    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (1999, Book II)]
    [October 26, 1999]
    [Pages 1887-1888]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 1887]]

    Remarks at a Vogue Magazine Reception
    October 26, 1999

        Thank you very much, Annie,
    Anna, Madam Secretary, ladies and gentlemen. First of all, you've just heard in
    Madeleine Albright, who has done a magnificent job for our country, the
    introduction; give her a hand. [Applause] She was so generous to me, it
    was a perfect illustration of Clinton's third law of politics: Always be
    introduced by someone you appointed to high office.
        It was so nice, I had to pinch myself to make sure I was still
    alive. [Laughter] Normally, you have to keel over before people say
    things like that for you. [Laughter]
        Let me say, I am so honored to have all of you here for this truly
    historic moment in the cultural history of our country. We're here to
    honor two groups of people that I think are very important to our
    present and to our future, women and photographers. [Laughter] The White
    House--some of my former photographers, as well as some of my present
    ones, are here tonight, but a lot of people in the office have almost
    made fun of me, because I'm always comparing the job of a photographer
    in Washington with the job of a reporter or a columnist. And in some
    ways, the job of the photographer is easy, because a photographer is
    rewarded just for looking to see what's there and capturing it in some
    remarkable, clear, crystal way. The poor reporters and columnists have
    to perform reverse plastic surgery on the event to get any notice
    whatever. [Laughter] But it's a really important thing.
        I want to say one thing. I'm delighted that Senator and Mrs. Leahy are here.
    Senator Leahy, some of you may know, is also a very accomplished
    photographer. And we have in the home of our cabin at Camp David a
    magnificent picture that he took in Tibet, which we treasure very much.
    So there are a lot of people here who admire you, Annie, and your craft.
        I also want to thank Susan Sontag for her
    participation in this. You never know how a book like this is going to
    do, but in terms of its appropriateness at this moment in our history,
    it strikes me that it could have the kind of impact that James Agee and
    Walker Evans had so many decades ago with their magnificent book, ``Let
    Us Now Praise Famous Men,'' which captured the faces of the Depression.
    And for people like me who grew up the children of Depression-era
    parents in very poor places, it had a profound impact. And that's what I
    sense is possible here.
        This work also--you heard about our vital voices initiative that
    Hillary has worked so hard on, the
    Secretary of State has worked so hard
    to support. But vital voices has a lot in common with what is being
    celebrated here, because it has worked to empower women all over the
    world who are just interested in making politics what it's supposed to
    be, an instrument of solving common problems. And I have seen the power
    of this.
        Hillary and I went to Africa a couple of years ago, and we were in,
    I think it was Senegal, at the end of our trip, but we went to this
    meeting. Hillary is always getting to
    go to these meetings and talk to people about solving--[laughter]. And
    all of a sudden--and she said, ``You know, I met these people the last
    time I was here from this little village, these women who were
    determined to end the practice of female genital mutilation.'' And they
    had a few token guys there who were cheering them on. It's the same
    thing everywhere. [Laughter] ``And they have come all the way to the
    Capital to meet you. So you've got to understand this, and you've got to
    handle this.''
        So we go into this meeting, and there are these people just in these
    resplendent, bright, brilliant, beautiful native dresses, these women
    and their token male supporters, who were also pretty dolled up and
    pretty proud of themselves for trekking in and sticking up. [Laughter]
    But they were alive.
        I met with Irish women that Hillary had been working with for several years, by the time I
    met with them, who had been critical to the progress we've made in the
    Irish peace process. In Bosnia, when the Muslims and Croats and the
    Serbs wouldn't even talk to each other, there were women in groups
    reaching across the ethnic and religious lines to work for the common
    future of their children. And they weren't really antipolitical. They
    were political in the best sense.

    [[Page 1888]]

        One of the things that happens to all political systems and all
    movements is that people tend to acquire a vested interest in the
    perpetuation of whatever the problem is, because that's how they got
    where they are. And we all have to be willing to let it go and go on.
        And this vital voice, she just got back from Iceland. And in
    Reykjavik, they had women from central Europe, from the Baltic States,
    from Russia, from all the Scandinavian countries coming together to talk
    about common problems. This is a huge potential force in world politics.
    And I, for one, am very grateful.
        I've also seen the work that we have done since we've been here--and
    I thank you, Secretary Albright--
    through our AID programs. We fund now 2 million microenterprise loans
    every single year, almost all of which go to poor village women in Latin
    America and Asia and Africa, who with just a little bit of money can
    change the future.
        We met a woman in Uganda in a little village who was now in the
    rabbit business, having gone up from the chicken business. We met
    another woman who had started her own restaurant in this little village.
    All these things are an important part of changing the new millennium
    for women and their daughters.
        I'm especially grateful, too, for the work that Hillary and Madeleine have done to try to encourage the education of young
    women. And I loved it, when we were in Africa and Uganda, they were
    bragging about the fact that they had more girls in school than other
    African countries, that they knew we wanted to hear it. They knew we
    cared, but they knew it was the right thing to do.
        And the last thing I would like to say, because no one has mentioned
    this yet, perhaps the most difficult place in the world for women today
    is still Afghanistan. And I hope that the fact that we have had two
    Afghan women here in one of our human rights events and the fact that we
    continue to push for changes in the lives of those people and to take as
    many in as we can here will someday lead to a change in that country
    because no women should have to undergo what those women have
    experienced.
        Now, we celebrate tonight Annie Leibovitz's photographs of our women, from coal miners to Supreme
    Court justices. We say that they are all important, that they all
    matter, that they are not any longer invisible, nor are they any longer
    discounted, that we know our ability to manage all of our other
    diversities in America, and we are fast becoming the most diverse,
    complicated, big democracy in the world, racially, ethnically,
    religiously, many other ways.
        Our ability to manage them all must begin with our ability to have
    genuine equal treatment, mutual respect, and equal empowerment of women
    and men. And I truly believe that the stunning gifts of this great
    artist and fine human being, who happens to be a woman, will make a
    major contribution to that end.
        I'm glad you brought your family.
    They're a pretty rowdy bunch. [Laughter] And I see where you got your
    spirit. And I see how you became so observant. It was probably necessary
    from time to time to be observant just to survive in this crowd.
    [Laughter] I thank you, Annie, for doing this. I thank you for your
    dedication to your work. I thank you for showing that capturing the
    simple truth about people is the most interesting thing of all.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 7:52 p.m. in the East Room at the White
    House. In his remarks, he referred to photographer Annie Leibovitz; Anna
    Wintour, editor-in-chief, Vogue magazine; Senator Leahy's wife,
    Marcelle; and author and critic Susan Sontag whose essay appears in
    ``Annie Leibovitz: Women,'' a companion catalog to the exhibit of the
    same title which opened at the Corcoran Gallery of Art on October 27.
    The transcript released by the Office of the Press Secretary also
    included the remarks of the First Lady.