[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (1999, Book II)]
[October 20, 1999]
[Pages 1834-1838]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks on the Fifth Anniversary of AmeriCorps
October 20, 1999

    The President. Well, Andre, thanks to you no 
one has to wonder about what AmeriCorps is all about. I thank you for 
your introduction. I thank you for your service to AmeriCorps and to 
your country. And I thank you for the power of your example. And I hope, 
maybe more than anyone else who speaks today, your voice and your story 
will be told out of this great anniversary meeting.
    I want to thank all the other people here who helped to make this 
day possible. I want to thank Deb Jospin for 
her leadership; Senator Harris Wofford; Eli 
Segal, for what he did to help us get started; and 
all of them. Let's give them all a hand. [Applause]
    I want to thank Hillary for 
always believing in this and for taking it on as a personal goal that we 
would do something about the fact that when we had 100,000 people in 
AmeriCorps and everybody who knew about it loved it but most people 
didn't know about it, she decided she would change that. And Eli and Alan Solomont and our 
friend Dan Dutko and others agreed to help. And I thank her for her 
passionate support during these years when we believed in AmeriCorps 
when it was just sort of an idea. And she has done a wonderful job.
    I want to thank the Members of Congress who are here, who were here, 
Senator Specter, Congressman Quinn, and Congressman Payne, three 
who represent the bipartisan support that we have enjoyed. I thank James 
Lee Witt, Jack Lew, 
Janice Lachance, and others in the 
administration who have helped us. I want to thank our presenters, whom 
I will introduce in just a moment, General Colin Powell, Mrs. Coretta Scott King, Sargent Shriver, 
and the Governor of Utah, Mike Leavitt, 
for being here, and I want to thank the Howard University Choir.

[[Page 1835]]

They're going to sing for us and with us in a few moments.
    You know, it seems impossible to me that it was 5 years ago on the 
North Lawn of the White House that we led the first class of AmeriCorps 
members in the AmeriCorps pledge. It wasn't very long before that that I 
had the privilege of signing the legislation creating AmeriCorps with 
the same pen that President Kennedy had used to sign the legislation 
creating the Peace Corps.
    I always believed that you would elevate the cause of citizen 
service in America, that you would make America a better place. But on 
that day 5 years ago, AmeriCorps was still just an idea with a good 
plan, built on the remarkable pathbreaking efforts of Sargent 
Shriver with the Peace Corps and VISTA; 
built on the remarkable service corps I had seen in Boston and Los 
Angeles and San Antonio and other cities; championed by some of the most 
thoughtful and passionate citizens of both parties; energized by, even 
then, 20,000 young people who were raring to give something to their 
country and wanted to be part of AmeriCorps.
    But still, it was just an incandescent idea. Today we celebrate, 
thanks to you and your predecessors, a glowing success. AmeriCorps 
members are living up to the highest obligations of our citizenship. 
They are creating opportunity for others, taking responsibility for 
themselves, and fostering a community of all Americans. They are our 
best builders, building that bridge to the new century.
    You can see it in the way their optimism inspires others to also 
lend a hand and volunteer in their communities. You can see it in the 
remarkable teamwork and camaraderie that I have personally witnessed and 
felt all over this country in so many different activities. You can see 
it in the way they work together across the lines that would normally 
divide AmeriCorps members and eliminate the alienation that too many of 
our young people experience today. You can see kids who went to Ivy 
League schools and kids who dropped out of high school working side by 
side, serving together, giving together, and treating each other as 
equals, proving that Dr. King's dream of a beloved community is alive 
and well in the hearts and lives of the AmeriCorps volunteers.
    I could just give you one illustration among thousands. On his very 
first day as an AmeriCorps member in a small town in southern West 
Virginia, Scott Finn heard that local residents 
had a dream of cleaning up a boarded-up old schoolhouse and turning it 
into a community center. The school had no electricity. It had no 
running water. It was a complete wreck, inside and out, an eyesore, and 
a place that invited drugs and crime and mischief.
    So Scott, fresh out of Harvard, a long way 
from a little town in West Virginia, put together a team of volunteers 
and sparked a new determination to get things done. They hauled water 
out of a nearby creek to mop the floors. They negotiated a lease. They 
raised $50,000 in grant money. And today that sorry old school is a 
beautiful new community center, with a lending library, a gym, and a 
safe playground. That's AmeriCorps at its best. That new community 
center is a meeting place for dances, for gospel concerts, for after-
school programs, and a Boy Scout troop. It's a tremendous source of 
community pride. Scott is one of the 21 remarkable AmeriCorps members 
and alumni who will receive one of our All*AmeriCorps Awards. They'll 
all be introduced later. But I just wanted you to think about that.
    When AmeriCorps members like Scott first took their pledge, they 
promised, and I quote, ``to carry this commitment with me, this year and 
beyond.'' Today we will help them fulfill the second part of that 
pledge, for today I'm asking the Corporation for National Service to 
develop a new initiative to connect former AmeriCorps members with 
service opportunities wherever they live. Habitat for Humanity, the Red 
Cross, the Boys and Girls Clubs, America's Promise, the Points of Light 
Foundation, Big Brothers, Big Sisters, the United Way, the National 
Mentoring Partnership: they've all signed on to help, all to use the 
incredible experience and commitment of our former AmeriCorps members.
    Like returned Peace Corps volunteers and military veterans, those of 
you who are AmeriCorps members and alums represent an enormous national 
pool of know-how and can-do. You are already 150,000 strong and growing 
stronger. I hope soon we'll be adding 100,000 new members to your ranks 
every single year.
    There is no question that you are now an indispensable force for 
change in America. After years of fights over funding and purpose in 
AmeriCorps, peace is breaking out all over in Washington. [Laughter] A 
major factor lifting AmeriCorps out of the realm of partisan politics

