    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book I)]
    [June 25, 1995]
    [Pages 944-947]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at the Dedication Ceremony for the Mahlon Martin Apartments in
    Little Rock, Arkansas
    June 25, 1995

        Thank you very much, Mr. Grogan; Mr. Brimberry; my good friend Gary
    Smith; and all those who helped to make this day possible: Governor
    Tucker; Congressman Thornton;

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    Mayor Dailey; Mayor Hays; Judge Villines; our secretary of state, Sharon
    Priest, and state treasurer, Jimmie Lou Fisher; prosecuting attorney
    Mark Stoler, who drove me in my first campaign 21 years ago; Senator
    Walker; to the fine young AmeriCorps volunteers here who are
    participating in this event.
        Let me say a word to all of you but especially to those who have
    come from Washington with me. This is a hometown event, all right, for
    my friend Mahlon Martin and his wonderful wife, Cheryl. A lot of us have
    come down here for it, the Federal Highway Administrator, Rodney Slater,
    and Mr. Lindsey and others. But this is an event of national
    significance because this is a concrete, specific example of what I have
    been trying to say to the American people now for 2\1/2\ years, which
    is, there is nothing wrong with this country that cannot be solved with
    what is right with this country, that the best thing to do is not to
    have a big argument about whether the Government or the private sector
    ought to solve all our problems, because neither can do it and what we
    need is a partnership.
        I want to thank Mr. Lupberger. I see Mr. Brimberry up here with Mr.
    Smith--all the people who have been involved with all the banks and all
    the corporations who have helped in this endeavor. But before I go back
    to the programs, let me just remind you what this is going to do. These
    facilities are going to do two things. Most importantly, they are going
    to give homes to working people who don't have enough money to get by.
    The real heroes in American society today are the people who get up
    every day, work a full week, raise their kids the best they can, and do
    not have enough money to get by. And they deserve a place to live,
    health care for their kids, decent schools, and safe streets. And if we
    had it, this country would be in better shape.
        Now, that is what this is all about. People are going to be able to
    afford to live in these places who are out there working for somewhere
    between $15,000 and $18,000 a year and doing their best to raise their
    kids, give them a chance to be well-educated and safe and drug-free and
    have a future. And they deserve this kind of chance. And it happened
    because practical people developed partnerships which made it possible.
    And that happens from programs, and it happens from people.
        The second thing I want to say is more personal. As a longtime
    citizen of this city, I used to run by this street almost every day of
    my life, by these two buildings. Every day, when laziness didn't get the
    better of me, I would run by these two buildings, and I would think how
    beautiful they were and what a shame it was that they weren't being used
    in a productive way.
        These buildings will give an example, a sense of pride, a sense of
    hope, a sense of possibility to other people. They will make people more
    proud. They will change the way people think about this neighborhood,
    this downtown area, and this city. And I want all the people who live
    here to make sure you take good care of them and to make people proud of
    them and to prove that this effort was worth doing.
        I thank you for the mention of the low-income housing tax credit. It
    was part of the economic development plan in 1993. The other thing we
    did in 1993 is to cut the income taxes of all the people who will live
    in this building who have children, because we don't believe people who
    work 40 hours a week and have kids in their homes should bring those
    children up in poverty. If you work full-time, your children ought to be
    able to live above the poverty line.
        We've done other things that make this partnership more possible.
    We've continued the community development block grants, and the city put
    about 20 percent of the money into this project because of the community
    development block grants. It's threatened today in Washington. I hope we
    can save it. We can cut a lot of spending back, but we're going to have
    to invest some money back in our people and their future.
        We also tried to improve the Community Reinvestment Act to give
    banks better incentives and better support in reinvesting in the
    community. And we tried to establish a whole national network of
    community development banks like the Elk Horn Bank in Arkadelphia which
    the First Lady and Mahlon and so many others, including the Rockefeller
    Foundation before Mahlon went there, had to do with establishing. We
    thank you for making Arkansas a national model in that, and we're trying
    to do that all around the country. We created over 100 empowerment zones
    and enterprise communities, of which Little Rock is one, to give people
    incentives for these kind of partnerships.

