    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book I)]
    [May 5, 1995]
    [Pages 641-646]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at the Michigan State University Commencement Ceremony in East
    Lansing, Michigan
    May 5, 1995

        President McPherson, Governor Engler, Ambassador Blanchard,
    distinguished Members of Congress and State officials, members of the
    board of trustees, distinguished faculty, honored guests, family
    members, and most importantly, members of the class of 1995, I'm honored
    to be your speaker today and to be back on this

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    wonderful campus, the site of one of the great Presidential debates in
    1992.
        I have fond memories of Michigan State. And I was sitting there
    thinking of all the uses to which I might put my honorary degree. Maybe
    I will get more respect in Washington now. [Laughter] Regardless, now I
    know who I'm supposed to root for in the Big 10.
        Speaking of sports, I want to take a moment of personal privilege to
    offer my very best wishes on his retirement to your distinguished
    basketball coach, Judd Heathcote.
        And as a person who never, ever, would have had an opportunity to be
    here today doing what I am doing, I want to thank President McPherson,
    the present and past Governors of Michigan, and all others who have
    supported the remarkable set of educational opportunities for young
    people in Michigan, especially in higher education. The tuition
    guarantee program to keep tuition increases here to the rate of
    inflation for 5 years is a standard I wish other universities all across
    America would follow.
        I also hope that other States will follow the example of the
    Michigan Education Trust and of Michigan State in entering into the
    direct loan program, which will lower the cost of college loans for
    young people and improve their repayment options so more people can
    afford to go to college and stay there until they get their degrees.
        I also want to say that I am deeply honored to be joined today by
    another Michigan State alumnus who spoke from this platform last year,
    my friend and fellow Arkansan Ernest Green. He was one of the Little
    Rock Nine, a brave group of Americans who staked their lives for the
    cause of school integration and equal opportunity in education in my
    State almost 40 years ago. He made the right choice at the right moment
    in his life. He is a good model for you, and I hope you will do the
    same.
        As I was reminded by your president and others when we gathered just
    a few moments ago, the last sitting President to address this assembly
    was Theodore Roosevelt in 1907. There were fewer than 100 graduates in
    the senior class then. But it was a time not unlike this time. We are on
    the edge of a new century; they had just begun a new century. We are on
    the edge of a new era; they had just begun the dawn of the industrial
    age. Like us now, they had many, many opportunities but profound
    problems. And people were full of hope mixed with fear.
        But President Roosevelt and his generation of Americans were
    optimistic, aggressive in facing the challenges of the day, and
    determined to solve the problems before them. They launched the
    Progressive Era, using the power of Government to free the market forces
    of our country from the heavy hand of monopoly, beginning to protect our
    environment for future generations, to keep our children out of
    sweatshops, to stand strong for America's role in the world.
        Theodore Roosevelt and the Americans of his generation made the
    right choices at the right moment. They met the challenges of the
    present, paved the way for a better future, and redeemed the promise of
    America.
        Our journey as a nation has never been an automatic march to freedom
    and opportunity. In every generation there has come a point of challenge
    in change when critical decisions are made by our people to go forward
    or turn back, to reach out or turn inward, to unify or divide, to
    believe or doubt.
        Today, we stand at the end of the cold war and the industrial age,
    at the onset of the global economy and the information age. Throughout
    all 219 years of our Republic, times of great change like this have
    unleashed forces of promise and threat, forces that uplift us and
    unsettle us.
        This time is not different. You are walking into a future of
    unlimited possibilities. But more than half your fellow citizens are
    working harder, spending less time with their children, and earning
    about the same they did 15 years ago. You can look forward to bringing
    your children into an exciting world, freer of the dangers of war and
    nuclear annihilation, but the dangers here at home are still profound.
    Too many of our children are not born into stable families. Our streets
    are still too violent. And new forces threaten the order and security
    which free people everywhere cherish.
        And so, my fellow Americans, it falls to your generation to make
    your historic choices for America. This is a very new and different
    time. But the basic question before us is as old as our country: Will we
    face up to the problems and seize our opportunities with confidence and
    courage? It is our responsibility to make that choice again.

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        Because you have a fine education, with all its power and potential,
    when you leave this stadium your responsibility to your families, your
    community, and your country will be greater than ever before. With your
    lives fully before you, you too must once again redeem the promise of
    America.
        On the homefront, there is reason for optimism. Though income
    stagnation and economic uncertainty plague too many of our people,
    unemployment is down, inflation is low, our deficit is declining, trade
    is up, and most importantly of all, educational opportunities are
    increasing. Though crime and violence, drug abuse and welfare
    dependency, and out-of-wedlock pregnancies are still too high and
    threaten our social fabric, we are making a serious assault on all of
    them, and we can make progress on all of them. Though Government is
    still too cumbersome and outdated, it is growing smaller, more flexible,
    less wasteful, and more effective. In all these endeavors, you must
    demand higher standards and more personal responsibility. But you must
    know that progress is possible.
        Beyond our borders there is also reason for hope. Since the end of
    the cold war, the bonds among nations and the forces of commerce have
    grown stronger. There is now a greater understanding of our world's
    environmental challenges and a willingness to do something about them.
    Freedom, democracy, and free enterprise are on the march. Large
    countries are much less likely to go to war with one another. I am very
    proud to say that for the first time since the dawn of the nuclear age,
    no Russian missiles are pointed at the people of the United States. And
    I am equally proud to say that next week I will become the first
    American President in nearly 40 years to visit Russia when no American
    missiles are pointed at the people of Russia.
        Therefore, you who graduate today will have the chance to live in
    the most exciting, the most prosperous, the most diverse and interesting
    world in the entire history of humanity. Still, you must face the fact
    that no time is free of problems, and we have new and grave security
    challenges.
        In this, the 20th century, millions of lives were lost in wars
    between nations and in efforts by totalitarian dictatorships to stamp
    out the light of liberty among their subjects. In the 21st century,
    bloody wars of ethnic and tribal hatred will be fought still in some
    parts of the world. But with freedom and democracy advancing, the real
    threat to our security will be rooted in the fact that all the forces
    that are lifting us up and opening unparalleled opportunity for us
    contain a dark underside. For open societies are characterized by free
    and rapid movements of people and technology and information, and that
    very wonder makes them very, very vulnerable to the forces of organized
    destruction and evil. So the great security challenge for your future in
    the 21st century will be to determine how to beat back the dangers while
    keeping the benefits of this new time.
        The dark possibilities of our age are visible now in the smoke, the
    horror, and the heartbreak of Oklahoma City. As the long and painful
    search and rescue effort comes to an end with 165 dead, 467 injured, and
    2 still unaccounted for, our prayers are with those who lost their loved
    ones and with the brave and good people of Oklahoma City, who have moved
    with such strength and character to deal with this tragedy.
        But that threat is not isolated. And you must not believe it is. We
    see that threat again in the bombing of the World Trade Center in New
    York, in the nerve gas attack in the Tokyo subway, in the terrorist
    assault on innocent civilians in the Middle East, in the organized crime
    plaguing the former Soviet Union now that the heavy hand of communism
    has been lifted. We see it even on the Internet, where people exchange
    information about bombs and terrorism, even as children learn from
    sources all around the world.
        My fellow Americans, we must respond to this threat in ways that
    preserve both our security and our freedoms. Appeasement of organized
    evil is not an option for the next century any more than it was in this
    century. Like the vigilant generations that brought us victory in World
    War II and the cold war, we must stand our ground. In this high-tech
    world, we must make sure that we have the high-tech tools to confront
    the high-tech forces of destruction and evil.
        That is why I have insisted that Congress pass strong antiterrorism
    legislation immediately, to provide for more than 1,000 new law
    enforcement personnel solely to fight terrorism, to create a domestic
    antiterrorism center, to make available the most up-to-date technology
    to trace the source of any bomb that goes off, and to provide tough new
    punishment for carrying stolen explosives, selling those explosives for
    use

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    in a violent crime, and for attacking members of the Uniformed Services
    or Federal workers.
        To their credit, the leaders of Congress have promised to put a bill
    on my desk by Memorial Day. I applaud them for that. This is not and
    must never be a partisan issue. This is about America's future. It is
    about your future.
        We can do this without undermining our constitutional rights. In
    fact, the failure to act will undermine those rights. For no one is free
    in America where parents have to worry when they drop off their children
    for day care or when you are the target of assassination simply because
    you work for our Government. No one is free in America when large
    numbers of our fellow citizens must always be looking over their
    shoulders.
        It is with this in mind that I would like to say something to the
    paramilitary groups and to others who believe the greatest threat to
    America comes not from terrorists from within our country or beyond our
    borders but from our own Government.
        I want to say this to the militias and to others who believe this,
    to those nearby and those far away: I am well aware that most of you
    have never violated the law of the land. I welcome the comments that
    some of you have made recently condemning the bombing in Oklahoma City.
    I believe you have every right, indeed you have the responsibility, to
    question our Government when you disagree with its policies. And I will
    do everything in my power to protect your right to do so.
        But I also know there have been lawbreakers among those who espouse
    your philosophy. I know from painful personal experience as a Governor
    of a State who lived through the coldblooded killing of a young sheriff
    and a young African-American State trooper who were friends of mine by
    people who espoused the view that the Government was the biggest problem
    in America and that people had a right to take violence into their own
    hands.
        So I ask you to hear me now. It is one thing to believe that the
    Federal Government has too much power and to work within the law to
    reduce it. It is quite another to break the law of the land and threaten
    to shoot officers of the law if all they do is their duty to uphold it.
    It is one thing to believe we are taxed too much and work to reduce the
    tax burden. It is quite another to refuse to pay your taxes, though your
    neighbor pays his. It is one thing to believe we are over-regulated and
    to work to lessen the burden of regulation. It is quite another to
    slander our dedicated public servants, our brave police officers, even
    our rescue workers, who have been called a hostile army of occupation.
        This is a very free country. Those of you in the militia movements
    have broader rights here than you would in any other country in the
    entire world.
        Do people who work for the Government sometimes make mistakes? Of
    course they do. They are human. Almost every American has some
    experience with this, a rude tax collector, an arbitrary regulator, an
    insensitive social worker, an abusive law officer. As long as human
    beings make up our Government, there will be mistakes. But our
    Constitution was established by Americans determined to limit those
    abuses. And think of the limits: the Bill of Rights, the separation of
    powers, access to the courts, the right to take your case to the country
    through the media, and the right to vote people in or out of office on a
    regular basis.
        But there is no right to resort to violence when you don't get your
    way. There is no right to kill people. There is no right to kill people
    who are doing their duty or minding their own business or children who
    are innocent in every way. Those are the people who perished in Oklahoma
    City. And those who claim such rights are wrong and un-American.
        Whenever in our history people have believed that violence is a
    legitimate extension of politics, they have been wrong. In the 1960's,
    as your distinguished alumni said, many good things happened, and there
    was much turmoil. But the Weathermen of the radical left who resorted to
    violence in the 1960's were wrong. Today, the gang members who use life
    on the mean streets of America, as terrible as it is, to justify taking
    the law into their own hands and taking innocent life are wrong. The
    people who came to the United States to bomb the World Trade Center were
    wrong.
        Freedom of political speech will never justify violence--never. Our
    Founding Fathers created a system of laws in which reason could prevail
    over fear. Without respect for this law, there is no freedom.
        So I say this to the militias and all others who believe that the
    greatest threat to freedom comes from the Government instead of from
    those who would take away our freedom: If you

