    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1999, Book I)]
    [May 22, 1999]
    [Pages 832-835]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 832]]

    Remarks at the Sons of Italy Foundation Dinner
    May 22, 1999

        Thank you very much, Larry. Larry King,
    there's a great Italian-American for you. [Laughter] And congratulations
    on your new baby. Paul Polo--yes, let's give him a hand. That's great.
    [Applause]
        I want to thank Paul Polo and Phil
    Piccigallo and all of you for giving me
    another chance to come by here. And I think Congresswoman
    Morella is in the audience, and
    Ambassador Salleo, who does a wonderful
    job for his country and for ours.
        I want to congratulate Andy Giancamilli of Kmart and Tony Bennett for
    their awards tonight. We have the president of one of our great
    retailers and America's greatest living pop singer; that's a pretty good
    representation of the gifts that Italian-Americans have given to our
    Nation, and you should be proud of them.
        I'd like to say a special word of thanks to Tony Bennett for being a good friend to me and to my wife and our
    family. I wanted to be here for you tonight; you've been here for our
    country for a long time. God bless you, and thank you, my friend. Thank
    you.
        You know, there have been so many years when I have spoken to you or
    other Italian-American groups, and I've been almost embarrassed by the
    number of Italians in my administration. Secretary Cuomo was waiting for me tonight when I got here. You know, I've
    had two Italian-American Chiefs of Staff, Leon
    Panetta--who introduced me in Rome, in Italian--and John
    Podesta. And you know, ever since Podesta
    took over from Erskine Bowles, we've had people like Steve
    Richetti, Karen Tramontano, Loretta Ucelli, Ginny
    Apuzzo coming to work for me. I don't
    know what's been going on here. [Laughter] Maybe this is the new plot to
    take over America that we've been hearing about. [Laughter]
        I saw Phil on the way in, and I
    thank him, too, for giving me the opportunity that I had the last time I
    was with you to meet with your young scholarship recipients, because
    those you honor tonight for their gifts--from physics to music to
    political science to community service--prove that people of Italian
    descent will continue to make enormous contributions to our country in
    the century just ahead.
        I thank you, too, for your emphasis on education, and I ask you to
    remember tonight that even though we live in a time of unprecedented
    prosperity, for which we should thank God and the labors of our people--
    that we have the longest peacetime expansion in our history and the
    lowest unemployment in a generation, the highest homeownership ever,
    welfare rolls cut by more than half in the last 6 years, crime dropping
    to a 30-year low--we all only have to look around ourselves and our
    lives to know that we have a lot more to do, especially in areas that
    have historically been of enormous concern to Italian-Americans.
        First, of course, in education: We have a great agenda before the
    Congress--and I hope it will be acted upon--for higher standards, for no
    social promotion, for after-school and summer school programs, for more
    and better prepared teachers, modern schools, and technology.
        But tonight I want to talk just a moment about something else, and I
    particularly appreciated what Larry said when he introduced me. I want
    to talk about family in the literal sense and family in the larger sense
    and what it means to our future as a country.
        Hillary and I, on Thursday, went to Columbine High School in
    Littleton, Colorado. We met with the families of the children and the
    wonderful teacher who lost their lives. We saw other children still in
    wheelchairs from their grievous wounds. We saw thousands of kids, just
    like any group of kids anywhere, still full of enthusiasm and hopes for
    the future. After the ceremony, we spent quite a long time there just
    shaking hands with them and talking to them, listening to them, and
    trying to answer their questions.
        I say that to say what is self-evident to you, which is that the
    most important job of any society is not the creation of wealth but the
    creation of richness and wholeness in the lives of the children. There
    is no more important work. And in this day and age, when technology and
    the explosion of global commerce and culture is bringing us closer and
    closer and closer together, we cannot connect all of our children to a
    positive reality unless they are both connected to their literal
    families, and then they

    [[Page 833]]

