    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1999, Book I)]
    [May 13, 1999]
    [Pages 763-765]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a  Dinner for Representative
    John Conyers, Jr.
    May 13, 1999

        Thank you very much. Let me, first of all, thank Bob
    Johnson and the whole BET family for
    making us feel at home at this wonderful place tonight. And I want to
    thank Kenny Burrell and Donald Byrd and James Moody, and also I'd
    like to thank the musicians who were playing for us earlier. They were
    very, very good, and I enjoyed hearing them.
        I want to say how much I appreciate the fact that so many of John
    Conyers' colleagues are here from the Michigan delegation, from the
    Congressional Black Caucus, and the whole Congress would have showed up
    if they could have. And notwithstanding his claims of false advertising,
    he really is 70 years old. [Laughter]
        Now, I say that in astonished admiration. He has a child who is 10 years younger than my

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    daughter--[laughter]--maybe more--and one of the most impressive young
    men I've ever met in my life. And thanks to Debbie Dingell, he went through the Detroit Auto Show with me, and he
    knew more about the cars than I did. [Laughter]
        Let me say to all of you, there are many things that I appreciate
    about John Conyers. I appreciate the fact that he has supported my
    economic and social initiatives since I've been President. And thanks to
    his leadership, we have tried to do things that make sense--for our
    economy, to give everybody a chance to participate. We've tried to do
    things to help young people stay out of trouble, instead of just
    punishing people after they commit crimes. We've tried to do things that
    make sense to bring people together and to create more opportunity. And
    he's had a big impact on that.
        I appreciate the fact that in standing up for me last year, he stood
    up for the Constitution of the United States. And I'm grateful to him.
        I am grateful for the fact that long before it was fashionable, he
    believed the United States ought to be on the side of human rights in
    South Africa, in Haiti, and throughout the world. So I am very grateful
    to be a friend of John Conyers.
        I am also hoping that if I hang around him long enough, I get to
    meet some more great musicians--[laughter]--I get another chance or two
    to play. I can't tonight. I've got to work. And maybe I'll learn the
    secret of how to look young when I'm 70. People always ask me how old I
    am, and I say, ``I'm the oldest 52-year-old man in America''--or 53, or
    however old I am--I can't keep up with it.
        Let me say one other thing that's very important as I look around
    this crowd tonight--you know, our hearts have been heavy in the United
    States over the loss of the children in Colorado. And our hearts have
    been burdened over the efforts that we are making in Kosovo. And I think
    about the world we would like to build for our children. I think about
    how jazz music brought people together across racial lines, long before
    there was much of any other way to do it in America, long before it was
    cool or noticed--I'm talking about in the twenties and thirties. Mr.
    Gregory, I'm glad to see you here--thank you.
        And I look around this crowd tonight and I think about--those of you
    who are here who are young, you imagine what you want your life to be
    like. And a lot of you, you know all about computers and the Internet
    and how to relate to people all around the world and go into these
    strange chat rooms and talk to people in Mongolia or someplace. And we
    all want to believe it's going to be great and wonderful and
    fascinating. And isn't it interesting, after all our long journey, so
    that we could come here tonight, together--a journey which John Conyers,
    having been in the Congress since 1964, had a lot to do with helping us
    make.
        But isn't it interesting that we had in our own country a horrible
    murder-suicide which the young people involved said was perpetrated
    because they felt that they were part of a gang that was not respected
    by others, and they hated other people, partly for racial, partly for
    other reasons. And this is 1999. And these kids were so far gone that
    that's what they said. And our hearts were broken by it. And all those
    brilliant young people--one African-American, the others not--had their
    whole future taken away because these kids wanted to destroy and then to
    destroy themselves.
        And isn't it interesting that that's sort of against everything both
    that the whole history of jazz but also the potential of America and the
    world represents. And then you look around the world today, and what's
    the trouble? What's the trouble in Northern Ireland, in the Middle East
    and Africa, in the Balkans--from Bosnia to Kosovo--what's the trouble?
    People can't get along because of their racial, their ethnic, or their
    religious differences.
        And so if we ought to think of one thing we can honor John Conyers
    for, thinking about what he stood for in South Africa, think about the
    record he stood for on civil rights at home, what he's fought for on the
    Judiciary Committee--it ought to be the idea that America ought to be a
    good place and a safe place and a full place for all its children.
        Yesterday--I will tell you this story in closing. I want to tell you
    a story. Yesterday, at the request of the Senators from North Dakota and
    Senator Daschle and Senator
    Baucus, I had a fascinating meeting with 19
    tribal chiefs from the 19 Indian tribes of the high plains, the northern
    high plains in America. And all of you who don't know about that part of
    the country need to know that notwithstanding all the things you read
    about how rich the Native Americans are because of their gambling
    enterprises today,

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    the tribes that don't have those gambling enterprises and the tribes
    that are in the poor, rural areas, a long way from economic activity,
    are still the poorest people in America.
        And so these very dignified, mostly pretty young tribal leaders, men
    and women, came in; we sat in a circle, according to their request, in
    the Roosevelt Room in the White House; and they spoke in their turn
    about the needs of their people. And then after they had done that, the
    person whom they had designated to be their spokesperson stood up in a very dignified way and said, ``Mr.
    President, we have something to say about our involvement in Kosovo. We
    know something about ethnic cleansing. We were removed from our lands,
    and some of the people who did it said that it was God's will, which we
    hear in the Balkans. And we have seen America come a very long way. And
    we have signed this proclamation to tell you that we, the leaders of the
    first Americans, support America's policy to stand up against ethnic
    cleansing and the murder of people because of their religious and ethnic
    background.''
        And then another man said, ``I would like
    to be heard.'' And this young man stood up with great dignity, and he
    had a beautiful silver Indian necklace on. And he said this--he said,
    ``Mr. President, I had two uncles. One landed on the beaches at Normandy
    on D-Day; the other was the very first Native American fighter pilot in
    the history of the American military. My great-great-grandfather was
    slaughtered by the 7th Cavalry at Wounded Knee.'' He said, ``I now have
    only one son. America has come a very long way from Wounded Knee, to the
    beaches at Normandy, to the opportunity I have to be in the White House
    today. And I love my son more than anything, but if he needed to go and
    fight against ethnic cleansing and the brutality and the murdering of
    people because of their race or their ethnicity or their religion, I
    would be proud for him to stand for the United States and for the
    humanity of man.''
        No one in the room could breathe, we were so moved by this
    man in his simple dignity, representing
    Americans who still don't have a total, fair shot at educational and
    economic opportunities, who live in places that still don't have
    adequate health care. But he told a story that needs to be told.
        So I say to you--you honor John Conyers tonight--the best way we can
    honor John Conyers is to say, we've got a pretty picture of the 21st
    century, and we've got an ugly picture of the 21st century that is every
    last nightmare that has dogged human society since people came up out of
    the caves and first got together, and that is fear and hatred of people
    who are different from us. And we're better than that. And he's helped
    us to be better than that. And we're going to do better still.
        Thank you, and God bless you.

    Note: The President spoke at 8:45 p.m. at the BET on Jazz Restaurant. In
    his remarks, he referred to Robert L. Johnson, chairman and chief
    executive officer, BET Holdings, Inc.; musicians Kenny Burrell, Donald
    Byrd, and James Moody; Representative Conyers' son John; Debbie Dingell,
    wife of Representative John Dingell; civil rights activist Dick Gregory;
    Tex Hall, chairman of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation (the Three
    Affiliated Tribes); and Gregg Bourland, chairman, Cheyenne River Sioux
    Tribe.