    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book I)]
    [May 1, 1997]
    [Pages 528-530]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks to the Saxophone Club
    May 1, 1997

        The President. I was sitting there pondering--standing there
    pondering--[laughter]--giving the Vice President a standing ovation with
    my stiff leg--[laughter]--how he had so much energy at 10:30 at night.
    [Laughter] And then I realized, well, he is a younger man. [Laughter]
        Let me say to all of you who helped to make this evening possible
    tonight, I thank you, and I thank Tipper and Al for being there with
    Hillary and me for the last 4 years and 2 months--not only politically
    but also personally, in a remarkable and perhaps unique way. I thank the
    Vice President for being the most important adviser I could have on a
    whole range of issues. There's very little he doesn't know a lot about,
    and now he knows more than he even did when he showed up here.
    [Laughter] And this country is much better off because Al Gore's been
    the Vice President of the United States.
        When Tipper and Al and Hillary were talking, I thought to myself, I
    love these Saxophone Club events, and I love to look out at the sea of
    eager faces thinking about the future. ``Don't stop thinking about
    tomorrow.'' [Laughter] And I was looking at Billy Baldwin, and then when
    Al said he was handsome and articulate and committed----
        The Vice President. Suave.
        The President. Suave. [Laughter]
        The Vice President. Charming.
        The President. Charming. [Laughter] What I was thinking is ``and
    young,'' and I really resent it. [Laughter]
        And Tracy and her band, I'm glad they were here, and I thank them
    for performing and for being in such good humor tonight. I hope we all
    are. But I really appreciate--I want to tell you a story about Billy
    Baldwin. He also came to New York once during the campaign and
    introduced us at an event--you may have been there or--[laughter]--or
    you're just stirred by the very thought of it. [Laughter] He does have
    that effect on some people. [Laughter] And he actually--I mean, I felt
    like I should write him an excused absence because he missed his
    anniversary to be there with us one night, because he cared so much----
        Audience members. Aw-w-w.
        The President. Well, he celebrated it the next day. [Laughter]
    That's something you can do when you're young. You think there will
    always be a next day, so it's good. But the thing that struck me about
    that was that here is this man who is doing this--who does not have to
    do this--because he believes it.
        And I saw his brother the other night, and he came up and started
    talking to me about a whole other set of issues. And I thought, just
    what he said tonight in his remarkable speech--I thought those guys must
    have had a remarkable upbringing because they're not just going off and
    living with their money and living with

    [[Page 529]]

    the stars and forgetting about everybody else in this country. And they
    care about things that affect all of us, and somehow they understand
    that their identity is tied up with all of us.
        And if I could just make one very brief point tonight about what
    this whole thing is about. I really believe that the significant choice
    that we have to make as a people now on the edge of this new millennium
    is really what we think it means to be an American and what we think it
    means to be a member of a community and who is in our community. And so
    much of what we have done that really mattered was rooted in my
    conviction--our conviction, if you will--that none of us can be
    completely fulfilled individually unless we are connected to others and
    unless we have respect for them, unless we have concern for them, and
    unless we are prepared to take some steps to make sure that everybody
    has a chance to live up to their God-given capacities and that we
    conserve, preserve, and protect those things that we share in common,
    whether it's a common environment or the public safety.
        And that's what I want you to think about. Because when you hear all
    these debates--you go back and replay the debates, the political debates
    of the last 15 years, you'll see that when you strip it all away, it's
    really about whether you believe that we're out there on our own and a
    good thing, or whether you believe that by definition to live in this
    country at this time and to live in this world at this time means that
    you have to recognize communities and you have to want to be a part of
    them, embrace them, and want to raise your children in a better one.
        And if you think about it, the reason I want to balance the budget
    is I don't want this young man here to have to worry about that. I want
    him to have a new set of problems. I mean, it's endemic to human nature.
    I can't make all the problems go away for the future, but at least we
    can give you a new set of problems. [Laughter] And the reason I want to
    do it in a way that honors the integrity of our health care programs is
    because I don't want to abandon the elderly and the disabled. And the
    reason that I believe in education is that I think it's the greatest
    gift we can give to people now, not only the young but the not-so-young
    who have to learn for a lifetime.
        But I think it all comes back to us. When Hillary goes around the
    world and has these meetings in Africa and Latin America and Beijing and
    everyplace--South Asia--and talks to these little groups of women and
    girls--and the girls may not even get to go to college, or get to go to
    high school, get to go to grade school, maybe have lived in places where
    girls and women are still oppressed--I realize that the liberation of
    their talents will not only strengthen their families and their own
    lives and enrich their own lives, it will make their countries better
    partners for us in the years ahead and make our future better.
        And that's why--we fought for things like the Religious Freedom
    Restoration Act, the Employment Nondiscrimination Act, mending but not
    ending affirmative action--all these things are a way of trying to
    define an American community in a way that would say, you can be a part
    of our community if you share our values and you work hard and you're
    responsible and you want to be a part of something that's good.
        This whole world today is absolutely being tormented by people who
    can't bear the thought of someone else's existence or happiness and it's
    because they're different from them. I mean, this whole world is being
    tormented by people who believe that their lives only make sense if
    they're kicking somebody else's brains out or who believe that if they
    don't kick somebody else's brains out, they will be killed in turn or
    they will be oppressed in turn, so they have to do it as a defensive
    mechanism.
        Now, if you think about the whole world, here we are--we're talking
    about how we can connect every school and library in America to the
    Internet. Last night, I went to the dedication of the Thomas Jefferson
    Building at the Library of Congress, and we talked about how we can
    share all these treasures with kids all over the world. And yet we are
    still plagued by almost primitive impulses, making us less than we ought
    to be, and by people who almost seek to make a moral virtue out of our
    walking away from each other.
        So if you ask me what it is that's sort of that central idea that I
    think will determine what America will look like 50 years from now, it
    is whether or not we really do believe we are part of a community, that
    we are one Nation under God, that we are one world under God, that we
    have--we are entitled to individual rights but we have common
    responsibilities and we'll be a whole lot happier if we just recognize
    them.

    [[Page 530]]

        And I want you to be proud of what we've done, and I want you to be
    proud of what we're doing, and I want you to be proud of where we're
    going. And if all goes well, when these 8 years are over, this country
    will start a new century and a new millennium a lot better than it was 8
    years ago but, more importantly, with a philosophy, an attitude, a way
    of looking at living together that will carry us a very long way and
    make the 21st century more peaceful, more prosperous, more happy than
    the 20th, yet still very much an American century.
        That's what I want for you and why I'm glad you're here.
        Thank you, and God bless you all.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:30 p.m. at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. In
    his remarks, he referred to actors William and Alec Baldwin and musician
    Tracy Bonham.