    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book II)]
    [August 19, 1996]
    [Pages 1312-1313]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks in Jackson, Tennessee
    August 19, 1996

        Thank you very much. Thank you for the ``Happy Birthday.'' I have
    had a very happy birthday in west Tennessee, and I thank all of you for
    that. I thank you for coming out here. This is a vast crowd; we never
    had any idea there would be this kind of crowd here. They said, ``Well,
    Mr. President, we've got to go. We need to be at the airport because
    we're going to have to shake hands with a few people who will be there
    before we leave''--a few thousand people, or maybe not even a few
    thousand people, several thousand people. I thank you all for coming,
    very much.
        Hillary and Chelsea and I have had a wonderful time with Al and
    Tipper and Karenna and Sarah and Albert. We did go out and work on the
    church rebuilding today to give us something to do to remind ourselves
    that, as the Scripture says, ``To those to whom much is given, much is
    expected.'' And all of us have a responsibility now as Americans to say
    we don't want our country to be like other countries

    [[Page 1313]]

    where people fight with each other because of their differences over
    race or religion or ethnic group or tribal groups. There's too much of
    that in the world. America is going in the other direction. We're going
    to draw strength from our differences and our shared values, and one of
    those is the freedom of religion, and we respect that, and we're going
    to keep fighting for it all the way.
        Let me also tell you that I am very grateful to the State of
    Tennessee for being so good to me and to our administration. I thank
    Governor McWherter and Congressman Tanner and Mr. Purcell, all the
    others that are here, Lois DeBerry, the other leaders of the legislature
    and local government, people that have been involved in our campaigns.
    But I cannot thank you enough for the gift of friendship and service
    that Al and Tipper Gore have been to the United States while I've been
    President. You have no idea, even in Tennessee, how much difference
    they've made for America and for the future.
        There are many things I could say, but just one thing I'd like to
    emphasize: Every year the Gores have come back to Nashville to have a
    family conference, to try to stand up for the things that I've cared
    about a long time and that Hillary has worked for for more than 25
    years. And out of those family conferences have come some very
    impressive things. We now have a family and medical leave law that 12
    million American families have been able to take advantage of, to take a
    little time off from work without losing their job when there's a baby
    born or a sick parent, and that's a good thing. And we want to build on
    it.
        We now have a law which says that we're going to put a V-chip in new
    televisions so that parents can help to control the programming their
    children see and now an agreement to 3 more hours of quality educational
    television for our children on the networks of America. And I thank them
    for that.
        The other thing I'd like to say is back in the election in 1992, Al
    Gore used to give a little speech. I don't know if you remember it, but
    he said, ``The problem in this country is that everything that ought to
    be up is down, and everything that ought to be down is up.'' Do you
    remember when he said that? America was laughing with him and rocking
    with him. But I'll tell you something, he's got to change his speech
    this time, because everything that ought to be down is down, and the
    things that ought to be up are up.
        And I just want to tell you that for all of you who have given us a
    chance to serve, you should feel that you were a part of putting in
    place a strategy that has cut the deficit by 60 percent, that has given
    us record exports, that has continued to invest in education, in
    technology, and the future, that has brought this deficit down, and that
    will balance the budget without destroying our commitments to our senior
    citizens, to our children, to families with disabilities through
    Medicare and Medicaid and without requiring cuts in education and
    protecting the environment. We are going to go into a future with a
    strong economy, where there are more good jobs and where we're growing
    together in the 21st century because of the policies that you have
    supported.
        And I just want to ask you in the weeks and months ahead to go out
    and be a good citizen, talk to your friends and neighbors and ask them,
    what do you want America to look like when we reach the 21st century--
    it's just 4 years away--what do you want America to look like when your
    children are your age? It's not that far away. We've got to build an
    America where every single solitary person, every boy and girl, without
    regard to their race, their income, their station in life, has a chance
    to live out their dreams. We've got to build an America strong enough to
    protect ourselves and to lead the world for peace and freedom. And as we
    saw at those churches today--one white, one black, both burned and
    brought together--we have got to build an America where we're coming
    together, not being driven apart the way so many other countries are.
    That's the way to go into the future, and that's what we're going to do.
        Thank you, God bless you, and thank you for a happy birthday. Thank
    you.

    Note: The President spoke at 6:12 p.m. at McKellar-Sipes Airport. In his
    remarks, he referred to Bill Purcell, majority leader, and Lois DeBerry,
    speaker pro tempore, Tennessee House of Representatives.