    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book I)]
    [May 7, 1996]
    [Pages 697-700]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 697]]

    Remarks on Kick Butts Day in Woodbridge
    May 7, 1996

        Thank you very much. Senator Lautenberg, thank you for your presence
    here and your tireless efforts to help protect young people from the
    dangers of smoking. Mayor McGreevey, thank you for your warm welcome and
    your strong leadership and the powerful statement that you made today. I
    hope all of the citizens who elected you were listening. And Jennifer
    Crea, thank you. Didn't she do a terrific job? Let's give her a hand.
    [Applause] I want to thank Bill Hait from the New Jersey Cancer
    Institute and Dave Brown and Harry Carson from the New York Giants for
    appearing here before me. I thank your superintendent, Lee Seitz, and
    your principal, Dave Peterson, for making me feel welcome here today.
        I thank the band for being here today. And I want to thank Professor
    John Slade and your peer leader, Pam Chesky, and the students who met
    with me earlier to talk about their efforts to stem the tide of teen
    smoking. I want to thank all of you who came up with these signs;
    they're great. I love this--they're great signs.
        In his absence, I also want to recognize one person who is not here,
    the public advocate for New York City, Mark Green, who came up with the
    idea for this National Kick Butts Day and organized it in cooperation
    with the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. He's been working on this now
    for about 6 years, and I really appreciate his commitment.
        I want to talk to the young people here a little in the beginning
    about how this issue of young people smoking--or hopefully, young people
    not smoking--fits into my vision for your lives. There is a reason that
    I became the first President ever to take on this issue, and it's not a
    negative reason. It is true that previous Presidents have not done it,
    and it may be that the power of the lobbies on the other side had
    something to do with that. But I felt that we had no choice.
        The Vice President lost a sister to lung cancer at a very early age
    whom he loved very much. My mother, who died of cancer at the age of 70,
    smoked two packs a day for most of her life till my 8-year-old daughter
    talked her out of it, much in the same way Senator Lautenberg's daughter
    talked him out of it. But beyond that, I want you to understand that we
    are doing what we're doing because I feel we have no choice, and let me
    explain why.
        I want all the young people here to grow up in an America that is
    stronger and more full of opportunity for you than any time in our
    history before. And I believe that in order for that to happen it is my
    responsibility, number one, to try to help provide opportunities for all
    those who are willing to work for them; number two, to try to help bring
    the American people together so that all this diversity--I look out here
    in this student body and I see the face of America--we have more racial
    and ethnic groups represented in our great, throbbing, thriving
    democracy than any democracy in human history. And if we can prove that
    we can all work together and help each other and respect each other,
    that will be an enormous asset in the global society of the 21st
    century. I want our country to be strong and to lead the world for peace
    and sreedom.
        And in order for all that to happen, we've got to have strong
    people. We have to give you the tools to make the most of your own
    lives. The first and most important of those is a good education. But
    you also need a clean environment and safe streets and communities that
    work and the opportunity to be supported in a strong family. All these
    things require a partnership between people in public life and private
    citizens.
        But none of this will amount to anything, not the economic
    opportunities, not the opportunity for America to come together and
    bridge our differences and be a stronger community, not the strength of
    your country, not even the quality of the educational system or the fact
    that we got the crime rate going down and we're continuing to fight for
    a clean environment, unless you--unless you--make the decision to make
    the most of your own life.
        And it starts with the decision to respect who you are, to respect
    the resources that God gave you, and to make the most of them. That's
    what this anti-teen smoking campaign is all about. We now know what the
    health dangers are. We now know that, advertising notwithstanding, it

