    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1999, Book I)]
    [May 16, 1999]
    [Pages 793-797]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a Democratic National Committee Reception in Las Vegas,
    Nevada
    May 16, 1999

        The President. Thank you very much. First, I would like to say to
    Elias and Jody, we're
    grateful to be here, and thank you for turning the Muzak off. [Laughter]
    And all the televisions--I couldn't compete with them. [Laughter] And I
    thank you for being my friend for so many years, when I was up and when
    I was down, and for being my mother's friend, something I will never
    forget, and for having me into your home for the second time.

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        I thank Senators Reid and Landrieu and Senator Bryan and
    Bonnie for being here; and Representative
    Berkley, newly married--glad that
    Larry came. And your attorney general, Frankie
    Sue Del Papa; Mayor Jones; and former Governor Miller and
    his wife who, as of this morning, is Dr. Miller, so we have to be appropriately respectful there. Former
    Congressman Bilbray, my good friend; and
    Chairman Andrew; and Beth
    Dozoretz, our national finance chair, and her
    husband, Ron. And to all of you, my old
    friends in Las Vegas, and some of you I have not met before. I'm
    delighted to be here.
        I was sitting here thinking--you know, I've had a rather rigorous
    schedule. Last week I went to Europe, to Germany, to see our forces who
    are involved in the operation in Kosovo and then to meet with the
    refugees. And then I had to go right down to Texas and then to Oklahoma
    to see the aftermath of the worst--the most powerful tornado ever
    measured in the history of the United States down there.
        And then I came back to Washington, and then I came right back out
    here a couple of days later; and I was in Seattle, northern California,
    Los Angeles, San Diego, and now I'm here. So I'm slightly disoriented.
    And I was wondering if maybe Rich Little would
    come and give the speech for me. We would never know the difference.
    [Laughter] And if you got tired of me, then you could hear President
    Carter, President Reagan, President Nixon, you know--[laughter]--sort of
    a little walk-through of American history. Thank you for coming.
        Rich Little. Oh, it's a pleasure.
        The President. I won't take a lot of time today. I enjoyed having a
    chance to visit with all of you in the line. I would like to begin with
    what is to me the most obvious thing about this day. I want to thank all
    of you who brought your children here. I'm delighted to see all these
    young people here.
        When I ran for President in 1991, when I made the decision, it was,
    believe it or not, a rather difficult one for me to make, because our
    daughter was in the eighth grade, or then finishing the seventh grade.
    She was as happy as a clam and doing well, and Hillary and I were doing
    well. We had our friends, and I had been Governor for, at that time I
    was in my 11th year. And believe it or not, I was still having a great
    time. I loved my State; I loved my job.
        And I decided to run because I was convinced that our country was
    sort of stumbling toward the 21st century with no governing vision that
    would create an America where every person who would be responsible
    enough to work for it would have opportunity; where all the diversity
    that you see so glittering in this room, all the differences among us
    would be respected, even celebrated, but where our common sense of
    humanity would give us a stronger American community as we grow more
    diverse; and where our country would still be the world's most important
    force for peace and freedom and prosperity.
        I knew--I believed, and now I believe more strongly--that to have
    that kind of vision come alive in the 21st century, we had to be able to
    deal with what was going on here that is different. And what is going on
    here that is different? We're in the middle of the biggest explosion of
    technology in the history of the country, in the history of the world.
    We also are seeing the shattering of all kinds of barriers, making
    people ever more interdependent and drawing us closer and closer
    together across all national lines.
        Most of that is quite good, but we know there are some serious
    problems. The global economy and the information revolution has made
    untold numbers of new millionaires, but it threatens to leave people
    without an education behind. Drawing closer together has given greater
    mobility, greater knowledge, greater access to things through the
    Internet and through travel than ever before; but the open borders and
    the Internet technology mean that people who want to use it for bad ends
    can learn how to make bombs on the Internet, and that the possibilities
    for collision of terrorism and organized crime and weapons of mass
    destruction are greater, and we have to deal with that.
        And so what I have tried to do for the last 6\1/2\ years is to lead
    first the Democratic Party and then the Nation to a whole different
    approach to politics nationally, to say that we have enough tough
    decisions to make, but we're going to put behind the false ones. We
    believe, for example, we can grow the economy and reward entrepreneurs
    and still expand the middle class and give poor people a chance to work
    their way up.
        We believe that working people should be able to succeed at work,
    but also at home, because the most important job of any society is

