    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book II)]
    [December 7, 1997]
    [Pages 1724-1725]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at the Metropolitan Baptist Church
    December 7, 1997

        Thank you. Thank you, Reverend Hicks, Mrs. Hicks, members of the
    ministry. Thank you, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, for telling me
    I should come here today, thank you. I must say, I would rather be in
    the choir than in the pulpit. [Laughter] They were wonderful. Thank you.
    Mr. Mayor, City Council Chair Cropp, and members of the council; Dr.
    Swygert and Mrs. Swygert; my good friend Maya Angelou, thank you for
    being here; David Du Bois. I thank three members of my Cabinet--
    Secretary of Labor Alexis Herman; the Secretary of Transportation,
    Rodney Slater; and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget,
    Frank Raines--for coming with me, and many members of the White House
    staff and friends. We're all glad to be here, and we have a happy heart
    after hearing all the wonderful music and seeing the people here, and
    especially the children.
        Sean and Ahjah and the other children gave me the letters and the
    drawings; I was back there reading them. One letter said, ``Can Project
    Spirit come and visit the White House and see the Christmas tree?''
    [Laughter] Yes. As a matter of fact, Dr. Hicks, anybody, any of these
    children in your youth group you want to bring, just bus them on in.
    We'd be glad to see them, and we'll arrange it. I'd like that.
        Now, the letters contain some interesting things. One young man
    wrote, ``I'm not trying to get myself in trouble, but I've always had a
    crush on Hillary.'' [Laughter] Now, I can certainly understand that.
    [Laughter] A lot of the letters were serious. They said, can I do more
    to get rid of violence, guns. A lot of them said very specific things
    about what they'd like to do to make their schools better.
        Why are we here today? Or, at least, why am I here today, instead of
    down the street at Foundry, where I normally am on Sunday? Ephesians
    says we should speak the truth with our neighbors, for we are members,
    one of another. I believe that. I think that is the single most
    important political insight, or social insight, in the Bible. And I
    think it is what should drive us as we behave together. We have to
    decide whether we are members, one of the other: Is my destiny caught up
    in yours; are your children my children; do you care about my daughter;
    are we part of the same family of God? It's not enough to say that we
    are all equal in the eyes of God. We are all also connected in the eyes
    of God.
        Now, just because we have responsibilities one to another doesn't
    mean we don't have a primary responsibility to ourselves. God helps
    those who help themselves. One great athlete once said, ``You know, it's
    amazing, the more I practice, the luckier I get.'' [Laughter] So we have
    responsibilities to ourselves, but we owe a lot to each other.
        I come here to say that I don't believe our National Government has
    always been the best neighbor to the City of Washington, Mr. Mayor, Ms.
    Cropp, Congresswoman Norton, but we are

    [[Page 1725]]

    committed to becoming a better neighbor. Washington has gotten a lot of
    lectures from people in national politics about being more responsible,
    from making the schools work better, to the streets become safer, to the
    neighborhoods having more hope and economic opportunity. But in the
    essence of our Constitution is the idea that responsibility requires
    freedom.
        And so I believe in the independence of Washington, DC. I want
    Washington, DC, to be able to run its own affairs. I want the crime to
    go down and the schools to go up and the neighborhoods to be strong and
    full. We are trying to do better. In this last meeting of Congress we
    did more things to take loads off of Washington that it should not have
    and to give Washington responsibilities that it should have. And we must
    do more. I met with the mayor, the city council, the control board, and
    a lot of community leaders just a few days ago, a meeting that the
    Congresswoman requested. And we talked about what we could do together.
        But I want to say to you that I come here at this Christmas season
    to say that I hope one of the gifts that I and our administration can
    leave for the 21st century is a National Capital that is a shining city
    on the hill for all America, that every American is proud of. I want a
    National Capital where every child looks like the children that I heard
    sing and who brought me those letters today, where they're all filled
    with a spirit of their own goodness, where they all believe they are
    children of God, where they all are animated to believe that they can
    have hope to live out their dreams. And this place symbolizes that.
    Wouldn't you like it if your city and your country worked the way this
    church did? Wouldn't you like that? [Applause]
        And I'm not violating the first amendment by saying that. [Laughter]
    This has nothing to do with the separation of church and state. This has
    to do with the values we all share. Most people who are not even
    Christians, who are Jewish people, who are Muslims, who are Buddhist,
    who are all the different religions we have in our country today, they'd
    still like it if our country worked more the way this church does--and
    often the way their houses of worship do.
        And so I say to you, it begins when we speak the truth to one
    another, when we feel free to disagree, when we don't hide what we
    feel--but if you go on down in that chapter, when we don't let the sun
    go down on our anger, when we are genuinely kind to one another, for we
    are members, one of another. Now, on Christmas, we celebrate the birth
    of a child born in poverty, who never got elected to anything, never had
    a nickel to his name, and has more followers than any politician who
    ever lived for simply reminding us that we are children of God and that
    we are members, one of another.
        So let us go out of here resolved to keep working together until
    every child is in a good school, until every family can be safe in their
    neighborhoods, until every grownup has a place to go to work in the
    morning. And we'll all be better off when we are selfishly selfless,
    recognizing that we are members, one of another.
        Thank you, and God bless you.

    Note: The President spoke at 11:50 a.m. In his remarks, he referred to
    Rev. H. Beecher Hicks, Jr., senior minister, Metropolitan Baptist
    Church, and his wife, Elizabeth; Mayor Marion S. Barry, Jr., of
    Washington, DC; Linda W. Cropp, chair, District of Columbia City
    Council; Dr. H. Patrick Swygert, president, Howard University, and his
    wife, Sonja; poet Maya Angelou; David Du Bois, grandson of W.E.B. Du
    Bois; Sean Nalle and Ahjah Prom, who presented a book of children's
    letters to the President; and Ian Jackson, who wrote the letter
    regarding the First Lady.