[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.