[[Page 1836]]

here is the support of people and leaders and especially Governors of 
both parties, like Governor Leavitt, out 
in the country who have seen firsthand how AmeriCorps members are 
setting off chain reactions of civic involvement, civic progress, and 
civic pride.
    In State after State, in community after community, AmeriCorps 
volunteers prove daily they're one of the best and smartest investments 
our country ever made. They're showing us here in Washington what you 
can do when you stop talking past one another and start working with 
each other. Right now, in the middle of this battle over the budget, we 
need more reminders like this.
    Today I had the honor of signing the budget for VA and HUD, for the 
EPA, for the National Science Foundation, programs to help the homeless, 
give housing vouchers to empower the poor; programs for our empowerment 
zones that the Vice President has led; and 
for the first step in my new markets initiative, to give investors in 
this country the same incentives to invest in poor communities in 
America, where many of you work, that we give them today to invest in 
poor communities in Latin America and Asia and Africa. This is 
important.
    I hope this is just the beginning and that we will do the same when 
it comes to the education of our children. AmeriCorps volunteers have 
been in the forefront of a lot of our education efforts, and I hope that 
the spirit you bring will infect the spirit of our deliberations here. 
We know that our children can have a good future if we work together 
across party lines the way you do.
    Let me just say, before I introduce the distinguished Americans who 
will present the All*AmeriCorps Awards, once again how profoundly 
grateful I am to every person here who has helped to lift AmeriCorps 
beyond the pale of a partisan political fight. I especially thank those 
who had genuine reservations 5 years ago and then have the followthrough 
and the courage and the openness to take an honest look at AmeriCorps in 
action and to help us to improve some of our actions, which we also did.
    Most of all, I want to express my gratitude to the AmeriCorps 
members and their leaders throughout this country who have lived up to 
their pledge and so much more. By taking your responsibility personally, 
as the advertising campaign says, you are breathing new life into our 
old, old democracy, sparking a new patriotism among a new generation of 
Americans, a patriotism of the homefront rooted in the knowledge that 
our Nation's strength and security and our individual possibilities are 
all determined in no small measure by whether all of us have a chance to 
live up to our God-given potential. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
    I'm going to introduce our four presenters and they, in turn, will 
come to the microphone and do their jobs.
    From the moment her husband was struck down on the balcony of the 
Lorraine Motel, Coretta Scott King 
determined that it was up to her to keep the dream alive. Despite her 
grief, she got on a plane for Memphis to address the same striking 
sanitation workers her husband had gone there to help. She told them, 
``We are going to continue this work to make all people truly free.''
    She has done that in every possible 
way: by leading marches and giving impassioned speeches for racial 
justice, human rights, an end to discrimination based on sexual 
orientation; by founding the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for 
Nonviolent Social Change; by leading the efforts to create a national 
holiday in her husband's memory; and by helping to turn that holiday 
into a day of service, not a day of rest. There is no one in America who 
is better suited to present the All*AmeriCorps Common Ground Award, and 
we welcome her today.
    Sargent Shriver often describes 
himself as a lucky man, having been graced with the remarkable and 
wonderful family he has. I might say, the rest of us think he's lucky 
because, among other things, he's the youngest and healthiest man his 
age on the face of the planet. [Laughter]
    But our luck is just as profound, for America has never in its long 
history had a more compassionate and passionate man more devoted to 
public service. He was the founder of the 
Peace Corps and the VISTA. He served the Navy in World War II, created 
Head Start and the Job Corps and Legal Services. He led the Special 
Olympics, served as Ambassador to France, led the Chicago Board of 
Education, fostered civil rights early, when it wasn't so popular, and 
economic opportunity for the poor, all growing out of his profound 
religious faith and his deep patriotism. On top of all that, he is one 
of the most warm and genuinely unassuming people you will ever meet. We 
are honored to have him here today to present the All*AmeriCorps