    see others who may differ from them--they may differ in race or
    ethnicity or religion or politics or sexual orientation or just what
    they like to do--but they have to be seen as part of our larger family.
        There are things for all of us to do to give our children safe and
    wholesome childhoods and to try to support that for the children of the
    world. Here in Washington we actually had quite a good week, with some
    of the most responsible action in the history of Congress to try to keep
    guns out of the hands of children and criminals. And I particularly
    thank--[applause]--I particularly thank the Vice President for being there to cast the tie-breaking vote on the gun
    show loophole issue, something I know quite a bit about; and I am
    thankful for that. I hope that before the House of Representatives goes
    home this week for the Memorial Day recess, they will follow suit and
    pass the same bill.
        There are things to be done by those who have influence on our
    larger culture, who make our movies, our television programs, our video
    games. It is true that no movie or game could ever cause a child to take
    another child's life. But it is also true that in our society, the
    faster we move and the busier we are, and the harder and harder parents
    have to work outside the home, the more kids are left on their own, the
    more vulnerable children we have. And if you have a larger number of
    vulnerable children, it stands to reason that more bad things will
    happen if it's easier for them to get guns, especially assault weapons,
    and if they are subjected to a torrent of violent impulses.
        You know the average 18-year-old has seen 40,000 murders already on
    television, in the movies, and in video games? And there are 300 studies
    already which show that--let me say that again: 300 serious professional
    studies already--that show that by the time this happens to you, for 18
    years, it diminishes your sensitivity to violence and your feeling for
    the consequences of it.
        Now, if you have more kids who are at risk than other societies, and
    it's easier for them to be flooded with guns--including assault
    weapons--and they're being subject to sort of psychological stimuli
    repeatedly, hours and hours and hours a day, year after year after year
    after year, it only stands to reason that more of them will fall over
    the line.
        So there's something for everyone to do. But in the end, the most
    important thing we can do is to try to help families reconnect to their
    children and to try to help communities and schools organize themselves
    so that a connection is made to every child.
        I saw a remarkable book about 3 years ago--I wish I could remember
    the title tonight--but it was a portrait of children who had grown up in
    the most unimaginable, difficult circumstances, who had done wonderfully
    well in life. Many of them had brothers and sisters who had already been
    killed or imprisoned or whatever. These kids, they all did well, and
    they had one thing in common, and only one thing: Each of them, by some
    miracle, had had a consistent, long-term, caring relationship with one
    responsible adult. And so I say to you, this is a challenge ready-made
    for the Italian-American.
        My wife told me, and we have adopted as a national crusade, that she
    and I and the Vice President and Tipper Gore will help to organize a
    grassroots national campaign in the way that Mothers Against Drunk
    Driving and Students Against Drunk Driving did to sensitize the whole
    country; it worked there. We had a national campaign to get employers to
    hire people off welfare. People told me it would never work. They've
    hired hundreds of thousands of people. There's been a national
    grassroots campaign to reduce teen pregnancy; it's gone down 5 years in
    a row. The American people can give our children back their childhood,
    and I hope you will help us to get that done.
        But there's something else that I want you to do, because you are so
    much a part of our larger family. Our children have to be taught to be
    proud of themselves and what is special about themselves without
    thinking people who are different are lesser than they are. One of the
    disturbing elements of this incident in Columbine was the imagined and
    real grievances that these kids had built up to a boiling point over
    people showing them disrespect, because they were supposed to be sort of
    lower class people at the school.
        And they had the same reaction, I might add, that we saw--I saw--in
    the South when I was a kid. Because they were looked down on, they not
    only resented the people that looked down on them; they looked around
    for somebody they could look down on. And they picked out the

    [[Page 834]]

    minority kids in this school--with one devastating consequence, as I'm
    sure all of you know.
        That is a natural psychological reaction when it is not nipped in
    the bud. I grew up in a State where the per capita income was barely
    half the national average the year I was born, right after World War II.
    I grew up among white Anglo-Saxon Protestants, or Irish or Scottish
    Protestants, who were largely uneducated and made very limited livings
    and thought they were looked down on as rednecks by other people. And
    they, therefore, were disproportionately likely to have racist feelings
    against African-Americans. And I can tell you, that exists all over the
    world today.
        We have to prove to our children--by the way we live, and what we
    say, the way we conduct ourselves--that we think every decent person has
    a home in America and that they're all part of our family.
        No one doubts, as we conduct this very difficult operation in
    Kosovo, that our military is the best in the world. That's not bragging.
    Others could have great militaries. We've invested a lot of money and
    time and effort. But one of the reasons it is, is because they are so
    diverse.
        I just got back from Germany, visiting with the young people who are
    working in the humanitarian operation, and the young pilots and their
    support crews who are flying those dangerous missions. And there they
    were, from every conceivable ethnic and racial group, all here.
        I never will forget when I took the Pope--I didn't take him, but I escorted the Pope--to Regis
    College in Denver, the first time he came to America. He went out there,
    after I took office, and we were going up and down the line shaking
    hands with the students, and there was a young man in the Army of the
    United States of America who began speaking Polish to the Pope. And he
    proudly told him that he was born in Poland, but he was now in our
    country and proud to serve in the military. And I could give you
    countless examples of that.
        Tonight I have been told that there are parents of one of our brave
    servicemen flying F-15's in Kosovo, Joe and
    Dorothy Simile. Thank you. [Applause] Their
    son is a captain flying those missions. I
    want you to know, Joe and Dorothy, I'm very proud of him and all the men
    and women who are serving today.
        I'd also like to say a special word of thanks, before I forget it,
    to the Government and the people of Italy, who have been indispensable
    to our mission in Kosovo. It is our united mission, but they have paid a
    much bigger price. They have had airports closed. They have had economic
    hardship. Their Prime Minister has been a
    rock of stability and concern for a quick but just outcome, and I am
    very grateful. And Mr. Ambassador, I thank
    you for what your country has done to stand up for freedom and against
    ethnic cleansing.
        The mission of America has always been to widen the circle of
    opportunity and deepen the meaning of freedom by strengthening the bonds
    of our community. That is the story of America. You know, the people
    that started our country off, with the bold declaration that all people
    are created equal by God, were not fools; they were smart people. And
    they knew good and well we weren't living up to it. When we got started,
    slaves were counted as 60 percent of white people, and only white male
    property owners could vote. They knew this was not a manifestation that
    all people are created equal. But they knew that the ideal had to be out
    there, and we had to continue to push and push and push for it.
        I think it is supremely ironic that on the verge of a new century
    and a new millennium, with our kids learning how to use computers and
    having pen pals on every continent, with the mysteries of the human gene
    about to be unlocked, with the prospect of dramatic increase in the
    length and quality of life, that we are bedeviled today in this great
    modern age by the oldest demon of human society, the fear of people who
    are different from us. And once you fear somebody, then you have to
    dislike them. Once you dislike them, it is easy to hate them. Once you
    hate them, it is quite easy to treat them as if they're not people at
    all and dehumanize them. And then it's a very short step to saying,
    ``It's too bad, but we have to kill them, or run them out, or blow up
    their houses of worship, or eradicate their cultural symbols, or burn
    all their old books, or destroy their personal property records.''
        That's what this whole deal is about. We can't require people to
    like each other or get along. We can't even ask them to stop fighting.
    But when we are able to do it, we ought to stand

    [[Page 835]]

    up and say we will not tolerate ethnic cleansing that leads to mass
    murder, mass rape, mass dislocation, and the destruction of everything
    we believe in.
        I want to close with this story. It's not about Italian-Americans,
    but you will identify with it. And it captures everything, to me, that
    is special about our country and everything that you have given to
    America.

        The other day, shortly before Hillary and I went to Colorado, I had
    a meeting on my schedule with 15--no, 19--Native American tribal chiefs
    from the northern high plains. The Senators from those States, the
    Dakotas and Montana, had asked me to meet with them because they are the
    poorest of our Indian tribes. They don't have big casinos, and there
    aren't a lot of people out there, so nobody's been rushing to invest big
    new money there. And this wonderful economy that has taken the stock
    market from 3,200 to 11,000 has largely left them untouched. And they
    wanted to come and see the President about it, and the President's
    Cabinet.

        Secretary Cuomo came, Secretary
    Riley and a number of our other Cabinet
    members--Secretary Babbitt. So they said,
    ``First, we would like to sit in a circle, as is our custom, so that we
    can all see each other.'' So we were in the Roosevelt Room, we got rid
    of the table, and we all sat in a circle. They started their meeting,
    and I came in, and each one in his turn stood up and talked about,
    ``Well, here's our education needs, our health care needs,'' and so on.

        Then at the end, the chief who was the spokesperson--who,
    ironically, was named Tex Hall--was a very large
    man, and he stood up and he said, ``Before we go, Mr. President, I would
    like to give you this proclamation we have signed for you. And in it, we
    support the actions of the United States in Kosovo.'' He said, ``You
    see, we know something about ethnic cleansing. And we have come a good
    way, and we think we should stand against it everywhere.''

        Then, across the room, another young man
    stood up who represented his tribe, one of the Sioux tribes. And he
    stood very erect. He wasn't particularly tall, and he had a beautiful
    piece of silver Indian jewelry around his neck. And he said, ``Mr.
    President, I have two uncles. One of them was on the beach at Normandy.
    The other was the first Native American ever to be a fighter pilot for
    the United States military. My great-great-grandfather was slaughtered
    by the 7th Army at Wounded Knee.'' He said, ``I am here talking to the
    President.'' He said, ``I only have one son. He's the most important
    thing in the world to me. But we have come a very long way from my
    great-great-grandfather, to my uncles, to my being in the White House.
    We have learned a great deal. We are living together. Though I love my
    son more than life, I would be proud for him to go and stand against a
    new version of ethnic cleansing. We have to live together.''

        I will never forget that moment as long as I live. We in the United
    States have been on a long, imperfect, and unfinished journey. You have
    made immeasurable contributions to it. Perhaps as much as any group of
    Americans, you can help us to rebuild the bonds of family here in the
    United States and to stand up at least for our common humanity around
    the world.

        Thank you, and God bless you.

    Note: The President spoke at 8:35 p.m. in the Great Hall at the National
    Building Museum. In his remarks, he referred to Cable News Network
    interview show host Larry King and his son Chance; Paul S. Polo, Sr.,
    president, and Philip R. Piccigallo, national executive director, Sons
    of Italy Foundation; Ambassador Ferdinando Salleo and Prime Minister
    Massimo D'Alema of Italy; Andrew A. Giancamilli, president and general
    merchandise manager, U.S. Kmart; singer/entertainer Tony Bennett; Joseph
    and Dorothy Simile, parents of Capt. Joseph Simile, Jr., USAF; Tex Hall,
    chairman of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation (the Three
    Affiliated Tribes); and Gregg Bourland, chairman, Cheyenne River Sioux
    Tribe.