    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book I)]
    [April 26, 1998]
    [Page 623]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 623]]

    Remarks at the Premiere of ``Ragtime''
    April 26, 1998

        Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, when we were being
    ushered up the aisle and backstage and we were preparing to come up
    here, I was full of ambivalence, frankly. I wanted so badly to come up
    here and thank Garth and the magnificent
    cast, musicians, people backstage, everybody who had anything to do with
    this unbelievable gift we have been given. I wanted to thank the leaders
    of the Democratic Party and the staff. I wanted to especially thank all
    of you for being here and for making this weekend, celebrating our 150th
    birthday as a party, a success. But I was absolutely convinced that
    anything I would say would be a complete anticlimax after the wringer
    they have put us through today. [Laughter]
        I was thinking on the way over here about the time when Mr. Doctorow published this magnificent novel, over 20
    years ago now, and Hillary and I were young law professors living in the
    mountains of north Arkansas. And I read the book almost immediately
    after it came out. I couldn't put it down. I just sat there, read right
    through it. And after it was over, I felt just as I felt after the show
    was over.
        But I don't think even then I fully grasped the life force behind
    the stories in ``Ragtime.'' And I think what I would like to say to you
    is that, yes, this is the story of America, and it reminds us that we
    have a good system and the best ideals, but we always fall a little
    short. And the story of our country has to be the continuing effort to
    overcome our own individual flaws and imperfections and tendency to fall
    into injustice and bigotry and oppression and greed and shortsightedness
    or just plain tone-deafness, but that there is also a part of the human
    condition which makes us vulnerable as people.
        I was walking down the aisle and several of you said, thank you so
    much for what you did to try to help the Irish peace process along. And
    then I saw the representative of my ancestors, the Irish fireman here--
    [laughter]--playing the heavy. We got a book last week, Hillary and I
    did, entitled ``How The Irish Became White.'' [Laughter] And it
    basically talks about how, when the Irish immigrants first came here,
    they really identified with the African-American slaves because they
    were treated the same way, and they had much the same experience.
        I say that to remind us all that there will always be the tendency
    of people to abuse power if they can abuse it. That's why we have a
    Constitution which seeks earnestly to limit that. And all of us will
    always have our imperfection, and so will our children and grandchildren
    and their grandchildren. The thing that makes America great is that we
    have the right ideals and that through history we have constantly sought
    to overcome our own limitations, to stand for deeper freedom, to stand
    for wider opportunity, to stand for a more perfect Union.
        And I hope that all of you will always remember what you saw on this
    stage tonight. I hope you will never, ever abandon what brought you here
    to this performance tonight. And I hope all of your lives you will try
    to create more of the joy you saw here, eliminate all the oppression you
    can, and be very proud to be both an American and a Democrat.
        Thank you, and God bless you.

    Note: The President spoke at 7:30 p.m. at the National Theater. In his
    remarks, he referred to Garth H. Drabinsky, chairman and chief executive
    officer, Livent, Inc.; and author E.L. Doctorow.