    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book I)]
    [June 6, 1998]
    [Pages 902-903]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    The President's Radio Address
    June 6, 1998

        Good morning. Before I begin today's address, I want to speak very
    briefly about the most important issue before the Congress right now,
    one that affects our children most of all: the tobacco bill.
        This is a critical moment of truth for Congress. Senator
    McCain and Senator Hollings and others have brought to the floor a landmark proposal
    to protect our children from tobacco. There's broad consensus for this
    bill. It's reasonable, bipartisan, in the best interest of our children.
    But for weeks now the Senate hasn't acted, as a few Members have done
    everything they could to protect big tobacco by putting off a vote.
        Today I say to them: The delay has gone on long enough. You are not
    just trying to kill the tobacco bill; you are standing in the way of
    saving 1 million children's lives. The American people will not stand
    for it. The Senate should do nothing else until it passes tobacco
    legislation, and it should pass it this week.
        Thirty years ago, like millions of young Americans, I scaled the
    heights of hope with Robert F. Kennedy in his campaign for President. I
    watched intently in the last days before my graduation from college as
    he took his case to the American people, confronting new challenges,
    posing new questions, reaching across the racial divide, and reaching
    out to the forgotten Americans. Thirty years ago today I, like so many
    others around the world, felt pain, despair, a sense of deeply personal
    loss, and a sense of loss for my country that our troubled land had been
    denied a leader who could bind us together, change course, and move us
    forward.
        Today I'm pleased to be speaking to you from the home of Congressman
    Joe Kennedy in Massachusetts, where
    Hillary and I have gathered with Mrs. Kennedy and her children, Senator

    [[Page 903]]

    Edward Kennedy, and other members of the
    Kennedy family to observe this day. Robert Kennedy would wish us not to
    dwell upon his loss but to celebrate his life and carry on his legacy.
    In his all too short life, he lost much, but he never lost faith. In
    suffering, he struggled to find wisdom.
        On the night our Nation lost Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy
    appeared before a shocked and grieving crowd in Indianapolis. The night
    was cold; the moment, tense. Hunched in a black overcoat, he stood
    before the crowd and said, ``Let us dedicate ourselves to what the
    Greeks wrote so many years ago, `to tame the savageness of man and make
    gentle the life of this world.'''
        Like Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy dedicated himself to that,
    and his life enriched and ennobled our Nation. Robert Kennedy ran for
    President, he said, to close the gaps between black and white, between
    rich and poor, between old and young. In a time of division, more than
    any American, he bridged those gaps, reaching out to starving families
    in the Mississippi Delta and to factory workers in Chicago, to migrant
    workers in Northern California and struggling teens in Harlem. He
    touched their lives and, just as important, they touched his.
        He changed and grew as a result, becoming a fuller person and a
    better, wiser leader. In changing times, Robert Kennedy was one of the
    first to see that old solutions did not always fit new challenges,
    either at home or abroad. We can do better, he so often said, and he
    pushed his Government and himself to do no less. To him, in a time of
    change, labels like ``left'' and ``right'' meant little. Dogmas that
    kept us from moving forward were to be discarded. But he did not discard
    his passionate convictions or his steely determination to act on them.
    They infused his public service and his last campaign with a power and
    purpose we can still feel today.
        Yes, Robert Kennedy's legacy is alive today in the work of his
    family in public service, in the work of those of us he inspired, in the
    hearts of his fellow Americans. The distance of three decades cannot
    silence the strength of his words or lessen the impact of his actions.
    We still hear his voice appealing to the best qualities of the American
    spirit. We still strive to answer his insistent challenge to do good and
    to do better.
        And on this day of reflection, when the thoughts of all Americans
    are with his large and loving family, we can do the memory of Robert
    Kennedy no greater honor than to dedicate ourselves as he did, to tame
    the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world.
        Thanks for listening.

    Note: The address was recorded at 5:45 p.m. on June 5 at a private
    residence in Boston, MA, for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on June 6. The
    transcript was made available by the Office of the Press Secretary on
    June 5, but the first three paragraphs were embargoed for release until
    10:06 a.m. on June 6. The remainder of the transcript was made available
    for immediate release on June 5.