    [[Page 698]]

    is not a glamorous thing to risk your health and your life.
        The students that I just met with from Woodbridge showed me an
    incredible collection of tobacco ads and trinkets, T-shirts, hats and
    other giveaways, and tobacco products, all of which were found right
    here in your community, and all of which your fellow students thought
    were enticing young people to smoke. Now, you've got a group of students
    here, and we recently--just before I came out, I talked with students in
    11 cities throughout the country, all of whom are committed to turning
    this around. And I know that in many ways the influence of young people
    on their peers is far greater than the influence of older people, even
    the President--maybe especially the President. [Laughter]
        So this is very hopeful. But our administration has issued a
    challenge to people all across America and especially to our young
    people to create a groundswell of involvement to protect our children
    from the dangers of tobacco.
        Those of you who are volunteering in this effort are collecting
    information about advertising and availability of cigarettes, which can
    help to save lives. It can certainly help to influence business owners
    to be more vigilant in checking the age of tobacco customers. You may
    even do something like young people did in Santa Ana, California, when
    they got billboard companies to remove cigarette billboards located
    close to schools. You can help encourage people to stay away from
    tobacco, and you can take on the message of the advertising.
        Now, all of these things are profoundly important. You've heard all
    the statistics, but let me just tell you the one that grips me the most:
    3,000 people under the age of 18 start smoking every day, and 1,000 of
    those 3,000 will die sooner because of it. Oh, maybe they'll die at 60
    instead of 65. That may seem a long way away to you when you're 18; it
    seems right around the corner to me. [Laughter] And those 5 years get a
    lot more important to you as you go along. Not only that, you want to be
    healthy while you're living them if you can.
        Now, we can't control our genetic makeup; we can't control what may
    happen to us in an unfortunate accident. Some of us will, it's terrible
    to say, may even become victims of crime. That is no reason for giving
    up. We should control those things which we can control about our lives.
    Our obligation is to live as long and as well as we can, to do as much
    as we can with whatever lot we get in life. We should not be self-
    destructive; we should do no harm.
        That's what this whole thing is about: 3,000 kids start smoking
    every day; 1,000 will die sooner because of it. All the other facts are
    not nearly as compelling as that. Do you want to take a one in three
    chance that you're going to shorten your life?
        Let me tell you something. This is hard for you to believe, but I
    can actually remember when I was in high school. [Laughter] I have never
    missed one of my high school reunions, never, not a one. Every 5 years I
    show up, every 5 years. I have followed the lives of my classmates, and
    I am telling you, there are consequences to all the decisions we make.
        Your country needs you. We need you to be well-educated. We need you
    to be able to raise strong families. We need you to be able to raise
    good kids yourselves. We need you to be able to make contributions to
    communities like this one. We need you to prove all the cynics wrong
    when they say we can't adjust to this new society in which we're living,
    and no country can be a democracy with as much diversity as we have. We
    need you for all those reasons.
        But you deserve the life you are going to be given. Do not throw it
    away. One in three chance that you will end your life sooner--that is a
    lousy bargain for no benefit. Don't do it.
        I'll tell you something else we know, and it's already been said
    today, but I want to say it again. About 90 percent of all new smokers
    are young people under the age of 18. Almost a hundred percent of people
    who are actually addicted to smoking start when they're under 18. You
    know, occasionally somebody will try it when they're 21 or 22 or 25.
    Almost never does anybody become a regular, addicted smoker if they
    don't start when they're young.
        That's an important thing to know. I want to say to all of you, I
    know you can't do this alone. I'm gratified at the willingness of the
    adults I met today to support you. I'm encouraged by the statements of
    the political leaders here today in support of this endeavor. I know
    that there are things that we have to do as well, but I also want to
    encourage more people in this community to help. Our religious
    institutions, our churches, our synagogues in America, increasingly our
    temples and our mosques--people imparting values to young people to
    stand up and make the most of their own lives and

