    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1999, Book I)]
    [May 12, 1999]
    [Pages 752-754]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Dinner
    May 12, 1999

        Thank you so much. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, I want to join
    those who have spoken before and thank everyone, from our entertainers
    to the caterers to the servers, everyone who made this wonderful evening
    possible.

    [[Page 753]]

        I want to thank Senator Torricelli
    for taking on the leadership of the Democratic Senate Campaign
    Committee. It is often a thankless task; but we have to recruit good
    candidates, and then they have to be able to get their message out. If
    it weren't for you, the second part couldn't occur. I want to thank
    Senator Murray, who won a heroic battle for
    reelection in the last election season, when many people thought it
    would not happen, and she won and won big, and she deserved to.
        And I want to thank our leader, Tom Daschle. It is in no small measure because of the way he held our
    Democrats together and the way he spoke for and to ordinary Americans
    from his position in the Senate that we did so well in the last
    election, and we'll do even better in 2000. I am honored every day I get
    to work with him in our leadership effort.
        Now, you've all had a good time tonight, and the last thing you need
    is another long speech. But I would like to try to emphasize something
    Senator Torricelli said and make a real point that I hope you can leave
    with.
        Tomorrow morning, when you're doing whatever else you're doing, if
    someone asks you why you were here tonight, you could say, ``Well, I
    wanted to hear the band,'' or ``I wanted to taste the food,'' or ``I
    work for somebody that made me go''--[laughter]--or whatever else. I
    would hope you could give a better answer. And I would hope you could
    tell people why you believe it's important that our party continue to do
    well and that we win more seats in the Senate until we win the majority
    back.
        You know, I'm gratified by what Senator Torricelli said about our
    record. I'm gratified that we've got the longest peacetime expansion in
    history and over 18 million new jobs and that millions of children are
    getting health insurance and 90 percent of our kids are immunized
    against serious diseases for the first time, and we've set aside more
    land in permanent protection than any administration, except those of
    Franklin and Theodore Roosevelt. I'm gratified by all that.
        But what you must understand is that even when we have been in the
    minority in the Congress, most of what has been achieved in this
    administration would not have been possible without the support of the
    Democrats in the Senate and the House of Representatives. They deserve a
    full measure of credit for every good thing that has happened in the
    last 6\1/2\ years.
        The second thing I want to say is, it's very flattering, now that I
    can't run for reelection anymore, for Senator Torricelli or someone else to say that I did a pretty good job
    leading our country. But what we did in 1993, as a result of the vote in
    1992, was to bring back old values and to bring new ideas to the
    American people. And it was the combination of reaffirming our devotion
    to opportunity for all, for responsibility from all citizens, for the
    idea of an American community in which every good person could be a
    part, and the new ideas to prove we could reduce the deficit and balance
    the budget and still double spending on education and the environment;
    to prove that we could improve the economy and improve the environment
    at the same time; to prove that we could value the individual and still
    say, ``What brings us together across all the lines that divide us is
    more important; our community is what makes us great;'' to give
    entrepreneurs a chance to make a lot of money and the stock market a
    chance to grow and still say that we can't rest until we've given every
    American community a chance to be a part of the American dream. It was
    those ideas that brought America back. And that's why in the year 2000,
    when I will not be on the ballot, it will be as important as it has ever
    been for the Democrats to do better and better and better so that those
    ideas can be made real in the lives of every American citizen.
        We've got a lot on our plate this year and next year: saving Social
    Security and Medicare; paying our debt down so we can keep interest
    rates down; continuing to strive for educational excellence and
    education opportunity; many other things. But because of the traumas
    that we have been through in America in the last few weeks and because
    of the conflict in Kosovo, I would like to ask you to think about one
    thing as I close.
        And that is this: It is supremely ironic, particularly for all these
    young people here, that when we dream about the 21st century, we dream
    about a time when people of all ethnic and racial and religious
    configurations will be working together in our country and around the
    world. We dream about capitalizing on this fabulous explosion of
    technology. You can have pen pals in Mongolia, in Cameroon, and wherever
    else. We think the world will be stronger and smaller and at our
    fingertips, and how wonderful it will be.

    [[Page 754]]

        And yet, the only real cloud looming over the world today is the
    oldest demon of human society, the weakness of people when together to
    fear and hate and harm those who are different from us by race or
    ethnicity or religion or in some other way.
        Now, what we have to do is to say to ourselves, we will be purged of
    that. That's why it's important that we pass this hate crimes
    legislation. That's why it's important that we pass the ``Employment
    Non-Discrimination Act.'' That's why it's important that we move in
    Washington to take sensible steps to protect all our children from the
    dangers of guns. I'm very disappointed that the Senate today did not
    vote to have background checks at these gun shows, like the people of
    Florida voted to do it. That's part of our community.
        In a world in which America is so blessed with so much wealth and so
    much power, it is very easy for others to resent us and to mistake our
    motives, as we have seen in recent days. If we want to be in a position
    to stand up against ethnic cleansing, against genocide, against bigotry
    abroad, we must be good at home. We must reaffirm the fundamental value
    of community to the Democratic Party and the American people. And we
    must acknowledge that our own history has given us plenty of humility
    because of our history of slavery and because we, too, are guilty of
    cleansing, when the American people pushed the Native American tribes
    off their lands without adequate compensation and without any concern
    for how they would govern themselves and make their way in life so long
    ago. And we are still living with the consequences of that.
        But I will close with this story to make this point. If this doesn't
    make you proud to be an American, nothing will. Today, at the request of
    Senator Daschle and his colleagues,
    Senator Johnson and Senator Conrad and Senator Dorgan from
    North Dakota and Senator Baucus from Montana and
    Representative Pomeroy from North Dakota, I met
    with 19 tribal leaders from Native American tribes from the high plains
    of America. Even more than most other Native American tribes, they have
    struggled economically. They have not yet felt the wonderful rush of all
    this economic opportunity and this very low unemployment rate. Their
    educational system still needs improvement. Their health care needs
    advances. And I met with them and listened to them.
        But at the end of the presentations, the person who was their
    spokesperson stood up, and he said, ``Mr.
    President, we have seen America's long journey, and we have been a part
    of it, from the unfortunate beginnings of our relationship to where we
    are today, meeting with the President. And today we signed a
    proclamation, all of us tribal leaders, supporting the United States
    stand against ethnic cleansing and the murder of innocents in Kosovo,
    and I want you to know that.'' And then--[applause]--oh, it gets better.
        And then another man stood up and he
    said, ``Mr. President''--another tribal leader--he said, ``I have two
    uncles. One was on the beach at Normandy in World War II; the other was
    the first Native American fighter pilot in American military history. My
    great-great-grandfather was slaughtered by the 7th Calvary at Wounded
    Knee. And I only have one son. But I have seen America's journey, and I
    would gladly have my son go fight to protect the Kosovar Albanian
    Muslims from the fate that we should never see any people endure
    again.''
        Remember, look around the room tonight. It's the America we want and
    the world we will work for. And I think you should have no doubt about
    which party is more likely to give you that future.
        Thank you, and God bless you.

    Note: The President spoke at 8:08 p.m. in the Great Hall at the National
    Building Museum. In his remarks, he referred to Tex Hall, chairman of
    the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation (the Three Affiliated Tribes);
    and Gregg Bourland, chairman, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe.