    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1999, Book I)]
    [March 24, 1999]
    [Pages 447-448]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at the Unveiling of a Portrait of Former Secretary of Commerce
    Ronald H. Brown
    March 24, 1999

        Thank you very much. Let me, first of all, say I thought Secretary
    Daley did a remarkable job today, and he
    was the funniest I have ever heard him--[laughter]--which means either
    that the Commerce Department has been very good for him, or he has found
    an extraordinary speechwriter. [Laughter] If it is the former, I thank
    you. If it is the latter, I would like that person dispatched to the
    White House this afternoon. [Laughter]
        I want to thank Congressman Ford and
    Mr. Mayor and all of our Cabinet for
    being here. And Mickey,
    Heidi, thank you for being here; members of the
    Brown family. This is both a happy and a bittersweet day. We are now in
    the springtime, even though Washington is not quite behaving like it
    yet. Soon the dogwood that we planted on the back of the White House
    lawn will be blooming for Ron again. And now this portrait will be here
    forever, to remind us all of his service and his spirit. Mr.
    Polson, I think you did a terrific job, and I
    congratulate you. We love it.
        If Ron Brown were here, I know exactly what he'd say. He'd say,
    ``Well, you did well. I'm dressed well''--[laughter]--``and I look very
    strong. But you could have made me a little thinner.'' [Laughter]
        And I'd just like to just take a minute to remind all of you about
    the spirit. Secretary Daley was kind enough to say that I had tried to
    elevate the Commerce Department. I think that is true, but I would like
    to just say a word about it as it relates to Ron Brown.
        After the election of 1992, when we were putting together our
    economic team and I had been listening rather carefully to what others
    had said and what I had seen about previous administrations and how they
    ran their economic policy, it seemed to me that, by and large, previous
    administrations had lodged the making of economic policy too much either
    in Treasury or the White House, or both, and had sort of

    [[Page 448]]

    overlooked the integral role of Commerce and our Trade Ambassador, on a
    daily basis, to the development of our long-term economic well-being.
        Same thing could be said of other departments, the Agriculture
    Department, the Energy Department--how they were needed to make a joint
    economic policy. And so we put together this National Economic Council
    to integrate all the Departments. And then we decided to elevate the
    economic role particularly of the Commerce Department, and to try to
    bring the Trade Ambassador into the daily work of the economic life of
    the administration, not just when there was some big trade negotiation
    going on.
        And I think the evidence is, it worked pretty well. But it worked
    pretty well in no small measure because Ron Brown was here and Mickey
    Kantor was our Trade Ambassador and
    because Ron Brown believed me when I told him that I thought the
    Commerce Department had been grossly underutilized, at least in recent
    history, in terms of building the economic potential of America, within
    our country and beyond our borders. So he bought the big idea, and then
    he sold the big idea.
        But the second point I want to make is that he did it, in no small
    measure, because of the spirit you see reflected in the set of the jaw
    and the glance of the eyes in this fine portrait. He basically believed
    there was no mountain that couldn't be climbed. He believed that
    American businesses had a responsibility to act in their enlightened
    self-interest to help themselves and others, here at home and around the
    world.
        He also believed that people driven by ancient hatreds could find a
    way to put them aside. I will never forget how excited he was in the
    last conversation we had right before he left for Bosnia, how proud he
    was that he could lead a delegation of American business people to the
    Balkans to try to make peace.
        Well, the peace process is working in Bosnia. As all of you know,
    it's under siege again in the Balkans because of what is going on in
    Kosovo. I don't want to talk about that here today except to say that
    there are basically two kinds of people that are dominating the public
    discourse around the world today: There are people that are determined
    to divide and drive wedges between and depress people because they're of
    different ethnic and racial and religious groups; and then there are
    people like Ron Brown who believe that everybody ought to be lifted up
    and brought together and don't understand why anyone would waste lives
    and take other people's lives to gain a false sense of power in a
    smaller and smaller life based on oppression.
        And when you look at this picture today, when you go out, first of
    all, I want all the members of the Commerce Department to be proud of
    what you are doing, proud of what he did, and proud of what you are
    doing under Secretary Daley, who has also,
    in my judgment, done a magnificent job. And I want you to think about
    the troubles of the world today, and I want you to see your life as an
    instrument of bringing out the spirit that Ron Brown brought to his life
    and his work in this Department every day and think about it for what it
    is, the principal opposing force to all this destructive racial, ethnic,
    religious, and cultural destruction we see all over the world today.
        Every country has to make that choice, and in a way, every business
    has to make that choice, and every person has to make that choice.
        We're all blessed that we knew Ron Brown. We're glad that his family
    is here today. We're glad we've got Alma right
    where we want her; she can't talk back. I could have given her a whole
    lecture today. [Laughter] But I know Ron Brown would want me to say, to
    use this moment to say, ``Look at this picture. Look at this life. Look
    at the troubles of the world.'' The choice is clear: America needs to
    stay on the path that he blazed.
        Thank you, and God bless you.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:49 a.m. in the Herbert Hoover Building
    Auditorium at the Department of Commerce. In his remarks, he referred to
    Mayor Anthony A. Williams of Washington, DC; former U.S. Trade
    Representative Michael (Mickey) Kantor and his wife, Heidi; artist
    Steven Polson, who painted the official portrait; and Alma Brown, widow
    of Ron Brown.