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    say violence is an acceptable way to make change, you are wrong. If you
    say that Government is in a conspiracy to take your freedom away, you
    are just plain wrong. If you treat law enforcement officers who put
    their lives on the line for your safety every day like some kind of
    enemy army to be suspected, derided, and if they should enforce the law
    against you, to be shot, you are wrong. If you appropriate our sacred
    symbols for paranoid purposes and compare yourselves to colonial
    militias who fought for the democracy you now rail against, you are
    wrong. How dare you suggest that we in the freest nation on Earth live
    in tyranny! How dare you call yourselves patriots and heroes!
        I say to you, all of you, the members of the Class of 1995, there is
    nothing patriotic about hating your country or pretending that you can
    love your country but despise your Government. There is nothing heroic
    about turning your back on America or ignoring your own
    responsibilities. If you want to preserve your own freedom, you must
    stand up for the freedom of others with whom you disagree. But you also
    must stand up for the rule of law. You cannot have one without the
    other.
        The real American heroes today are the citizens who get up every
    morning and have the courage to work hard and play by the rules: the
    mother who stays up the extra half hour after a long day's work to read
    her child a story; the rescue worker who digs with his hands in the
    rubble as the building crumbles about him; the neighbor who lives side-
    by-side with people different from himself; the Government worker who
    quietly and efficiently labors to see to it that the programs we depend
    on are honestly and properly carried out; most of all, the parent who
    works long years for modest pay and sacrifices so that his or her
    children can have the education that you have had and the chances you
    are going to have. I ask you never to forget that.
        And I would like to say one word to the people of the United States.
    I know you have heard a lot of publicity in recent days about Michigan
    and militias. But what you have seen and heard is not the real Michigan.
    This is the real Michigan. This is the real Michigan in this stadium
    today. The real Michigan is Michigan State. It's the astonishing revival
    of the automobile industry, with the remarkable partnership between the
    autoworkers and the management. Real Michigan is Kellogg's Corn Flakes
    and the best cherries in the world. The real Michigan is the Great Lakes
    and the UP. And most of all, the real Michigan was presented to me when
    I got off the plane and one of your local officials told me that here in
    mid-Michigan in only 5 days, the people of this area raised $70,000 to
    pay for the help that people need in Oklahoma City. And that money is
    now on its way to Oklahoma City in a 27-car caravan, led by members of
    27 different law enforcement agencies from this part of your wonderful
    State. That is what I want America to know about the real Michigan.
        So, my fellow Americans and members of the class of 1995, let me
    close by reminding you once again that you live in a very great country.
    When we are united by our humanity and our civic virtue, nothing can
    stop us. Let me remind you once again that our best days as a nation
    still lie before us. But we must not give in to fear or use the
    frustrations of the moment as an excuse to walk away from the
    obligations of citizenship.
        Remember what our Founding Fathers built. Remember the victories won
    for us in the cold war and in World War II, 50 years ago next week.
    Remember the blood and sweat and triumph that enabled us to come to
    this, the greatest moment of possibility in our history.
        Go out and make the most of the potential God has given you. Make
    the most of the opportunities and freedoms America has given to you. Be
    optimistic; be strong. Make the choices that Theodore Roosevelt made,
    that Ernest Green made. Seize your moment. Build a better future. And
    redeem once again the promise of America.
        Thank you, and God bless you all.

    Note: The President spoke at 1:30 p.m. in Spartan Stadium. In his
    remarks, he referred to Peter McPherson, president, Michigan State
    University; Gov. John Engler of Michigan; and James J. Blanchard, U.S.
    Ambassador to Canada.

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