    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book II)]
    [October 12, 1995]
    [Pages 1581-1583]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a Swearing-In Ceremony for AmeriCorps Volunteers
    October 12, 1995

        If she hasn't made the case, there's nothing for me to say.
    [Laughter]
        Thank you, Michelle Johnson Harvey, for that remarkable statement.
    And thank you and all of your colleagues here for your dedication to
    your country, to your community and your participation in AmeriCorps.
    Thank you, Don Doran, for the work that you have permitted AmeriCorps to
    do with you and your school in Atlanta.
        And I thank Senator Harris Wofford for his willingness to take up
    this service at this important time in the history of our country and
    the history of AmeriCorps. We just swore him in--the Vice President
    swore him in over in the Oval Office with Mrs. Wofford and his entire
    family and his extended family of friends. And he pointed out that at
    least I had told him what I expected him to do. He said that once before
    he was sworn in in the Oval Office, and President Kennedy swore him in
    and then told him what his job was going to be. [Laughter] So I feel
    that after 30 years we're at least making some progress in the
    Government's obligation to fully disclose to its--[laughter]--public
    servants what they are expected to do.
        I want to thank Jim Joseph, the Chairman of the Board, who is about
    to become our distinguished Ambassador to South Africa, and all the
    other supporters of the AmeriCorps program and the other volunteer
    efforts that are here.
        And I want to say, of course, a special word of thanks to my friend
    of 25 years, Eli Segal, for the remarkable job he did in creating
    AmeriCorps and getting it off to a good start. Thank you for a brilliant
    job.
        I want to thank the supporters of AmeriCorps in the Congress,
    including those who are here, Senator Jeffords from Vermont, Congressman
    Sawyer from Ohio, Congresswoman Karen McCarthy from Kansas City. She got
    one of her constituents up here, and I saw her bursting with pride.
    Congressman Green from Texas and Congressman Tim Roemer from Indiana.
    We're glad to see all of you. And we thank you for your support.
        A year ago, in one of my proudest moments as President, I challenged
    20,000 citizens to join us in a new American adventure, rooted in our
    most fundamental values of personal responsibility, educational
    opportunities, service to others, and commitment to community. I asked
    those 20,000 Americans to put their values into action through
    AmeriCorps, because service is a spark to rekindle the spirit of
    democracy in an age of uncertainty. Well, the times may be uncertain
    because they're changing so rapidly, but I am certain that the flame of
    democracy is burning brighter all across America today because of people
    like Michelle Johnson Harvey and her friends who helped to close those
    crack houses and give those children safe streets to walk, and because
    of the thousands and thousands of other AmeriCorps volunteers and the
    many thousands more whom they recruited to work to build houses, to
    immunize children, to educate, to help to solve all the community
    problems that are being faced at the grassroots level.
        You know, it is true that this idea was consciously born as a
    nonbureaucratic, grassroots, community-based, totally nonpartisan idea.
    I became enamored of the idea of community service because I saw what it
    could do as a Gov-

    [[Page 1582]]

