    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (1999, Book II)]
    [October 21, 1999]
    [Pages 1847-1849]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a Democratic National Committee Dinner
    October 21, 1999

        Thank you. I will be brief, because I want to spend most of our time
    in a conversation. But I would like to say a few things.
        First, I want to thank Senator Kerry for
    once again opening his home. I was here not very long ago with at least
    some of you who are here. I want to thank him for his genuine commitment
    to modernizing our party and to making it an instrument of progress and
    an instrument for bringing our country together. And I'm very grateful
    for the truly exceptional effort he's made.
        On the way in, Joe Andrew, our DNC chair, said that John
    Kerry had done more personally than any other
    Member of the Congress to try to help modernize and strengthen our
    party, in the last few months, particularly. So I thank you for that.
    And I thank Teresa in her absence, and I think
    she did the right thing to fulfill her responsibility. [Laughter] We
    always say we're for opportunity and responsibility, and--[laughter]--
    she's had a fair share of one and discharged the lion's share of
    another. And we appreciate that.
        I want to thank Governor Romer and Beth
    Dozoretz and all of the other people who are
    here from the Democratic Party and all of you.
        Let me just say--I want to tell you a story. A lot of you know that
    Hillary and I--because of her, not
    me; it was her idea--have had a series of evenings at the White House
    called Millennium Evenings, this year, which we have primarily
    disseminated to the public at large through the Internet. It's been
    covered by C-SPAN and occasionally by CNN and obviously by print
    reporters who come in. But the primary means of connecting to these
    Millennium Evenings has been through the Internet. And at the end of
    whatever we do, we allow people to--not only in the audience; there are
    always 200, 300 people in the audience--we allow people to send us
    questions from all over the world.
        And it's been a fascinating thing. We started off with a history of
    the United States and where we are now compared to the roots of our
    Founders, in a lecture by Bernard Bailyn, the
    distinguished professor at Harvard. We've had a poetry night with the
    last three poet laureates of our country and a lot of inner-city kids in
    Washington and all kinds of people in-between, reading their poems and
    talking about poetry.
        The great Wynton Marsalis came and
    played and lectured on the history of jazz as a unique American art form
    in the 20th century. Stephen Hawking came
    all the way from Cambridge and talked about black holes and undiscovered
    galaxies of the 21st century and what it will mean for the nature and
    our understanding of time. And we've had eight of these evenings. It's
    been amazing. Elie Wiesel talked about the price
    of indifference in the 20th century and how we couldn't have it in the
    21st.
        Last week we had a man named Lander from
    Harvard who's an expert in genomics, and a man named Cerf from MCI that had something to do with the establishment
    of the Internet, the architect, that all of you know. And what they were
    talking about was the intersection of genomics and the revolution in
    computer technology.
        And the scientist, the genomics guy, said that it would really not
    have been possible, first to decode the human gene and then to figure
    out anything useful to do with the decoding, were it not for the
    computer and for digital technology, generally. And he said--he was
    talking about how one of the things we've been trying

    [[Page 1848]]

    to do in medical research, for example, is to deal with spinal cord
    injuries. And last year, for the very first time, we spent a lot of
    money, and Christopher Reeve, since he was
    injured, has been very instrumental in getting higher levels of research
    put into this issue. And last year, for the first time, we succeeded in
    getting nerves transferred from the body of a laboratory animal, a rat,
    to the animal's spine which had been severed, and the animal actually
    took the transplant and had movement in its lower limbs, the first time
    it had ever been done in any living organism that we know of with a
    spinal cord that had been severed.
        So what this guy said, he said he believes that this whole effort
    will be overtaken by the capacity of us to use a digital device that can
    be inserted into spines, that will replicate all nerve movements, and
    take the right signals and give them. And he said--he offered as exhibit
    A, as sort of prelude to that, his wife, Mr. Cerf's wife, who had been profoundly deaf for 50 years,
    totally beyond the reach of hearing aids, and a small digital device was
    inserted deep in her ears, and she heard for the first time in 50 years.
    And she got up and talked about that.
        Then the genomics guy--we started talking about what all this meant
    for the breakdown of the gene. Then we got into, what does genetics tell
    us about society? And he made the following point: that in spite of the
    fact that you're talking about 100,000 genes and, ultimately, billions
    of permutations, that all human beings are 99.9 percent the same
    genetically.
        And then, against the background of all the racial and ethnic
    conflicts in the world today, he made what I thought was a rather
    stunning statement, that I didn't know, at least; maybe a lot of you do
    know this. He said, if you take any substantial group of people, like if
    you take--say we had a group of people from India, 100 Indians, and then
    let's say we had 100 Chinese, and let's say we had 100 people from
    Nigeria, and let's say we had 100 people from France--he said that the
    genetic differences of individuals within the group would be greater
    than the genetic differences as a whole of the French and the Indians
    and the Chinese and the Nigerians. And therefore, there was no rational
    basis, which we all knew anyway, but it was nice to have it confirmed
    scientifically, that there was no rational basis for this human emotion
    of fear of the other.
        Well, what's all this got to do with technology? What I'm interested
    in--everything I can do while my time of service is here, before it's
    over, in maximizing the ability of our country to use technology for
    economic empowerment, for educational empowerment, for political
    empowerment, and to do it in a way that promotes unity, not division.
    And that's what I would like to talk about.
        And I think the Democratic Party is the principal engine in our time
    of economic empowerment, political empowerment, educational empowerment
    and certainly, compared with all the alternatives, the major force for
    the cohesion and unity of our society as we move forward. So that's why
    I'm glad all of you are here. I think this is a huge issue.
        Eric and I had some talks about how we could
    close the digital divide, and of course, we've worked very hard on it,
    with the Vice President's leadership, to
    make sure by the time we get through with our millennium celebration,
    we'll have all of our classrooms hooked up to the Internet.
        But if you think about what it might mean economically for poor
    people in America, if Internet access were as dense as telephone access
    in America, I think it would have a very positive economic impact. I
    believe cell phones and computers, if properly distributed, can save 30
    years of educational and economic development in a lot of the poorest
    countries in this world and can permit an economic development that is
    far less damaging to the environment.
        And I believe that technology, properly used, can not only give
    people a more interactive and personal engagement in the political
    process but can, in the process, dramatically reduce the sense of
    cynicism and alienation, a sense that one person doesn't matter and that
    none of this really amounts to much.
        So my mind is always thinking about this, but everyone knows that
    I'm quite technologically challenged. So I need people like you to help
    me and tell me what to do and how to do it. So that's why I'm here;
    that's why I'm glad you're here; and I'm very grateful for your presence
    and your commitment.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 9:03 p.m. at a private residence. In his
    remarks, he referred to Senator John Kerry, dinner host, and his wife,
    Teresa;

    [[Page 1849]]

    former Gov. Roy Romer of Colorado, former general chair, and Beth
    Dozoretz, national finance chair, Democratic National Committee; Eric
    Lander, director, Whitehead Institute/MIT Center for Genome Research;
    and Vinton G. Cerf, senior vice president for Internet architecture and
    technology, MCI WorldCom, and his wife, Sigrid.