    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (1999, Book II)]
    [December 31, 1999]
    [Pages 2354-2357]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at the ``Millennium Around the World'' Celebration
    December 31, 1999

        Good afternoon. I must say, after listening to them, I don't know
    that there's anything I have to add. I want to thank all of you for
    being here. I thank the First Lady
    for her conception of this millennium celebration and for all those who
    helped to make it possible. I thank Secretary Albright for her work for world peace. Governor
    Gutierrez and the people of Guam, we
    thank you for sponsoring this event. And we welcome
    Congressman and Mrs.
    Underwood, Mrs. Gutierrez and members of your family, Governor. Guam is where
    America's day begins, you know, and today it's where our millennium
    begins. I'd also like to thank the Environmental Protection Agency and
    its Administrator, Carol Browner; the GSA
    and its Administrator, Dave Barram, who is
    here with his family; and all others who helped to make this day
    possible. I'd like to ask you to express our appreciation to the World
    Children's Choir and the United States Army Brass Quintet. We thank
    them.
        We wanted to spend a part of this day with diplomatic
    representatives from around the world and with children from around the
    world to signal the importance of strengthening our global community in
    the new millennium.
        On this day 200 years ago, in 1799, our second President welcomed
    the 19th century. It then took 6 weeks by boat to get news from Europe.
    On this day 100 years ago, when President William McKinley marked the
    start of the 20th century, it took 6 seconds to send a text by
    telegraph. Today, satellites and the Internet carry our voices and
    images instantaneously all around the world. Never before have we known
    as much about each other. Never before have we depended so much on each
    other. Never before have we had such an opportunity to move toward what
    the generations have prayed for, peace on Earth and a better life for
    all. We must both imagine a brighter future and dedicate ourselves to
    building it, and I ask you all here today to reaffirm the clear
    understanding that we must do it together.
        Two thousand years ago, the calendar that turns at midnight began
    with the birth of a child on straw in a stable, with a single, shining
    star in the sky. It attracted no notice at the time. Today, as we meet
    in this international center, though all the world is now a part of this
    millennial calendar change, we must recognize that for more than half
    the world, because they are not Christians, the number 2000 has less
    significance: for Muslims, this is the year 1420; for Hindus, it is
    1921; for Buddhists, it is 2543; Mayans honor the year 5119; and the
    Hebrew calendar marks this year as 5760.
        So what we celebrate here today is not so much a common calendar of
    history or faith but a common future for all people of good will, a
    future of peace and harmony, a future rooted in the forces of freedom
    and enterprise and globalization and science and technology that have
    powered so much of the 20th century, but a future which now--now--may
    reflect timeless lessons as well, the lessons of all religious faiths:
    Love your neighbor as yourself; do unto others as you would have done to
    you; do not turn aside the stranger; see the spark of divine inspiration
    in every person. As long as we have had philosophers and prophets on
    this Earth, this lesson has been taught. Yet, it still seems the hardest
    for us to learn.
        The past 100 years have seen the victory of freedom over
    totalitarianism. For that, we can

    [[Page 2355]]

    all be grateful. They have seen us coming together more and more so that
    it is possible to have a stage with this beautiful, brilliant array of
    children, and for that, we can all be grateful.
        But still all around us, we see the failure to use our freedom
    wisely, as too many people still give in to primitive hatreds, and we
    still face the oldest problem of human society: the fear of those who
    are different from us. History shows that people do tend to be afraid of
    those who don't look the same or practice religion the same way or come
    from different tribes or have different lifestyles. Those fears, when
    ignited and organized by unscrupulous leaders, have led to terrible
    violence in the modern world. Even in the most open societies, including
    our own, children who learn to look down and dehumanize those who are
    different and perhaps to blame them for their own problems continue to
    grow up to commit awful hate crimes.
        Still, we must begin a new century with great hope. Think of this:
    100 years ago not a single country in the world recognized the right of
    all its citizens to choose their leaders and shape their destinies. Now,
    for the first time in history, more than half the world's people live
    under governments of their own choosing. Sixty years ago many people
    thought that nothing could stop dictators from imposing their will on
    the world through violence. But since then, democratic countries have
    risen, not just once but time and time again, to defeat fascism, to help
    nations free themselves from totalitarianism, to help stop racial
    apartheid and ethnic cleansing, to uphold and advance human rights. In
    freedom's century, we have learned that open societies are more just,
    more resilient, more enduring.
        Even today, we see our newest discoveries bringing us closer to
    goals humanity has shared for centuries, to eradicate disease, educate
    all our children, clean our environment, provide economic support for
    families, and lift up nations. The forces of science, technology, and
    globalization have shattered the boundaries of possibility, and in the
    new century, our achievements will be bounded mostly by the limits on
    our own imagination, understanding, and wisdom.
        There are, to be sure, tremendous challenges ahead. The old problems
    are there: leaders all too willing to exploit human difference to
    preserve their own power; places where freedom still is silenced and
    basic rights denied; outdated, unnecessary industrial practices
    endangering our global environment; abject poverty, with more than a
    billion people living on less than a dollar a day. And then there are
    the new problems: the organized forces of crime, narcotrafficking,
    terror; governments too weak to handle the sweeping forces of
    globalization and their impact on their people; ordinary people across
    the world who have yet to see the benefits of democracy and free
    enterprise but have borne the burden of the economic and social changes
    some can delay but none can avoid.
        Still I say again, we must be hopeful. It is a good thing that we
    are more and more free and more and more interdependent. It is possible
    to have prosperity while preserving the environment, and it is possible
    to share prosperity more broadly with those who have been too long
    denied. It is possible to thwart the organized forces of destruction. In
    short, it is possible to listen to the children in this room, who come
    from over 100 nations of the world, and give them a chance to live their
    dreams.
        When we see threats to peace and dignity abroad, we can choose not
    to speak; we can choose not to act. But no longer can we choose not to
    know. That is why there was such a similarity in the vision these
    children from all over the globe shared with us today.
        The explosion in information and the technology for getting it to
    people everywhere at the same time has enabled us to build a common
    sense of community, that is already taking shape in ways large and
    small. When there's a flood in Venezuela that kills thousands and
    thousands of innocent people, when we see the plight of young war
    victims in Sierra Leone who have lost their limbs, when we see hundreds
    of thousands of people displaced by ethnic cleansing from their homeland
    in Kosovo, we can choose to do nothing, but we can't pretend we don't
    know, and we can no longer shield our conscience or our interest from
    their impact. So now we care about one another in ways we never did
    before. On our ever smaller planet, one way or another, sooner or later,
    what happens anywhere may be felt everywhere.
        So I'd like to make a few new year's predictions. In the new century
    we may not be able to eliminate hateful intolerance, but we will see the
    rise of healthy intolerance of bigotry, oppression, and abject poverty
    in our own communities and across the world.