    ernor and because I was working with a group in the late eighties and
    early nineties, the Democratic Leadership Council, and we devised a
    proposal. And Senator Nunn, who just a couple of days ago announced his
    retirement from the Congress, and some others, when President Bush was
    in office, proposed a pilot project. And President Bush was good enough
    to sign the bill that passed, and we did begin this.
        And then when I ran for President, I saw all over America these
    community groups like the City Year group in Boston, which is now
    spreading across the country like wildfire. I saw them everywhere, these
    young people full of energy and ideas, across racial lines, across
    income lines, people who had never shared any common experiences before
    coming together and literally creating a new future for people one-on-
    one and for communities and solving problems that we could never begin
    to solve here in Washington, DC. And I was determined that if I ever had
    the chance to do it as President, I would try to create a national
    commitment to community service all across the country that would give
    our young people a chance to give something back to their communities
    and to advance their education at the same time. That is what we are
    doing.
        At a time when, once again, we are asking ourselves whether we are
    too divided in our perceptions of reality and our attitudes toward all
    the things that are going on in America to be a real community, the
    members of AmeriCorps put the lie to all of that. They show us once
    again that if you can just get good people together, no matter how
    different their backgrounds are, and you give them a chance to share
    common values and to work on a common problem or to seize a common
    opportunity, and you give them a chance to do it together, day-in and
    day-out, they will change everybody's preconceived notions of what is
    possible in America. They will prove, once and for all, again in this
    age, that the American idea is a universal idea, that the notion of
    personal responsibility, the notion of opportunity for everybody, the
    notion that we're all better and stronger when we work together than
    when we are divided, that those things are universal, that they are
    rooted in a fundamental truth about human nature and that there is no
    power like it anywhere. That's what these young people in AmeriCorps
    prove day-in and day-out.
        I'm so grateful for all of the things they've done. They've fought
    forest fires in Idaho. They've helped people after floods in Houston.
    They've built homes in Miami. They've, as you heard, helped to raise
    reading scores dramatically in Kentucky, a model I hope will be copied
    in schools all across America. They've helped to prevent lead poisoning
    in Portland. They've helped troubled youths to care for people in
    nursing homes in Boston. They certainly came to the rescue after
    Oklahoma City, some of them in truly remarkable ways. They simply put
    themselves on the line to prove that things are still possible in
    America.
        No one could ever meet these young people and listen to their
    stories and continue to be cynical about the prospect of Americans
    working together. I met a young woman named Velaida ``Cricket'' Shepard
    when we had our economic conference in Portland, Oregon, last June. And
    she was trying to talk about AmeriCorps, and she began to cry. She
    almost couldn't get through her statement. Michelle didn't have that
    problem. [Laughter] I thought she was going to declare for President
    right here in the middle of her speech. [Laughter] But this young woman
    talked about getting up at 6 o'clock every morning so she could make
    sure a young girl she was mentoring got to school on time; so she could
    make sure that no family problem this child had--nothing would keep that
    child from school; so she could make sure that no amount of
    disappointment in her own life, no amount of personal injury that child
    had suffered, emotional injury, would keep her from becoming what she
    ought to be.
        That young girl, who was troubled, was marked for failure, has now
    become a role model in her school. And at the same time, Cricket Shepard
    has gone on to other challenges to help other young people do the same,
    and AmeriCorps is helping her to get an education at Portland State
    University.
        This is the kind of thing that we ought to be doing, folks. No one
    knows here in Washington what the really most important problem is in
    Kansas City, but the people in Kansas City know. No one wakes up every
    morning in Washington thinking about whether, in a given community, they
    need most to close crack houses or build Habitat for Humanity homes or
    keep beaches clean or tutor students. But the people in those
    communities know.

    [[Page 1583]]

        I have been overwhelmed by the broad and deep support for AmeriCorps
    from people from all walks of life. We know that it is not only
    consistent with our values and a good thing to do, it also happens to be
    cost-efficient and it works. We know that from independent economists,
    from evaluators, even the GAO says that it more than pays its way and
    actually costs less than we had originally estimated it would.
        So I say to you today that as we debate this great national question
    of how to balance the budget, we can balance the budget without turning
    our backs on these young people. We can balance the budget without
    forgetting the fundamental lesson, which is that if you can create a
    national movement with no bureaucracy that explodes human energy at the
    grassroots level, you can put the lie to all this business about how we
    are bound to be divided by race, by region, by income, by walk of life,
    just by letting them live and do what they know to do. And that is what
    we ought to do.
        AmeriCorps should be continued for far more than the some 25,000
    young people that will be involved in it this year, far more than the
    2,000 communities in all 50 States that will be benefited, far more than
    the many, many tens of thousands of other volunteers, that they will
    make it possible to work because they will organize them. It should be
    continued if, for no other reason, that it proves that the American idea
    is alive and well and can meet the challenges of the 21st century, to
    restore our values, to strengthen us at the grassroots level. It can be
    a shining symbol that there is no need for cynicism, no need for
    defeatism, and no need for tolerance of division in the United States of
    America. That's why we should continue AmeriCorps.
        So I would like to begin this next year of AmeriCorps by asking all
    of the members who are here and all of those who are with us via
    satellite in Kansas City to join me in taking the AmeriCorps pledge.
        Please stand and repeat after me, if you're not all standing. Stand
    up--it'll be good for all of us to do it. [Laughter] This would be a
    good pledge for the citizens of the United States:
        I will get things done for America, to make our people safer,
    smarter, and healthier. I will bring Americans together to strengthen
    our communities. Faced with apathy, I will take action. Faced with
    conflict, I will seek common ground. Faced with adversity, I will
    persevere. I will carry this commitment with me this year and beyond. I
    am an AmeriCorps member. And I am going to get things done.

    [The AmeriCorps volunteers repeated each line of the pledge after the
    President.]

        Thank you, and God bless you all.

    Note: The President spoke at 2:40 p.m. in the East Room at the White
    House. In his remarks, he referred to Michelle Johnson Harvey,
    AmeriCorps member, and Don Doran, principal, Benteen Elementary School.