    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (1999, Book II)]
    [July 6, 1999]
    [Pages 1140-1143]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks to the Community in East St. Louis, Illinois
    July 6, 1999

        Thank you. Well, ladies and gentlemen, I used to think that I was
    reasonably astute at public affairs, but I don't have any better sense
    than to get up here and try to speak behind Mayor Powell, Cathy Bessant, and
    Jesse Jackson. I don't know how smart I am
    today. [Laughter]
        Let me say to all of you, it is wonderful to be here. Madam
    Mayor, thank you for making us feel so welcome
    and for your sterling leadership. I'm delighted to be here with
    Jackie, your hero and my friend who is
    all of our heroes. Thank you.
        Thank you, Dave Bernauer, for this
    wonderful Walgreens store. I'm going to go in and shop in a minute--add
    to the local community. Thank you, Mel Farr, for
    bringing jobs and opportunities and cars, even in 2 months'
    installments, to every community in this country. [Laughter] Thank you.
    Thank you, Reverend Jackson, for believing
    that we could keep hope alive in every

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    city and rural area in this country and it could be good business to do
    so.
        I want to thank some others who are with us here today: Joe
    Stroud of Jovon Broadcasting; my good friend
    Al From, the Democratic Leadership Council; David
    Wilhelm, the former Chairman of the Democratic
    Party from Illinois, who is here with me today. I want to thank Senator
    Durbin and Congressman Costello, two of the ablest, finest people in the United
    States Congress.
        I want to tell you that they are joined here today by other Members
    of Congress, including Congressman Jim Clyburn, who came all the way from South Carolina; Congressman Paul
    Kanjorski from the State of Pennsylvania;
    and Congressman Dale Kildee from Michigan all
    of whom care about this community and communities like it all across
    America. I thank them.
        And I want to thank your neighboring mayor, Clarence Harmon, for coming over from St. Louis, and your former
    mayor, Gordon Bush, for being here with me. And
    I want to thank Secretary Cuomo, Secretary
    Glickman, Secretary Slater, and all the other people from the administration.
        We have had a great time these last 2 days, going across America. We
    are going to finish this day, first by shopping at Walgreens, and then
    we're going to get on an airplane and fly to South Dakota, where we will
    begin tomorrow at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.
        So from Appalachia to the Mississippi Delta to East St. Louis to
    Pine Ridge, it has been a wonderful trip. But let me ask you something.
    If you look around this crowd today, I have to make--this is a happy
    day, a happy day. But I want to say one serious thing off of this
    subject today, because of a remark that was made earlier by
    Cathy, that I believe in community
    development--emphasis, community.
        You have been very good to me, to the First Lady, to Vice President
    Gore, and Mrs. Gore. You have supported our initiatives and especially
    the Vice President's leadership of all of our community development. But
    what's the first thing that makes it work? Look around this crowd today.
    We have people from all kinds of backgrounds, all different colors, all
    different religions. Everybody--all different ages, working for
    something good.
        So this is the first chance, my first stop in Illinois since the
    tragic string of shootings in Illinois and Indiana these last couple of
    days, that have come to end with the apparent suicide of the alleged
    gunman. Now, I don't want to say a
    lot, but I think it's important to note that while we have to wait for
    all of the details to come in, the early reports indicated that this
    shooting spree against Jews, Orthodox Jews, against the young Asian
    students, taking the life of a former basketball coach at
    Northwestern, an African-American, all were
    motivated by some blind racial hatred against anybody who didn't happen
    to be white.
        Isn't it ironic that this occurred during the time we celebrated the
    birth of our Nation on the Fourth of July? That action was a rebuke to
    the very ideals that got us started. They're also a stern reminder to us
    that even as we celebrate this, even as we stand up against racial and
    ethnic and religious hatred in Kosovo, in Northern Ireland, and the
    Middle East and Africa, we've still got work to do here at home.
        So I say to you, I want to get back to the celebrating, but I issue
    an appeal here from East St. Louis to every community and every citizen
    in this country: We must search the hearts of our citizens and search
    the strength of our communities, that Congress should pass the hate
    crimes legislation, but we should rid our hearts of hatred immediately.
        Now, I want to tell you what got us going on this. In 1992, when I
    ran for President, I came to East St. Louis, and I said I wanted to
    create a country in the 21st century where there was opportunity for
    every citizen, responsibility from every citizen, and a community of all
    American citizens. I said that we ought to have a new role for
    Government, that Government couldn't solve all the problems, but walking
    away from them did not work very well, either; and that we had to focus
    on creating the conditions and giving people the tools to make the most
    of their own lives and to get together across lines that had divided
    them for too long.
        Goodness knows, in the inner cities and the rural areas of our
    country, lines have divided those who worked hard but had no money and
    those who had plenty of money but didn't believe it could be very well
    spent in the inner city or in rural areas.
        Now, if you look at what happened since, we see in this community
    both poverty and great promise: retail returning, new jobs, new
    residents, new hope, Walgreens putting up 400