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    to raise its children well. We believe we can improve the economy and
    actually improve--not just protect but improve--the environment, because
    we no longer have to use the same energy patterns of the industrial age
    to grow the economy. We believe we can reduce crime by not only
    prosecuting it more vigorously but by doing a better job of preventing
    it in the first place. We believe we can reduce the welfare rolls
    without hurting the children on welfare.
        These are things we believe we can do. We believe we can be a force
    for peace from the Middle East to Northern Ireland and still stand up
    against ethnic cleansing and terrorists. And in large measure, the work
    that Hillary and I and the Vice President and our Cabinet, our
    administration and our allies in Congress have done the last 6 years has
    been a vigorous effort to take these ideas and turn them into policies
    so they could be made real in the lives of the American people.
        We also have tried to change our notion of the primary role of
    Government. I have downsized the Government dramatically. Most people
    have a hard time believing this, but the Federal establishment is now
    almost exactly the size it was when John Kennedy was President in 1962--
    smallest Federal Government in 37 years now. But it is more active, and
    we focus on two things. One, creating the conditions for prosperity and
    for security, and two, giving people the tools to solve their own
    problems and to make the most of their own lives.
        And I am very grateful for all the good things that have happened in
    America and for whatever force for good we've been in the world in the
    last 6 years. And I'm grateful for the people who have expressed their
    support for me through thick and thin. But I am here today for the
    Democratic Party because what I want you to understand is, that while I
    am grateful I had a chance to serve--and I hope that my leadership had
    something to do with the good things that have happened--the most
    important thing is, we had the right vision and the right ideas; we had
    a sense of teamwork, and we got up and went to work every day doing the
    right things.
        And that's why it's important that your Congresswoman be reelected,
    that we elect a new Democratic Senator from this State, that we win the
    Presidential election, and that we keep the country on the direction it
    is going.
        I am very grateful to the citizens of this State for voting for me
    and Al Gore twice, when most people didn't think any Democrat would ever
    win here again. And I'm very grateful to Governor Miller and your two Senators for making sure that I never made a mistake on a
    local issue, so that at least I wouldn't fall off the knife edge we were
    on and we could hold on to our victory.
        But what I want to know when you leave here today is, it's important
    that people who have supported me all these years understand that no
    person, not even the President, can have a good impact unless you have a
    good vision, good ideas, a good team, and you're doing the right things.
    And all of that will be here when I am gone. I won't be on the ballot in
    2000. But all these issues really matter. It matters where we stand on
    these issues.
        If I could just mention two or three things today. In the next 2
    years, I'm going to do a lot to try to keep this going. We were
    talking--the Senators and I were, on the way in--we want to have our
    version of saving Social Security and Medicare, helping people deal with
    long-term care, helping people to save more for their own retirement. We
    want to see this debt paid down. Who would have ever thought we'd be
    paying the debt down? First, you thought you'd be grateful to see the
    budget balanced. We now have the biggest surplus ever. I want to pay the
    debt down. I want to pay it down. I'll tell you why. I'll tell you why.
        I want to pay it down because I know the more we pay it down, the
    more we'll have low interest rates, high investment, more jobs, and
    better incomes. And the less we need to borrow money around the world,
    the more our friends who are in trouble, who are our trading partners
    and our neighbors, will be able to borrow money. The Japanese are in
    trouble today. We want to help them. When they do well, we do well. If
    they need to borrow money, they can borrow it at less cost if we're
    paying our debt down. This is a good thing.
        I want to do some more things in education. I'm going to spend an
    enormous amount of time both trying to raise educational standards, to
    bring technology and good facilities and good teachers to all of our
    kids, and continue to open the doors of college to all Americans. I want
    to do that. And there are lots of other things. But what I want to say
    today, I want to think about one thing. We look at these kids. And