[[Page 1837]]

Award for Strengthening Communities. One of the greatest public servants 
in the history of the United States, Sargent Shriver.
    Whenever I speak about Mike Leavitt, 
the Governor of Utah and the new chairman of the National Governors' 
Association--one of the most popular leaders in Utah history--I am 
reluctant to say anything nice about him because his State is so 
Republican, I'm afraid I'll hurt him and knock him down a peg or two 
back home if it gets out that I'm bragging on him. [Laughter] But his 
complete commitment to service and his generous support of AmeriCorps is 
one of the reasons that we are where we are today, with the breadth and 
depth of support for this program.
    Two years ago, in a rally with General Powell, Governor Leavitt helped 
to launch Utah's Promise, a statewide effort to mobilize all the 
citizens of that State to action. Already it is yielding remarkable 
results, increasing literacy, creating new service teams, recruiting and 
training more caring foster parents, a big issue for Hillary and for me. 
Governor Leavitt has been a great champion of Utah's schoolchildren, 
reducing class size, increasing teacher pay, equipping Utah's classrooms 
for the 21st century. It is only fitting that he present the 
All*AmeriCorps Award for Leadership, because he is truly an all-American 
leader. Thank you, Governor Leavitt.
    And finally, General Colin Powell. In 1993 
General Powell, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the architect 
of America's victory in Desert Storm, retired from his extraordinary 
military career. I was one of many Presidents who benefited immensely by 
his service.
    But that was just the first act in Colin Powell's remarkable life of service. He has gone on to serve our 
country as the leader of America's Promise, his national crusade to give 
every child the nurturing and support he or she needs and to give every 
young person the opportunity to serve. Already General Powell and his 
troops, including many AmeriCorps members, have touched the lives of 
millions of children. General Powell used to say in a characteristically 
modest way that he was, first and foremost, an infantryman. Ladies and 
gentlemen, I begin by introducing you to the infantryman who is leading 
the charge toward America's Promise, General Colin Powell.