    [[Page 2356]]

        We may not be able to eliminate all the harsh consequences of
    globalization. But still, we will trade more and travel more and
    communicate more and learn to do it in ways that advance the lives of
    ordinary people and lift the quality of the environment.
        We may not be able to eliminate all the inadequacies of government
    and our global institutions, but we will see more and more governments
    able to protect their people from the harshest side effects of
    globalization and able to prepare their children--all their children,
    boys and girls--for the 21st century world; and we will see more--much,
    much more--cooperations among nations to meet common challenges and
    seize common opportunities.
        In short, the children you see on this stage, in the new century,
    will become more and more part of the same community, not by giving up
    their national, tribal, racial, ethnic, and religious differences but by
    honoring them and by affirming our common humanity and our shared
    destiny. It is happening already. I say again, you see it in our
    response to an earthquake in Turkey or a hurricane in the Caribbean.
        Earlier this year, the last time so many nations were represented in
    this room, it was on the 50th anniversary of NATO when the Allies
    gathered there to stand against ethnic cleansing in Kosovo. Today, from
    southeastern Europe to the Middle East to South Africa to Northern
    Ireland to East Timor, the century is ending with a clear message that
    there is no place in the 21st century for power rooted in hatred and
    dehumanization. People everywhere want peace and harmony and the chance
    to live with their dreams not at their neighbor's expense but, instead,
    with their neighbor's help.
        We owe it to the children here to begin this new millennium ready to
    take on our problems together, an unrelenting battle against poverty,
    sharing the promise of the new economy, leaving no one behind, deepening
    our democracies, preserving our shared earthly home. Today we celebrate
    more than the changing of the calendar. We celebrate the opportunity we
    have to make this a true changing of the times, a gateway to greater
    peace and freedom, for prosperity and harmony. If we listen to our
    children, they will tell us the future we should build.
        Last week I received a letter from a sixth-grade class in
    northeastern Connecticut, who knew I would be speaking to you here
    today. Here's what they said: ``Never forget, God didn't put us here to
    fight, but to live in harmony. If we can help our children, our future
    leaders to find their way to love for all mankind and to teach them
    there is no future in racism, then we can find that the success and
    glory of world peace will grow and blossom into a never-dying flower.''
        I said at the opening of my remarks that 2000 years ago those of us
    who are Christians believe the new era began with a bright light in the
    sky. You should all know that when darkness falls tonight for the very
    last time in this millennium, the brightest light in the sky will be the
    constellation Orion. From December to April, it is the only star system
    visible from every inhabited point on Earth. Scientists tell us that the
    light from one of those stars began its journey almost exactly 1000
    years ago.
        In the time it took the light from Orion to reach Earth, Leif
    Erikson sailed; Gutenberg printed; Galileo dared; Shakespeare wrote;
    Elizabeth ruled; Mozart composed; Jefferson drafted; Bolivar liberated;
    Lincoln preserved; Einstein dreamed; Ataturk built; Roosevelt led;
    Gandhi preached; Mother Teresa healed; Mandela triumphed. A pretty good
    space of traveling light.
        Now that light shines upon all of us. For all the billions of people
    who came before, it has been left to this generation to lead the world
    into a new millennium, to use our freedom wisely, to walk away from war
    and hatred toward love and peace. When people look back on this day a
    hundred years from now, may they say that is exactly what we did, that
    in the 21st century our children went further, reached higher, dreamed
    bigger, and accomplished more because love and peace proved more
    powerful than hatred and war.
        One of America's most popular authors of children's books is Theodor
    Geisel, who wrote under the name of Dr. Seuss. One of the very last
    books he wrote was called, ``Oh, The Places You'll Go.'' I want to end
    today with words he wrote in that book, looking ahead at the world our
    children should inherit. Listen to this and help to make it so. ``And
    will you succeed? Yes, you will, indeed, ninety-eight and three-quarters
    percent guaranteed. Kid, you'll move mountains. So be your name Buxbaum
    or Bixby or Bray or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O'Shea, you're off to great
    places. Today is your day. Your mountain is waiting, so get on your
    way.''

    [[Page 2357]]

        Good luck to the children here, and Godspeed in the new millennium.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 2:20 p.m. in the Atrium at the Ronald W.
    Reagan International Trade Center. In his remarks, he referred to Gov.
    Carl T.C. Gutierrez of Guam and his wife, Geraldine; and Delegate Robert
    A. Underwood of Guam, and his wife, Lorraine. The transcript released by
    the Office of the Press Secretary also included the remarks of the First
    Lady.