
life. I was trying to do something for the people of my State. It was a 
very bad day for me, not personally but because I had failed to help 
hundreds of people I had worked to help. And my secretary, who was a 
great woman of faith, kept one of those Scripture calendars on her desk. 
And I was alone in my office, almost in tears, and she looked at the 
calendar for the first time and ripped off the calendar piece and 
brought it into me and gave me what has ever since been my favorite 
verse of Scripture from St. Paul's letter to the Galatians: ``Let us not 
grow weary in doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not 
lose heart.''
    I say to you today, my fellow Americans, we've just been here 20 
months. We're 4.3 million jobs better. We're a crime bill better. We're

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the immunization bill better; 2 million kids are going to get their 
shots by '96. We're 200,000 more children in Head Start better. We're 
coming together more.
    Do not lose heart. Show up. Talk to the people in your 
neighborhoods; tell them to show up. Scripture says we're supposed to be 
good citizens, too. Mario Cuomo is the heart that you must not lose. Mr. 
McCall is the heart that you must not lose. These people are the heart 
that you must not lose. Do not let a moment pass. When the movement is 
in the forward direction and the feelings are not there yet, stay 
strong, mount up, go forward.
    God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 12:39 p.m. In his remarks, he referred to 
Rev. O'Neil Mackey, Sr., pastor, Bethel A.M.E. Church; H. Carl McCall, 
New York State comptroller; Ruth W. Messinger, Manhattan Borough 
president; Mark Green, New York City public advocate; Herman D. (Denny) 
Farrell and Keith L. Wright, members, New York State Assembly; and David 
Paterson, New York State senator.