    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book II)]
    [July 21, 1995]
    [Pages 1128-1130]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks to the American Legion Girls Nation
    July 21, 1995

        Thank you. Well, good afternoon. I'm delighted to see you all. I'm
    sorry we're beginning a little late, but I think all of you know that we
    have been working very hard for the last few days on the crisis in
    Bosnia. So I'd like to say a few words about that and then make the
    remarks that I wanted to make to the delegates to Girls Nation.
        As you know, there are meetings now going on in London in which the
    United States is working with our allies to reach a common position
    which would permit the United Nations mission to continue but would
    empower the

    [[Page 1129]]

    international community to stand up against the outrages that have
    occurred in the last few days.
        We're all concerned about those events, and we welcome the statement
    by Foreign Secretary Rifkind that an attack by the Bosnian Serbs on the
    United Nations safe area of Gorazde will be met by a substantial and
    decisive response. For the United States, the most important word is
    ``decisive.''
        The conference has also agreed that the U.N. mission should be
    strengthened and that access to the city of Sarajevo should be ensured
    by the rapid reaction force that the British and French and others are
    attempting to establish and that we have strongly supported. There is
    more work to be done, and the United States is determined to do
    everything that we can not only to deal with the problems of Gorazde and
    Sarajevo but also to find a peaceful end to this war.
        The meetings so far, from my point of view, are proceeding well.
    There seems to be a real sense of resolve to come together in common
    purpose, and I am encouraged. We will have more reports later.
        Now, let me welcome all of you here. As all you know, I hope--or
    some of you doubtless know, I was here as a delegate to Boys Nation on
    this month, 32 years ago. This is a very different time but a very
    challenging time for our country. And I'd like to make, if I might, just
    a few observations about the world that will be your future.
        At the end of the cold war and the dawn of the next century, our
    country is in so many ways better positioned for the future than any
    other country in the world. And I believe that the chances are very
    strong that the young people of America will have, by far, the most
    exciting lives, the most full of possibility, and the most free of the
    fear of war and destruction of any generation of Americans ever.
        But this is a difficult time as well. And let me just sort of put
    out the two sides of the coin. If you look at it, the positive side is
    our economy is strong. We have seen 7 million new jobs in the last 2\1/
    2\ years, very low inflation, low unemployment. The stock market's at an
    all-time high. Business profits are high. The last 2 years in America,
    in each year we have had the largest number of new businesses formed of
    any year in our history and a record number of Americans becoming
    millionaires, through their own efforts, through their own efforts,
    succeeding in our system. In almost every major area of our country
    where the crime rate has been high, there has been a substantial drop in
    the crime rate. That is the good news.
        On the other hand, it is also true that in spite of all this
    economic good news, more than half the American people are working
    harder today for the same or lower incomes they were making 2\1/2\ years
    ago, so that this opportunity is only coming to part of our people. It
    is also true that even though the crime rate is down overall in the
    United States and in many of our major cities, young people are still
    subject to extraordinary rates of violence and crime, that drug usage is
    still way too high, and that an increasingly high percentage of our
    children are born into poverty in a welfare culture.
        So the question for you is: How are we going to solve the problems
    and keep the opportunities? What kind of country do you want to live in?
    If you look beyond our borders, it's the same thing. The United States
    now is living in a world where we and the Russians are dismantling our
    nuclear weapons, where--you know, when I was your age we were still
    worrying about whether we had nuclear fallout shelters in case there was
    a bomb dropped. We don't have to worry about that now.
        We're seeing peace progress being made everyplace from South Africa
    to Northern Ireland to the Middle East, democracy restored in Haiti, a
    lot of good things going on. But what you see in Bosnia and what you see
    in Rwanda and Burundi is an example of the continuing power of division,
    division by race, by religion, by ethnic group, to tear people apart and
    destroy lives.
        What you saw in Oklahoma City, what we see when a bus of children or
    innocent tourists is blown up in the Middle East, what you saw in the
    subway in Japan where sarin gas was released and killed people, is the
    new threat to our security from terrorism. And the freer and the more
    open the world gets, the more vulnerable free people everywhere will be
    to the organized forces of destruction. So the question is how to reap
    the benefits of freedom and the end of the cold war and openness and
    still fight the organized forces of destruction.
        My vision for this country is that in the 21st century, in your
    great lifetimes, we will be a high-opportunity society; a high-growth,
    high-wage, smart-work society, making real progress on our social
    problems; that people will be empowered to make the most of their own
    lives

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     and the most of their God-given abilities; and communities and families
    will have the ability to solve their own problems. That is the kind of
    America that I want to see in a world where peace and freedom and
    progress are always moving in the right direction.
        There will never be an end to problems as long as we're on this
    Earth, but we need to be going in the right direction and taking
    advantage of these opportunities. And I am convinced that in our country
    at this time, when we're changing so much, there is sort of a
    commonsense consensus about what we ought to do that has been damaged by
    excessive partisanship and excessive reliance on harsh rhetoric and
    extreme positions to divide the American people for the political
    advantage of those who seek to reap it.
        And in a time like this of really profound change, we all have to
    try to imagine the future we want and then ask how are we going to get
    there and what do we have to do to pull together to get there. That's
    essentially what we're trying to do here.
        So that, for example, I find myself--I agree with the Republican
    majority in Congress that we ought to balance the budget. We can't
    afford to have a permanent deficit. But I disagree that we ought to do
    it in ways that will imperil the Medicare system, undermine our ability
    to guarantee all the young people in this country the right to go to
    college and get the education that they need, or undermine our ability
    to protect our environment and our natural heritage and our future. So
    we have to get through those disagreements.
        The main thing I want you to know is that this is an exciting time.
    On balance, it's a good time. I believe that your adult years will be
    lived out in America's best period in history if, but only if, we find a
    way to live together and work together and bridge our divisions and
    focus on the challenges before us.
        And that really will be the great issue of your time. We're going to
    change regardless. The question is, what kind of change will it be? And
    are we going to see a country like ours, which is so diverse--well over
    150 different racial and ethnic and religious groups in the United
    States--are we going to see that country come together and take
    advantage of that, or are we going to suffer from some of the same
    problems we've seen paralyzing the rest of the world and leading to the
    deaths of innocent people?
        On balance, I am quite optimistic. But this is a very serious time
    for the United States and a very important time for you to be here. So I
    hope you will keep that in the back of your mind as you spend all this
    time here and then when you go back home next year.
        Welcome, and God bless you all. Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 2:21 p.m. in the East Room at the White
    House. In his remarks, he referred to Secretary of State for Defense
    Malcolm Rifkind of the United Kingdom.