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    stores across America, many of them in inner-city areas. But still,
    there are many unmet needs and unmet opportunities.
        You heard what Cathy said about opportunities. Let me tell you, the
    economists talk about something in our inner cities called the
    purchasing power gap. Let me tell you what that means. That means most
    people in East St. Louis, even though the unemployment rate is higher
    than the national average, most people get up and go to work every day.
    And if you take the money that you earn here as against the money you
    are able to spend here because of the jobs that are here and the stores
    that are here, in America as a whole, there is 25 percent more money
    earned than spent in the inner cities. In Los Angeles, it's 35 percent;
    in East St. Louis, it is 40 percent. So you can handle this Walgreens
    and a lot more besides, and we want to see them coming here.
        And we thank Bank of America for the library, and we thank those
    involved in the hotel, the bank, the homes being built near here. We
    also want you to know that we want to do our part. Secretary
    Cuomo's housing and urban development block
    grants, along with Bank of America and many department stores, are
    helping Jackie build the Jackie Joyner-
    Kersee Center near here.
        So this is what Vice President Gore and I have tried to do with our
    empowerment zones and our community banks and our vigorous enforcement
    of the Community Reinvestment Act. It says you're supposed to loan money
    everywhere in America. That law has been on the books for 22 years, but
    over 95 percent of the money loaned under it, billions of dollars, has
    been loaned since the Clinton-Gore administration has been in office,
    and I am proud of that.
        We made East St. Louis an enterprise community in our first round of
    empowerment zones and enterprise communities way back in 1994, and
    because you have done so well, East St. Louis is designated as an
    empowerment zone for our second round, which means more money being
    spent here by the Government, more tax incentives for the private sector
    to put businesses here and to hire the people from East St. Louis and
    give them good jobs.
        Senator Durbin, Congressman
    Costello, and every Member of the Congress
    here is committed to creating that second round of empowerment zones and
    funding them this year. We need help from Republicans and Democrats
    alike. This is not a party issue. All Americans benefit when all
    Americans work.
        Now, let me tell you why else we came here today. We want to make
    two points which all the previous speakers have made. I just want to be
    very explicit. Starting with what the mayor said about location,
    location, location, accessibility--boy, that was a good rap, wasn't it?
    I like that. That was good. [Laughter] The first point we want to make
    is, when the Walgreens' president comes, or
    when an executive from Bank of America comes, or when Mel Farr comes, and comes to
    places like this or the Mississippi Delta or Appalachia, the other
    places we're going, is, hey, there are business opportunities out here.
    If you've got people who want to go to work and people with money to
    spend, and they're both in the same place, it's a good place to invest.
        The second thing we're doing is promoting what you have heard
    referred to as the new markets initiative. Now, let me just tell you
    what that is. That's a bill we're going to put before the Congress that
    says that, if people invest in any high unemployment, high poverty area
    anywhere in America, inside or outside one of our empowerment
    communities, they can get a tax credit for the money they put up, and
    they can go to the bank and borrow money and have it guaranteed, a
    guaranteed loan by the Federal Government, which will lower the interest
    rates, which will mean it will be much cheaper for people to invest in
    communities like East St. Louis than it otherwise would be.
        Now, the Government is not going to do it, nobody is going to put
    any money here if they think they're going to lose it. If you put up
    $100 and you invest it and I give you a 25 percent tax credit, if it's a
    bad investment, you still lose $75. But it makes it more likely that
    people will do it. It makes it more likely that they will take a look.
    It makes it more likely that you will build the kind of relationships
    which will make people know you and trust you and want to build a common
    future with you. And that is what we're trying to do. It is not a
    handout, but it is darn sure a hand up, and you are entitled to it.
        And let me say to all of you, it is something that is good for the
    rest of America. We've had almost 19 million new jobs; the longest
    peacetime expansion in history; the lowest African-American and Hispanic
    unemployment rates