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    look at this audience. Look how different we all are. Look at
    Elias' background--the story of the American
    dream--coming out of the Middle East, coming here without a nickel to
    his name, struggling through college, doing all the things that he has
    done, and then marrying way above himself. [Laughter]
        Elias Ghanem. I agree. I agree with you.
        The President. Having all these wonderful children. Look at all
    these kids here. I want you to listen. This is the most important thing.
    You know, if tonight I woke up in the middle of the night, and the good
    Lord appeared to me, and he said, ``I'm sorry, but you've already had a
    heck of a good life, and I'm not going to let you do all these things.
    But I will let you do one thing for the next 18 months. You only get to
    do one thing.'' And then here's what my answer would be: I would think
    about Littleton, Colorado, and I would think about Kosovo, and I would
    say, ``It seems to me supremely ironic and very humbling that here we
    are on the edge of the 21st century, where we have all these wonderful,
    high-tech dreams for our kids, right?--I mean, these kids can have pen
    pals in Mongolia and Botswana and Singapore. They can look forward to
    going everywhere, doing everything; maybe we'll all be living to be 125
    years old within 20 years. We'll unlock the mysteries of the human gene
    and all that.
        ``Isn't it ironic that on the verge of such an incredible era of
    discovery and potential, that what we are bedeviled by at home and
    abroad are the oldest demons of human society--these children talking in
    Littleton about how they were disrespected by the athletes, so they
    hated them. And then they had to look for someone they could disrespect,
    so they looked down on the minority kids.''
        I was in Texas the other day with the very pregnant young
    daughter of James Byrd, the African-American
    man who was dragged to death not very long ago there, trying to help
    them pass the hate crimes legislation, the Texas legislation. The
    Leadership Conference on Civil Rights had its annual dinner last week in
    Washington, and I went by and acknowledged the presence of Matthew
    Shepard's mother, the young man who was
    murdered in Wyoming because he was gay.
        Don't you think it's interesting that here we are, celebrating all
    this wonderful, high-tech, modern future, and what bedevils us most is
    the darkness of the heart, the fear of the other? It is as old as when
    people first had to join into tribes to stay alive in the cold and to
    kill game and to live in caves, before there was language, before there
    was writing, before there was anything. And maybe at some point there
    was some rational reason for it.
        And then as people developed their religious faiths, very often they
    fought more over their religious faiths than the fact that the color of
    their skin or the nature of their history was different. But when you
    strip it all away, it starts with: You're different from me; I'm afraid
    of you; therefore, I don't like you--no, I take it back, I hate you;
    therefore, I will dehumanize you; therefore, it's okay for me to kill
    you. It is a very short step.
        And it is easy for us to demonize others, but the truth is, every
    one of us gets up every day with a little light and a little darkness
    inside. And it's almost like they're on scales, and we fight this
    lifelong battle to make sure that the light always outweighs the
    darkness on the scales.
        So if I were given one wish, I would say I would like to build a
    stronger sense of community in America, and I would like to do something
    to advance a sense of common humanity around the world. Because if we
    could do that, you and people like you all over our country would take
    care of the other problems.
        That's why I'm for the hate crimes legislation. That's why I'm for
    the nondiscrimination in employment bill. That's why I'm for all these
    sensible gun control measures. That's why I've asked the whole country
    to join with Hillary and me and Al and Tipper Gore in a national
    campaign to reduce violence against children. That's why I've spent all
    my life trying to advance the cause of civil rights. That's why I've
    worked for peace in the Middle East and Northern Ireland and why I'm
    proud that we stopped the war in Bosnia and why I'm trying to stop it in
    Kosovo.
        We can't stop every war. People have a right even to fight,
    sometimes. That's how we, after all, created our country. But on the eve
    of the 21st century, we should say, ``You know, you don't have to like
    each other around the world, but we won't tolerate mass killing based on
    religious and racial and ethnic differences.''
        I know that in a world where we're used to seeing the news be
    different every day, it is frustrating to some people that this
    difficulty in Kosovo is not yet done. And I know there

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    are many questions about it. I wish I had time to spend 3 or 4 hours
    here and answer your questions. But I can tell you this: I would far
    rather be here today, where we are, standing up against ethnic
    cleansing, standing for the rights of a different people not to be
    exterminated--because they happen to be Muslims and they happen to have
    Albanian heritage and they happen to have no guns--than if I were here
    asking you to give money to me and to our party, and we were sitting on
    our hands enjoying the sunshine, and I had not lifted a finger to stop
    it.
        And so I leave you with that thought. I have tried to make our party
    a party where all people of good will could feel at home and, more
    importantly, our country.
        Life is infinitely more interesting because it's more different,
    more various. Look around this room. This is an incredible group of
    people from all over, everywhere. And if we can respect and celebrate
    our differences, our lives are literally more fun and almost always more
    profitable. But if there are no limits on the importance to which we
    give our differences, life can quickly become unbearable. So I ask you
    to think about that and help us.
        I thank you for your contributions. I thank you for your support. I
    thank you for your friendship to Elias and
    Jody. I thank you for helping me be President.
        But remember, what has made these last 6\1/2\ years, and what will
    keep America going for the next 220 years, is not any one leader, but
    it's having the right vision and the right ideas and working together.
    And we need more of that.
        Thank you, and God bless you.

    Note: The President spoke at 6:35 p.m. at a private residence. In his
    remarks, he referred to reception hosts Elias and Jody Ghanem; Senator
    Richard H. Bryan's wife, Bonnie; Representative Shelley Berkley's
    husband, Larry Lehrner; Mayor Jan Laverty Jones of Las Vegas; former
    Gov. Bob Miller of Nevada and his wife, Sandy; former Representative
    James H. Bilbray; Joseph J. Andrew, national chair, Democratic National
    Committee; impersonator/comedian Rich Little; Renee Mullins, daughter of
    murder victim James Byrd, Jr.; and Judy Shepard, mother of murder victim
    Matthew Shepard.