[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book I)]
[March 7, 1996]
[Pages 383-387]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



[[Page 383]]


Remarks at Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt, Maryland
March 7, 1996

    Thank you very much. Thank you, Mark, for your fine introduction and 
for your fine example and for reminding us about why this is an 
important day for the United States. Thank you, Dr. Boarman, for 
recalling my previous trip to Eleanor Roosevelt. That was a great day. I 
must say, when I was there then talking about the national education 
goals, I didn't have any idea I'd be back here a few years later in this 
role to discuss this issue.
    I'd like to thank the Members of Congress who are here and my good 
friend Secretary Cisneros; Governor Glendening and Lieutenant Governor 
Townsend; your county executive, Wayne Curry, who was with me just 
yesterday in the White House telling me about how this is the best 
county in America. I thank Reverend Jackson and all the people from the 
entertainment community and the other leaders who are here from across 
America today at this national conference.
    I also want you to know that there are two graduates of this high 
school who work in the White House: one of my associate counsels, Cheryl 
Mills, and Andy Blocker, who works in Legislative Affairs. So I am a 
direct beneficiary of Eleanor Roosevelt High School, and I thank you for 
that.
    When I leave you here we're going over to the conference with the 
delegates, but I wanted to come here with the Vice President and with 
General McCaffrey because, really, this conference is about you. And 
frankly, this is a day when I wish that as President, it weren't my job 
to give a speech, that I could just spend the next hour or two sitting 
around visiting with a number of you and listening to you and talking 
with you about your future, because we're here to try to do what we can 
to make your lives safer and your future stronger.
    You probably don't think about this very much, but already in your 
lives you have acquired different roles and different responsibilities, 
and they give you different perspectives: You are students, and you're 
still children; you're sons or daughters; you may be brothers or 
sisters; if you have an association with organizations, you're in the 
ROTC or in an athletic club or in the band; you have obligations, 
doubtless, to your friends that have become more and more important to 
you as you get older.
    That's the position that I find myself in today. I want to speak 
with you about this whole issue of crime and violence and drugs from the 
perspective of a President, the head of our Nation's Government; a 
citizen who understands that much of this work needs to be done in 
grassroots, citizens' community-based organizations; and the father of a 
high school-aged daughter. I see this whole issue in terms of what's 
good for families and what's good for the country.
    You're old enough now that you're being confronted on a regular 
basis with tough decisions, where you have to choose right from wrong, 
dangerous from safe. What you may not know is that the decisions that 
you make also may be good or bad not only for this community but for 
your entire country.
    That's what I want to talk to you about today, the decisions that I 
have to make as President to try to create more opportunity for you and 
a more secure environment, the decisions that we all have to make as 
citizens to try to improve your future and your present, and most 
important, the decisions that I hope you will make to choose life over 
death, to choose what is right for you over plainly what is wrong.
    You are coming of age at the moment of greatest possibility in all 
of American history, where young people who are prepared for it will be 
able to have more options to live out the future of their dreams than 
any previous generation. And the technological revolution, which is 
still a mystery to me, is something that many of you just take for 
granted. It can be the most democratic instrument in our history. It can 
offer enormous opportunities to children who not so many years ago could 
never have had them just because they came up in poor households.
    The other day the Vice President and I were in a school district in 
New Jersey that is in a poor neighborhood where most of the children 
come from immigrant families, the per capita income is way below the 
State average--and New Jersey is one of the two or three richest States 
in America. The school district was performing so poorly a few years ago 
that the State