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    ever recorded in this country to date. But the unemployment rates are
    still higher than they are for the rest of the country. Incomes are
    rising, but they're still lower than they are for the rest of the
    country. There is room to grow, room to learn.
        Look, we're all going to have to work hard at this. Nobody's got all
    the answers. There is no magic wand. But we know one thing: People make
    these investments one at a time, just like Mel Farr sells his cars one
    at a time. You can only build one Walgreens on this spot, and somebody
    had to come up with the money. Somebody had to make the decision.
    Somebody's got to hire all the people that work here. Somebody's got to
    train them. Somebody's got to make all these decisions. But what we can
    do is to create an environment in which more people will want to hold
    hands with you and walk into the 21st century, so that nobody is left
    behind, and we all go forward together.
        You know, in 1960, Look magazine said East St. Louis was an all-
    American city. It was because of stockyards and shipping yards. It was
    because of private enterprise. The Government can help, but private
    enterprise will make East St. Louis that all-American city again, if we
    go forward together.
        And I just want to make one last point to everybody else in America
    who's looking at this. I spent a lot of time as your President, now,
    trying to figure out, how can I keep this economic good time going? When
    we started, nobody believed we could have an economic expansion that
    would go on this long. When we started, no conventional economist
    believed you could have unemployment rates under 4\1/2\ percent
    nationwide without having inflation and high interest rates which would
    wreck everything. When we started, no one thought so.
        But, you know, all of these young, technological geniuses are
    figuring out all this new computer technology, and it's rifling through
    what we all do, and it's making us more productive. And we're doing a
    good job.
        But now I say to myself every day when I get up, now, what can I do
    to keep this going? The only way to keep it going--more growth with no
    inflation; more jobs and higher wages without bringing it to a halt--is
    to have new people working and new people buying, new people producing.
        Where are those people? Those are the people you move from welfare
    to work. Those are the people who are disabled, and we're going to let
    them keep their health insurance when they go into the workplace, so
    they can move into the workplace. And most important of all, those are
    the people in the inner cities and the rural areas, on the Native
    American reservations that have been passed by, by this recovery.
        America has been blessed by this economic recovery. Now we are
    determined to see that all Americans are blessed by it as we move into
    the 21st century.
        Thank you, and God bless you.

    Note: The President spoke at 5:27 p.m. outside Walgreens at the State
    Street Shopping Center. In his remarks, he referred to Mayor Debra
    Powell and former Mayor Gordon Bush of East St. Louis; Catherine P.
    Bessant, president, Community Development Banking Group, Bank of
    America; civil rights leader Jesse Jackson; athlete Jackie Joyner-
    Kersee, president, Elite International Sports Marketing; David Bernauer,
    president and chief operating officer, Walgreen Co.; Mel Farr, Sr.,
    president, Mel Farr Automotive Group; Joseph Stroud, president, Jovon
    Broadcasting, Inc.; Mayor Clarence Harmon of St. Louis, MO; and murder
    victim Ricky Byrdsong, former head basketball coach, Northwestern
    University, and his alleged killer, Benjamin Nathaniel Smith. A portion
    of these remarks could not be verified because the tape was incomplete.