[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book I)]
[April 15, 1997]
[Pages 437-440]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks on Kick Butts Day in Brooklyn, New York
April 15, 1997

    The President. Thank you. Good morning. Let me, first of all, say 
that I am delighted to be here. And I thought Ayana gave a wonderful 
introduction, didn't you? Give her a hand. [Applause]
    I'm delighted to be here with all of the young people at the Hudde 
School, not only those who are here but those who are outside this room 
listening to us and looking at us over closed-circuit television. There 
are young people around New York and all across America participating in 
this second annual Kick Butts Day. But I am glad to be here.
    I thank your principal, Julia Bove, for making me feel so welcome. I 
am delighted to be here with Congressman Chuck Schumer, my longtime 
friend who has worked so hard on this tobacco issue, and also he's 
worked hard on the assault weapons ban and the Brady bill and other 
things to make the streets of New York safer for children.
    I'm glad to be here with Major Owens who was a very early supporter 
of mine here and who has been a great champion for education. You heard 
him talking about education--we're trying to get this Congress to really 
focus on the education needs of our children. And if it does happen in 
this Congress and we get the kind of progress that I think we will, it 
will be in no small measure due to Major Owens. I thank you, Major, for 
your leadership.
    And I want you to think about Mark Green's title a minute because 
I'm going to talk to you about my job, their jobs, your jobs in a 
minute. Mark Green's title is the public advocate. I don't know if 
there's another city in America that has an elected public advocate. But 
think about what that means. What would it mean for you to be a public 
advocate? Someone who is standing up for people at large, right? For the 
public. Now, it was in that connection that Mark Green created this day, 
Kick Butts Day, all across the United States; he was the first official 
to ask to ban cartoon figures in tobacco ads--to his fight for at-risk 
and uninsured children. He's been fighting for children, but just think 
about it, because he was advocating for the public in New York, we now 
have a national Kick Butts Day involving, as you heard, about 2 million 
people. That's an incredible thing, and we thank Mark Green for his 
leadership for that.
    I also want to thank Bill Novelli and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free 
Kids. I thank the others who are here on the platform with me today:

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the president of the New York City Board of Education, Bill Thompson; 
and Rudy Crew, the chancellor of the board of education; and I'm glad to 
see Sandy Feldman and the American Federation of Teachers 
representatives, out here in this group.
    And I'm glad to be at this school. I've heard a lot about this 
school. Congressman Schumer says, ``My daughter goes to this school.'' I 
actually have--one of the press people who travels with me, Mark Knoller 
of CBS Radio, graduated from this school. And I hate to admit it, but he 
got a good education, too. He's done a good job. [Laughter] He's also 
very popular with the press corps, as you can hear. [Laughter]
    Now, let me ask you to think about my job and your job. How many of 
you saw something in the news about Tiger Woods winning the Masters? How 
many of you thought it was a good thing? How many of you know that we're 
going to celebrate tonight at Shea Stadium the 40th anniversary of 
Jackie Robinson--the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking into 
baseball? You all know that? And how many of you know who Jackie 
Robinson played for? Who did he play for? The Dodgers. When they were 
in----
    Audience members. Brooklyn.
    The President. ----Brooklyn. And how many of you think it was a good 
thing that Jackie Robinson broke the color line in baseball and gave 
everybody a chance to play baseball? [Applause] Okay, now, to do things 
that are great, you have to be able to imagine that you can do them. You 
have to be able to dream your dreams and actually imagine that you can 
be there. But you also have to pay the price. You have to develop good 
character and a good mind and good habits. And those are things that no 
one can do for you.
    And I came here today for a specific reason. Because I think all the 
time about my job as President, I'm sort of the country's public 
advocate. You think about my job and what I can do and what I cannot do. 
Where does my job as President end and your job as a student and a 
citizen begin? That's what I want you to think about, because that's 
really what this is about. That's what all these T-shirts are about. 
That's what this slogan is about. It's about your future, your life, 
what all of us on this stage can do, and what only you can do.
    Now, if you think about my job--this morning, I got up early this 
morning and read the newspapers and talked to my wife and daughter and 
read my security briefing to see what was going on in the rest of the 
world. And I got on Air Force One, the special plane that the President 
flies in, and I flew to New York and then came over here. And I thought 
about on the way over here, how much do these young students know about 
my job?
    My job is to protect the United States, to promote world peace and 
the interest of the United States around the world. My job is to try to 
give you a strong economy so those who are willing to work can find a 
job; to commit to giving Americans the best education in the world so 
everybody has the chance to develop their minds; to try to make our 
streets safer; to try to make our environment cleaner; to try to make 
sure that the health and welfare, especially of our children, are in 
better shape for the future; and maybe more than anything else now--and 
look around at this student body--to try to make sure that we in America 
can learn to live together in harmony and peace and genuine affection 
and respect across our racial, ethnic, and religious differences, to 
have a true democracy that's blind to the differences in terms of 
prejudice but respects the fact that we are different and says, that's a 
good thing. It's a better thing that this country has people from many 
different racial and ethnic and religious backgrounds. It makes us 
stronger, not weaker, for the 21st century. That's my job.
    Now, what does that mean? That means, in specifics, that I'm down in 
Washington now; I'm trying to work with the Congress to do the public's 
business to balance the budget, because it will make our economy 
stronger and guarantee that we'll have more growth and your parents will 
have more opportunities for good income. I'm trying to do it in a way 
that invests in education because unless we have the best education 
system in the world, we won't do as well as we should in the future and 
you won't have the opportunities you deserve. Those are just two 
examples.
    But think about where what I do ends and what you do begins, because 
in the days when Jackie Robinson broke into baseball, someone had to 
make the decision that this racial prejudice was a stupid, dumb thing, 
right? And the owner of his club made that decision and give him a 
chance to play. That's a good thing, right? But just think what a downer 
it would have been if he couldn't play baseball. He still had

