[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book I)]
[January 16, 1995]
[Pages 52-54]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks Honoring Martin Luther King, Jr., in Los Angeles, California
January 16, 1995

    The President. Thank you. Are you having a good time?
    Audience members. Yes!
    The President. Well, so am I. And I'm glad to be here again. I want 
to thank all the people who are here, all the elected officials and the 
clergy and the people on the board of Community Build. I thank Brenda 
Shockley for her fine work. Yes, give her a hand. She's great. 
[Applause] I thank Marla Gibbs and Robert Hooks for their work tonight. 
And I thought Linda Hopkins was great; I was back there listening to her 
sing behind the curtain. And it's wonderful to see Rosa Parks and Cicely 
Tyson here. I'm honored to be in their presence, as always. I want to 
thank the young people behind me who met with me for a few moments 
before I came out here: Charles Rousseau, who is one of our Faces of 
Hope; my friends from the playground; and all the others who are back 
there who told me about what this effort is all about, who talked to me 
about Community Build in terms that anybody could understand.
    Ladies and gentlemen, when I ran for President and I came here to 
south central L.A., I, first of all, knew my way around a little bit 
because I had actually come here before I ever dreamed of running for 
President, just because I was interested in what was happening to you 
and how we were going to build with the challenges we face.
    And I said that I thought my job, if you would let me be President, 
was to do three things: first, to try to get the economy going again; 
second, to try to have a Government that worked in a way that made sense 
for people at the grassroots level and would take us into the 21st 
century. It would be less bureaucratic. It could even be smaller, but it 
would be able to do more in partnership with people where they live, so 
that when you pay your taxes you would think you were getting your 
money's worth for a change. But the third and most important thing that 
I thought we had to do as a people that the President had to be a part 
of was to create a new agreement between the people and their Government 
and between the

[[Page 53]]

people, themselves, what I called a New Covenant, a commitment to extend 
more opportunity in return for people assuming responsibility for their 
own lives, their own families, their own communities, for changing the 
things that have to be changed. That's the only way we're ever going to 
straighten this country out is if we have more opportunity and more 
responsibility, if people really believe that we can make a difference.
    You know why I like being here? Because these people have proved 
that they can change their lives. And if they can do it, we can change 
America.
    I work with Maxine Waters and with Mayor Riordan on a lot of things, 
and you are fortunate to be represented as you are. I tell you, the 
mayor just showed up, and he's had an earthquake, a fire, and a flood. 
[Laughter] I asked him if he thought God had hidden a volcano somewhere 
in Los Angeles County, and then you could become a new tourist mecca as 
a full-service disaster area. [Laughter] You know why we can laugh about 
that? Because you keep coming back. You've got good leadership and good 
grassroots folks and a spirit that won't quit.
    And I was looking at Congresswoman Waters up here giving her talk 
tonight, and I was thinking, I wonder if those people have any idea how 
she worries the President to death in Washington until he does what she 
wants him to do? [Laughter] The first time she looked at me like that--
the way she can look at you if she thinks you're not going to do the 
right thing--after I became President, I said, ``Maxine, I'm the 
President; you don't have to look at me like that anymore.'' She said, 
``Oh no, I have to look at you more like that now.'' [Laughter]
    I'm proud of the fact that the Labor Department put $7 million in 
this project, because I think that Community Build and the Youth Fair 
Chance Plus programs represent all three of the things that I set out to 
do:
    We're helping people become part of the economy, and that's 
important. Work gives dignity to life. People need an education. They 
need a job. They need a future, to give dignity to life.
    And we're changing the way the Government works. We're reducing the 
size of Government, and we've taken $11,000 in debt off of every family 
in America by reducing that deficit, and that gives our kids a better 
future. But we also have to prove that we can change the present, and 
that's what this program does. And the Federal Government should be 
involved in programs like this, nonbureaucratic people programs that 
build people up instead of tearing them down.
    And I like it because it does build that New Covenant. It says, 
``Okay, here's your opportunity.'' But you know, we can be spending $700 
million here, and if people like these guys behind me hadn't decided 
they were going to change on the inside and do differently, the money 
would not make any difference. So we've got it all going in the right 
direction.
    I say to you tonight, my friends, that if Dr. King could be here--
and I think he is here, in a way--he'd be pretty pleased with what we're 
doing here. I know that much remains to be done. I know that in the 
atmosphere of the present where people have been told that everything 
the Government does is bad, it will be hard to continue.
    But let me tell you something: Los Angeles and the cities around 
here and California and America are better off because of programs like 
this and better off because we're giving communities more funds to help 
deal with the crime problem, not only to hire more police officers but 
also to give young people some activities they can be engaged in that 
are positive so they have something to say yes to as well as something 
to say no to. These things matter. And we can make a difference. I know 
we must do more, but we should do more in ways that make sense.
    I'm proud of the fact that this week it was announced that we not 
only have seen over 5\1/2\ million new jobs come into this economy since 
I became President but the unemployment rate among African-Americans is 
at a 20-year low. I'm proud of that. Now, that's the good news. The bad 
news is that the unemployment rate among young people is still very 
high, over one in three, and that among people who do not have much 
education, the unemployment rate is very high and the wages of those 
that work tend to be low and to stay there. So in the coming year, with 
this new Congress, I'm going to say to them, ``You say you want the free 
enterprise system to work. You say you want more business people in 
minority communities. Well, so do I. Let's begin with passing my middle 
class bill of rights.''
    If we're going to cut people's taxes, let's cut them for education 
and for raising children, to do things that will strengthen all the 
American