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almost had to come in and close it and take it over. But they got new 
leadership. Major companies came in with a commitment to help. They put 
computers in all the classrooms for the kids, and then they even had 
computer hookups in the homes of these poor parents, many of whom had 
only been in our country for a few years. Within a matter of weeks, 
immigrant parents were E-mailing the principal to see how their kids 
were doing and whether they were doing their homework. Within 2 or 3 
years, this district that was on the verge of failure and all these poor 
children on the verge of being denied the American dream had attendance 
rates and graduation rates and, most important of all, test scores above 
the State average in one of the wealthiest States in this country.
    That can happen to America. That is the technological age we are 
living in. But the interesting thing about it, and the perplexing thing 
about it, is that technology is like every other tool of human beings: 
That's all it is. And in order for technology to work, it still has to 
be used by people who have good values, a strong background, and who 
choose life, who choose their future, who choose what is right for 
themselves and their country.
    Our Nation has a lot of challenges that we have to meet together if 
we're going to make sure the American dream is available for all young 
people without regard to their background, if we're going to see that 
our country remains the strongest country in the world, if we're going 
to see this country come together instead of being divided by race, by 
region, by income.
    We've got a lot of challenges to meet. Some of them are obvious. We 
have to do a better job of strengthening all families and giving all 
children a chance at a good childhood through things like better 
nutrition programs and immunization programs and Head Start for kids who 
need it. We have to provide excellence in educational opportunities for 
a lifetime now, not even just for children kindergarten through 12th 
grade, through things like a better student loan program and more 
college scholarships and the national service program and the program 
that first brought me here, the national education goals, giving schools 
the grassroots tools they need to meet high national standards of 
educational attainment for all of our young people; through economic 
strategies to create more high-wage jobs in the places that don't have 
them. We've got a lot of work to do. But in the end, if you think about 
it, we cannot succeed in any of these challenges unless first we deal 
with the problems of crime and violence and gangs and drugs, for in the 
absence of safety, people are not free.
    I don't know how many of you saw--I'm sure many of you did--the 
gripping, painful pictures coming across our airwaves from the Middle 
East in the last few days, where innocent children were killed by 
suicide bombers bent on destroying the peace process in the Middle East. 
But I couldn't help--I was so moved by the interviews with children, 
with young people. And it struck me just so clearly there that Israel is 
a very great democracy, but if every child goes to bed at night afraid, 
it is not a free country.
    And the same thing is true here. If you are imprisoned from within 
by drugs, or from without by a fear that you can't even walk down the 
street without looking over your shoulder, this is not a free country 
and you are not a free person. And you can never be everything that you 
ought to be unless you are free. Part of it involves your choice to 
choose life and a future. Part of it involves what we can all do 
together to make sure that nothing takes that future, nothing takes that 
life away from you.
    And that is in many ways our most fundamental mission, because from 
it all else flows: your mission to decide what kind of person you're 
going to be; our mission to decide what we're going to do to make sure 
you get the chance to become that person. And in our country it still 
means--even though the crime rate is down, even though drug use is way 
down from where it was at its peak, we still have a lot of work to do. 
We have to get rid of the guns that turn arguments into terrible 
tragedies, like the one that took the life of C.J. Brown. We have to 
take back our streets so that mothers and fathers don't have to be 
afraid when a son or daughter is waiting for a ride after work, like 
Julie Ferguson was on the night she was killed.
    So that's why I want to talk to you about this. And I have a real 
perspective, I think, about the whole drug and crime and violence 
problem. I grew up in the sixties when most people your age--when I was 
your age, they just sort of got into this business. They didn't really 
believe drugs were dangerous until it

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nearly destroyed our generation. I heard General McCaffrey, who served 
with great distinction and valor in Vietnam, talking about, yesterday, 
how in our generation when we were younger, the United States military 
was nearly destroyed by it. I had a brother who nearly lost his life 
because of a drug problem. I know a lot about this.
    And we have seen this incredible progress in the drug issue in the 
last several years where drug usage has gone way down, still going down 
among people 18 to 34, but now casual drug use going up again among 
people under 18. We have to stop that. We see the crime rate going down 
in America, the murder rate going down, the violence rate going down, 
but casual violence among people under 18 going up again. There are 
people in this conference with me today who've become friends of mine 
who once were members of gangs and have devoted the rest of their lives 
to stopping young people from making that mistake, trying to get them to 
choose life. And we have to do that.
    I tell you today, the most perplexing challenge facing us is how to 
make sure that drug use goes down among people who are under 18, that 
violence continues to go down among people who are under 18. We do not 
want to lose any more children. We don't want to rob any more people of 
their future. We have to fight these things whenever and wherever we see 
them.
    Let me begin by saying that one of the most disturbing findings in a 
lot of the national surveys is that more and more young people in your 
age group, and maybe you're among them, seem to believe that drugs are 
not dangerous anymore. That is factually wrong. It's not only wrong 
about cocaine, it's not only wrong about methamphetamine; it's wrong 
about marijuana. It is just wrong. We know that the toxic content of 
marijuana alone, for example, is roughly 3 times greater than it was 30 
years ago. It is not true that they are not dangerous. They are illegal 
and therefore wrong, but they are also dangerous.
    And I'll say again, I nearly lost my only brother. I'm not just 
telling you as a President. This is not a political speech. This is a 
personal statement. And there is no reason for the people of this 
country who happen to be under 18 to start seeing drug use go up again 
and violence go up again when the future for you is the brightest future 
any group of Americans have ever known, if you can make the transition 
into this new high-tech age.
    So no matter what we do with the laws and all the things that we 
should be doing, you have to make the right decision first. And I want 
to say, one of the reasons that we wanted to come here to have this 
conference at Roosevelt instead of some hotel or Government building is 
because of what you have done at this school, because the students, the 
teachers, and the parents of this school are doing such a remarkable job 
of fighting drugs and violence. They're not a perfect stranger here, 
drugs and violence, but this community has come together to send them 
packing. And I thank you for that. The way you're doing it is a lesson 
for all of America.
    I've spent a lot of time saying what the Government can do and what 
the Government cannot do. We cannot solve the drug problem from 
Washington. We can't stamp out youth violence just by passing laws. We 
can't even do it by giving resources to local communities unless they 
are properly used. Each of us has our own role to play. Our Government 
has a responsibility which we have tried to fulfill.
    The crime bill we fought for in 1994 is helping to put 100,000 more 
police officers on the street. That helps to deter crime, and it is 
working everywhere it's being used aggressively.
    We banned 19 kinds of assault weapons, and you've already heard that 
we passed the Brady bill to require a 5-day waiting period before people 
can buy handguns. And tens of thousands of people who have criminal 
records now have failed to get guns. This is a safer country because of 
that.
    We passed the ``three strikes and you're out'' law to put the most 
dangerous criminals behind bars for life. We are fighting against 
domestic violence as never before because of that crime bill. And we're 
trying to help thousands of schools to fight drugs and violence with 
drug education and gang prevention and increased security. We're 
supporting programs like the D.A.R.E. program, which I think is doing a 
wonderful amount of good in elementary schools throughout our country. I 
know that that can work.
    We also made it a national Federal crime for any person under the 
age of 18 to carry a handgun except when supervised by an adult. Last 
year I fought for a law requiring every State to expel any student who 
brings a gun to a school for a year, no excuses. You have