[At this point, the All*AmeriCorps Awards were presented.]

    The President. Now, I think our presenters did a wonderful job. 
Let's give them all a hand again. [Applause] They were great. We thank 
them for their time.
    I want to leave you with this thought, and then ask the new class to 
stand and join me in the AmeriCorps promise. And then we will hear from 
and sing with the Howard University Choir in ``America The Beautiful.''
    When you leave here today and you remember how you felt and you 
remember the stories of the people we honored, I want you to think of 
the future you would like to build for America in the 21st century. I 
want you to think about what you'd like this country and this world to 
be like when your children are your age, when your grandchildren are 
your age.
    If I ask you to write down what you think the new century will hold, 
depending on your background, you might say, well, we're going to 
finally solve all the mysteries of the human gene, which is true, and 
then mothers will go home from the hospital with their newborn babies 
with a little map of their future, and it will tell you, individualized, 
what kind of food your children should eat, what kind of exercise 
regimes they should have, what they should avoid, how you can maximize 
the quality of their lives.
    Or if you're into computers, you might talk about the next 
generation of the Internet and how, in no time at all, the number of 
Internet users will be as dense as the number of telephone users in 
America and how the Internet might allow children in the poorest 
villages of the world to skip a whole generation of educational and 
economic development. Or you might think about how these two things will 
join together, and we'll be able to put little digital, electronic 
impulses in various parts of people's bodies that will help them 
overcome paralysis and have medical miracles.
    Or if you're interested in outer space, you might say you look 
forward to the discovering of billions of new galaxies and finding out 
what's really in those big black holes in outer space.
    Isn't it interesting when you think about all this modern, exciting 
stuff, the most sweeping discoveries the world has ever known, don't you 
think it's interesting that the biggest problems we have in this country 
and throughout this

[[Page 1838]]

world relate not to some modern problem--although there are modern 
problems, like sophisticated weapons--but they're rooted in the oldest, 
most primitive problem of human societies? We're still afraid of people 
who are different from us, who look different from us, who act different 
from us, who have different views about how to worship God or live their 
lives.
    That's why AmeriCorps is so important. For all the things I've been 
involved in all these years as President, all the things I've worked to 
do, I really believe, looking toward the future, if every young person 
has a chance to be a good citizen--and we don't give up on anybody; we 
always give them a chance to come back, here; we had a lot of comeback 
kids here today talking--and if America can remain committed to building 
one America across all the lines that divide us, recognizing that our 
differences make life more exciting but what's important is our common 
humanity, if those two things can prevail, more than any modern 
discovery, you'll be proud of the America your children and 
grandchildren have.
    That's why AmeriCorps matters and why I am so grateful to you. Thank 
you very much.
    Now, I want to ask the newest class of AmeriCorps volunteers to 
stand up and repeat the oath after me. Raise your right hand.
    ``I will get things done for America to make our people safer, 
smarter, and healthier. I will bring Americans together to strengthen 
our communities. Faced with apathy, I will take action. Faced with 
conflict, I will seek common ground. Faced with adversity, I will 
persevere. I will carry this commitment with me this year and beyond. I 
am an AmeriCorps member. And I will get things done.''

[Audience members repeated the pledge line by line after the President.]

    Congratulations.
    Good for you. Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to ask you, in 
advance, to give a warm round of applause to the Howard University 
Choir. They've waited through this whole thing to sing ``America The 
Beautiful'' with us. [Applause]
    Thank you, and God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 2:55 p.m. in a tent on the South Lawn at 
the White House. In his remarks, he referred to Andre Crisp, AmeriCorps 
volunteer, who introduced the President; Eli Segal, former Chief 
Executive Officer, Corporation for National Service; Alan D. Solomont, 
former national finance chair, Democratic National Committee; and the 
late Dan Dutko, Democratic Party fundraiser. The transcript released by 
the Office of the Press Secretary also included the remarks of the First 
Lady.