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    to say no. And again I say, we need you young people to influence one
    another.
        We have, as you know, proposed ways to crack down on advertising--
    Senator Lautenberg referred to it--that make--advertising that makes
    young people think smoking is cool. Last August I announced the Food and
    Drug Administration's proposed regulations to make it harder for minors
    to buy cigarettes by reducing their access to vending machines and free
    samples and by limiting ads that appeal to young people.
        In January we issued the Synar regulation, named for the late former
    Congressman from Oklahoma, Mike Synar, to demand that in return for the
    Federal money they get, States must do more to enforce their own laws.
    The amazing thing is that it is illegal for children to smoke in every
    State in America right now, but the laws are not being enforced. Now we
    say if you want the Federal money, enforce your own laws and do the
    right thing.
        In March of this year we had a meeting at the White House with over
    a hundred leaders in the areas of health, religion, sports, business,
    education, and other services to children to highlight what they are now
    doing to help prevent young people from starting to smoke and to pledge
    an even more intense, unified effort. We know businesses have a special
    role, and I want to talk about this a moment. Businesses, of course,
    have the legal right to sell cigarettes to adults, but they also have a
    legal and moral responsibility to prevent the sale to minors.
        I met with a number of your students, as I said before. Three of
    them told me they went out to see if they could buy cigarettes. Two were
    16. One tried 10 times; the other tried 5. They were 15 for 15 in buying
    cigarettes and not even being carded--15 for 15. One was 13, and smiled
    in a way that said ``I know I look 13, not 18.'' He was 3 for 8. And
    none of those 3 people that sold him those cigarettes thought he was 18
    years of age, not a single one. So there's a responsibility on the part
    of business to do better.
        I was proud to announce at the White House in March that the
    chairman of the A&P supermarket chain will recommend to his board this
    summer that the whole chain discontinue the use of cigarette vending
    machines by the end of the year. And you may have heard that just last
    week, the 3M Company and the Interfaith Center for Corporate
    Responsibility reached an agreement that 3M would no longer accept
    tobacco advertising for its billboards, and good for them. This is the
    first major national media company to take this step. I want to commend
    Livio DeSimone, the chairman and CEO of 3M, and Reverend Michael Crosby
    of the Interfaith Center for this remarkable accomplishment.
        And finally, I'd like to say something to the tobacco companies. Of
    course, the students have to do their part, and ultimately, the decision
    is theirs. Of course, the rest of us have to do our part. But you in the
    tobacco business now surely see the clear emerging consensus in America
    that advertising, billboards, and promotions should not appeal to the
    children of this country.
        And so I urge you, be responsible. Do not stay outside of and apart
    from this debate. Do not engage in practices the American people have
    rejected. Agree to the commonsense restrictions proposed by the FDA last
    year on advertising that affects children. Join with us. Do the right
    thing. Don't do the wrong thing. Do the right thing. Do it now and help
    us. Play your role in stopping this problem before it starts for
    millions and millions and millions of young Americans.
        I say again to you in closing, the young people here in this
    auditorium and throughout this country, those of us who are my age and
    older, we've lived most of our lives. Whatever happens to us, we
    probably have more yesterdays than tomorrows. This is about you. It's
    about your future. It's about the kind of America you will live in. It's
    the kind of America you will leave for your children. We are moving into
    this era of absolutely unimaginable possibilities, in which, if my
    generation does its job right, we will leave to you more security from
    being destroyed from without, more harmony of people working together in
    this country, and more opportunity than any generation of Americans has
    ever known.
        But you have to take advantage of the opportunity. And that means
    you need a good education. It means you're entitled to good schools and
    safe streets and a clean environment. But first, it means you have to
    decide to do no harm to yourself. Begin with that.
        Thank you, and God bless you.

    Note: The President spoke at 2 p.m. in the gymnasium at Woodbridge High
    School. In his remarks, he referred to Mayor James E. McGreevey of
    Woodbridge; student Jennifer Crea, who intro-

    [[Page 700]]

    duced the President; William Hait, director, Cancer Institute of New
    Jersey; New York Giants football player Dave Brown and former New York
    Giants football player Harry Carson; and John Slade, professor, Rutgers
    University Medical School.