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a zero tolerance policy for guns here at Roosevelt. We ought to have a 
zero tolerance for guns in every school in America. You should never 
worry about your safety when you're in school.
    We've launched an aggressive campaign to crack down on advertising 
to convince young people to begin smoking. Cigarette smoking is now 
rapidly becoming the greatest cause of future health dangers to young 
people in America. Three thousand children start smoking every day, even 
though it's illegal in every State; 1,000 will have their lives 
shortened as a result. Don't let that happen to you. If you don't smoke, 
don't start. If you started, stop. It could be the best thing you ever 
do for your health.
    You heard General McCaffrey a few moments ago. The National 
Government has a responsibility that is embodied by General McCaffrey to 
do everything we can to try to stop the flow of drugs into our country, 
and to try to deal with it after it comes in our country, to try to help 
people who have already fallen victims to drug abuse. We're doing 
everything we can in that regard.
    We also, in the crime bill, gave communities some funds that I'm 
struggling with the Congress to preserve now, not only to tell our young 
people they should say no to drugs but to give young people in difficult 
circumstances more things to say yes to, more opportunities to be 
involved in positive activities and engaged in things that will help to 
build their lives. That is all our responsibility.
    But General McCaffrey cannot do this alone. The President cannot do 
this alone. The Government cannot do this alone. That's why I say the 
things you've done here may count for more than anything else.
    I was given some notes before I came over here about your grad night 
program, which I think is a remarkable thing. Every school in the 
country ought to do that. Your parents know that peer pressure to use 
drugs and alcohol is always strong, especially on graduation night. But 
they want you to celebrate your achievement, not end your life. And I 
think it's a very impressive thing that businesses have supported this, 
parents have supported it; every year they throw you an all-night party. 
I don't think it's advisable every week, but I think once a year it's a 
pretty good idea. For the benefit of the press and the others who are 
here, the seniors come to school at 11, give their keys and bags to 
their parents, load up the buses; they don't come back until 6 in the 
morning. They can spend the night swimming, playing basketball, dancing, 
eating all kinds of food. They even have a chance to win a car. I wonder 
if that gets the participation rate up. [Laughter]
    Last year--listen to this--622 seniors here; 597 showed up to 
celebrate. That's an amazing thing. That's an amazing thing. That's the 
kind of community spirit and commitment we need all across this country. 
And today I want you to know that we're getting that kind of community 
spirit in other ways as well.
    Working with the drug czar's office, the leaders of a major American 
industry have come together to try to do their part. We know the fight 
against youth drug abuse has to begin at home. We also know that a lot 
of parents don't always recognize the warning signs of drug abuse and 
they're unsure about how they should approach their children when they 
do. Well, what can we do about this? We know that America can do a lot. 
When people need health advice, they normally turn to their family 
doctor. We know that the pharmaceutical industry sends sales 
representatives to see every doctor in his or her office in the entire 
country. Today I am proud to announce that the 15 major pharmaceutical 
companies in America are launching a $33 million campaign to put the 
kind of drug education material that parents need in the hands of 
400,000 doctors, so that they can give it to parents and we can work to 
stop this problem earlier.
    We have some pharmaceutical executives who are here with us today. 
I'd like to ask them to stand up and be recognized. Where are they? Here 
they are. Let's give them a hand. Thank you very much, gentlemen. Thank 
you. [Applause]
    All of us who are parents have a big role to play. We are the 
beginning of how children learn right from wrong. We are the beginning 
of what children believe about drugs and whether they're safe or unsafe, 
how wrong it is to break the law. But in the end, it still comes down to 
all of you and your counterparts all across America.
    I will say again, you have a lot of responsibilities. You have 
responsibilities as students. You have responsibilities as children, 
responsibilities as members of various organizations. Your most 
important responsibility now is still to you. Your most important 
responsibility is to choose life.