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people and build this country up from the grassroots up. And if we're 
going to cut spending, let's cut things that will free up money to build 
up people. Let's don't cut programs like this one. Let's don't cut 
programs like the national service program. Let's don't cut programs 
like Head Start. Let's don't make it more expensive for people to go to 
college; let's make it cheaper for people to go to college and more 
affordable.
    In other words, the role of Government should not be to pretend that 
we can solve problems that people have to solve for themselves, often 
inside their own heart. But the role of Government should not be to be 
heartless, either, and to walk away. The Government should be a partner. 
The Government should help people to acquire the tools they need and the 
means they need and the education they need and the belief and the hope 
they need to make the most of their own lives. That is what we're here 
to celebrate today. That is what Martin Luther King wanted us to do.
    You know, when Dr. King gave that famous ``I have a dream'' speech, 
he said that his dream was deeply rooted in the American dream. What is 
the American dream? The Founders of our country said it over 200 years 
ago: We hold these truths to be self-evident that all are created equal, 
endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among 
these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Life, liberty, 
the pursuit of happiness--no, not a guarantee of happiness but not 
death, destruction, and the end of hope, either--the means of working 
together to achieve the God-given potential of every person in this 
room, every person in south central Los Angeles, all the people in this 
country.
    It is not a dream rooted in race. Race became a factor when people 
could not see behind their own prejudice. And I tell you today, my 
friends, that when we realize what a resource we have in America, that 
we come from so many different racial backgrounds, that we come from so 
many different ethnic backgrounds, that we come from so many religious 
backgrounds, in a global society where the world is smaller and smaller 
and smaller, we are the world's richest country because of our 
differences. Now we must find common ground and build up all people. And 
no, we don't have a person to spare. All these children have a role in 
our future, every one of them.
    So I'm glad to be back in south central Los Angeles. I want these 
young men to help me find the secret to get people like this all across 
America to say no to violence and no to drugs and no to the life of the 
street with no tomorrow and yes to a better future. We can do this. We 
can do it if we work together. We can do it if we talk together. We can 
do it if we believe in one another's potential. That is the American 
dream.
    Thank you, and God bless you all.

Note: The President spoke at 5:41 p.m. at Community Build, Inc. In his 
remarks, he referred to Brenda Shockley, executive director, Community 
Build, Inc.; masters of ceremonies Marla Gibbs and Robert Hooks; civil 
rights activist Rosa Parks; actress Cicely Tyson; and Mayor Richard 
Riordan of Los Angeles.