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        Now, most voters can never remember the acronym of LISC, and if you
    told them what a local initiative support corporation was they wouldn't
    understand what that is either. But most Americans have enough common
    sense to know that we don't need to get into an ideological debate and
    you don't have to be a genius to understand that if people are working
    for a living and trying to raise their children, they ought to have a
    decent place to live. And the best way to do it is not to have a huge
    ideological debate in Washington about whether the Government ought to
    do it or the private sector ought to do it. The best way to do it is to
    roll up your sleeves, have a practical partnership, and empower people
    at the grassroots level to make the most of their own lives.
        But I also want to say it requires people. And this is the last
    point I will make in this brief address on a hot day. I'm not sure I
    would be President today if it weren't for Mahlon Martin. I remember
    once when I went to Montreal to give a speech to the international
    convention of city managers, a fellow from another State--Michigan, I
    think--came up to me and said, ``You know, Mahlon Martin when he was
    city manager of Little Rock was one of the 10 best city managers in the
    entire United States of America.'' Mahlon Martin once wanted to be a pro
    baseball player. He wound up going to Philander Smith and deferring that
    dream, and instead he spent his life helping the rest of us live out our
    dreams. In a way, I know he misses baseball and I know he was glad when
    the strike was settled, but I think that there are very few baseball
    players which will have helped as many people live out their dreams as
    Mahlon Martin has helped in our State, in this community.
        In 1983, when I persuaded him to become head of the department of
    finance and administration, we took office with the State broke, in an
    illegal financial condition. And the first thing that we had to do to
    make Mahlon and the Governor immensely popular was to cut spending one
    percent across the board, for everything, just to come into compliance
    with the State law. It was a wonderful way to begin an administration.
    [Laughter]
        Then a couple of years later, Governor, in one budget period, Mahlon
    had to cut spending in one of our budget cycles six times during the
    recession of the eighties, six times cutting back on things that we
    desperately wanted to spend more money on, including education.
        I used to tell everybody that when I was Governor, Mahlon Martin was
    the government, and I made the speeches. I never saw a fellow who could
    tell people no and make them like it better than he did. [Laughter] And
    I think it's because they always knew he wanted to say yes and that he
    was trying to preserve the financial integrity of the State and the
    management integrity of the State in ways that would command the
    confidence of the taxpayers of Arkansas and make it possible for us to
    do as much for people in their lives as we possibly could.
        And when he left the administration and went on to run the
    Rockefeller Foundation, I think he was actually doing what he was really
    put on this Earth to do, which was to find new and different and
    innovative ways for ordinary people to live extraordinary lives. And I
    can tell you that I have now served with thousands and thousands of
    remarkable people all across this country. I have had the privilege of
    knowing more exceptional Americans than almost anyone of my time, solely
    because of my position. I have never met a finer American or a more
    gifted public servant than the person we honor today, our friend Mahlon
    Martin.
        This is a plaque presented to Mahlon Martin in grateful appreciation
    for his 2 years of outstanding service and dedication to the Local
    Initiative Support Corporation that provided these opportunities that we
    celebrate today. The most important thing on the plaque is a quote that
    could have been about Mahlon Martin from Margaret Meade: ``Never doubt
    that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the
    world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.''

    Note: The President spoke at 10:25 a.m. at the Mahlon Martin Apartments.
    In his remarks, he referred to Paul Grogan, president, Local Initiative
    Support Corp. (LISC); Ron Brimberry, president, Downtown Little Rock
    Community Development Corp.; Gary Smith, executive vice president,
    Boatman's Bank; Gov. Jim Guy Tucker of Arkansas; Mayor Jim Dailey of
    Little Rock, AR; Mayor Patrick Henry Hays of North Little Rock, AR;
    Floyd G. (Buddy) Villines, Pulaski County judge; and Edwin Lupberger,
    chairman and chief executive officer, Entergy.

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