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to play baseball, right? He had to believe he could play baseball. He 
had to train himself to play baseball. He had to deal with all the 
prejudice and all the insults and all the hatred and all the rejection, 
and he had to maintain his dignity, all the time waiting for that chance 
and never knowing for sure it would ever come.
    Now, think about Tiger Woods. He grew up in a time when there was--
legal segregation by and large was illegal, unless it was in private 
clubs. And he had a wonderful father and mother who believed in him and 
gave him love and discipline and opportunities, right? But he still 
wouldn't have won that golf tournament unless he could hit the ball--a 
long way. [Laughter] Straight, right?
    So all of us, we can get together. What's that got to do with you 
and Kick Butts Day? We can get together, and I can tell you, like they 
did, 3,000 kids start smoking every day, and 1,000 of them are going to 
die sooner because of it. I can say that. I can tell you that more 
people die from cigarettes every year than die from all of the other 
problems that you heard Congressman Schumer talking about. And I can 
tell you that; it's really true--more than from AIDS, more than from 
cancer, more than from car wrecks, more than from all that stuff. I can 
tell you that advertising has a disproportionate impact on young people.
    How do we know that? We actually know that. How do we know that? 
Because younger people who buy cigarettes are far more likely to buy the 
advertised brands of cigarettes than the so-called generic brand, you 
know, where there's no advertising, no brand, just plain cigarettes. 
They're cheaper, but you never see them advertised. Older people are 
more likely to buy them, and younger people are more likely to buy the 
advertised brands even though they're more expensive.
    So I can tell you all that. I can tell you that tobacco companies 
are getting more clever now. Virginia Slims is now sponsoring concerts 
because kids love music and CD's. Joe Camel cartoons are now on the 
packets of cigarettes, not just in the ads. Toy race cars are still 
emblazoned with tobacco brand names, even though we know adults don't 
buy many toy race cars.
    Now, just last month, one of the tobacco companies finally changed 
its story. The president of the tobacco company Liggett said--and this 
is a quote from him--he can tell you this. This is a guy that ran a 
tobacco company. He can say, ``We acknowledge that the tobacco industry 
markets to youth, which means those under 18 years of age.'' And he also 
admitted that nicotine is addictive. Now, that's what he said. I hope 
the other tobacco companies will follow his lead and tell the truth and 
stop trying to sell their products--to adults and not to kids.
    Now, all this is my problem and their problem and the other people 
that are in this. We're supposed to do this. We're supposed to do 
everything we can do to stop them from advertising to you and to stop 
this, and I have done everything I know to do. Last August, we put out 
these rules, and we said they have got to stop this. But after we do all 
that, there's still you. Right?
    Think about it like Jackie Robinson. And so all of us, we're like 
the guys that own the ballteam, right? We're supposed to make everything 
all right so you have a chance to play baseball, except what we're 
trying to do is make everything all right so that the chances are very 
high that you won't be tempted to smoke.
    But it's still up to you. That's why I'm here today, because I can 
sit in Washington and work all day and all night long and make this 
speech until I'm blue in the face, and unless the children of this 
country band together and show solidarity with each other and help each 
other resist peer pressure and stand up for your future and understand 
that your body is the most prized gift you've been given along with your 
mind and your spirit, nothing I do will amount to a hill of beans. 
That's why I'm here, because you have to take responsibility for your 
future. We can give you the opportunity. You have to seize it. And I 
want everybody in America on the news tonight and anybody who hears 
about this to know that in this school, you children are setting an 
example for the rest of America's young people. I am proud of you, and I 
want you to remember it tomorrow when you're not wearing that T-shirt.
    And I want you to remember this, too. Even with no barriers, not 
everybody's going to be able to play baseball like Jackie Robinson did. 
I still remember when I was--I was 10 years old before I ever got a 
television. But Jackie Robinson had 2 years left in baseball and I got 
to watch him on television. I still remember that.
    Even with golf more open to more and more kinds of people, with 
2,500 minority children

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in a golf program in Houston, Texas, for example, very few people are 
going to be able to drive the ball 320 yards consistently. But you can 
all have some dream. And everybody's life has real meaning and every one 
of you has to figure out what that dream is going to be for you. But no 
matter what it is, you've got to do just what the champions do: You have 
to believe you can do it and think about it and visualize it. You have 
to work for it. You've got to get a good education, and you've got to 
take care of your mind and your body. And if you do, you'll be a 
champion, no matter what you do and no matter whether you're famous or 
not.
    You think about it. This country has one President, for example, and 
260 million other people. Now, if tomorrow we had to do without one 
President or all 260 million other people, it would be a pretty easy 
choice, wouldn't it? You'd say, ``I like you, President Clinton, but I'm 
sorry, you'll have to go.'' [Laughter] ``The rest of us are going to 
stay.''
    The greatness of America is in all the people. It's in the billions 
and billions and billions of decisions they make every day. And you're 
making them for your life and your future and your country. I am very 
proud of you. But don't you ever forget this: Have your dreams and live 
for them, but take care of yourselves. Take care of yourselves. Your 
body is a precious gift. And you have set an example today that I can 
only hope and pray that every young person in this country, that all of 
them will follow.
    Thank you, and God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 11:10 a.m. in the gymnasium at Andries 
Hudde Junior High School. In his remarks, he referred to student Ayana 
Harry; Representative Major R. Owens; William D. Novelli, president, 
Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids; Sandra Feldman, president, American 
Federation of Teachers; and 1997 PGA Masters' winner Tiger Woods.