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Your most important responsibility is to make the most of your own life. 
As my wife always says when we have a big argument around our house, 
life is not a dress rehearsal. That is your most important 
responsibility.
    I know a lot of you have been pressured to do drugs before, and you 
will be again. And when I tell you you shouldn't do it, you look at me 
and say, ``Look at that--he may be President, but he's still 50 years 
old and has gray hair. It's easy for him to say.'' [Laughter] I know 
that's what you must be thinking. And you're right. It is easy for me to 
say. But believe it or not, all of us who--adults who are here today 
were once young, and we're not entirely without our memories. We 
understand what you're going through. And if we're lucky enough to be 
parents, we see it firsthand, up close.
    There are things we can do: things I can do as President, things 
these pharmaceutical executives can do, things General McCaffrey and the 
Vice President can do, things the schools can do. But in the end, when 
you look at this from my perspective, when what I really want to do with 
the Presidency is to make sure every American has a chance to live out 
their dreams, I realize that if large numbers of our young people give 
up on their dreams, nothing I do will permit me to succeed. And I know 
there are other people that have a lot more influence than I do. A lot 
of these entertainers that you cheered for, you may listen to them more. 
My friend Charles Rayoff from Los Angeles, he used to be in a gang, now 
spends his life telling kids they shouldn't do that anymore. Maybe he's 
got more influence over the people on his street than I do. I know this: 
In the end, you're going to make the decisions about what happens to 
you; I'm not, and neither is anybody between me and you in the chain of 
command in our society.
    So I say to you in closing, I believe that your future can be the 
brightest future any generation of Americans have ever enjoyed. I 
believe that the kinds of things you're going to be able to do because 
of the explosion of information and technology, because the world is 
drawing closer together, because America is--look around this room here. 
This is the most successful, multiracial, multiethnic democracy in all 
of human history. This is a great thing.
    The rest of us, we'll keep doing our part. I want to say a word 
about Reverend Jackson--you clapped when he was introduced. A long time 
before either one of us knew we'd be sitting here, 20 years ago--20 
years ago next year was the first time I went with Jesse Jackson into a 
school to hear him give a speech to young people about staying off 
drugs. Twenty years ago, long before it was the fashionable thing to do, 
he was out there doing it. I thank you for that. Twenty years ago this 
year. [Applause] Thank you.
    General McCaffrey will keep doing his part. He'll be a great role 
model and a great leader. But in the end, you have to do it. And let me 
say, I know most of you are doing the right thing. I get tired of 
hearing only the bad things about America's younger generation. Most of 
the younger generation is pretty great, and that's why we're doing as 
well as we are. I understand that. But if you're in doubt, don't do it. 
If you're in trouble, get help. If you're doing the right thing, don't 
be afraid to be a role model, don't be afraid to be a friend.
    This country will be the greatest country in human history 50 years 
from now if we whip the problems that are afflicting childhood; if we 
give our children back their childhood; if when you turn on the 
television at night and you see some act of violence on the news, you 
are surprised instead of just deadened, ``Well, that's what I always 
see.''
    We've got to make violence the exception, not the rule. We've got to 
make drug abuse the exception, not the rule. We've got to make the rule 
what I see out here when I look in your faces: young people who are 
committed to themselves, committed to their families, committed to their 
communities, committed to their own future. Choose life and we'll be all 
right.
    Thank you, and God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 11:23 a.m. in the gymnasium. In his 
remarks, he referred to Mark Anderes, student, and Gerald Boarman, 
principal, Eleanor Roosevelt High School; Gov. Parris Glendening and Lt. 
Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend of Maryland; Prince Georges County 
Executive Wayne Curry; and civil rights leader Jesse Jackson.