[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (1999, Book II)]
[August 11, 1999]
[Pages 1428-1431]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks on Presenting the Presidential Medal of Freedom
August 11, 1999

    The President. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to 
the White House. A special welcome to Senator Robb, Congressman Scott, Congressman 
Sisisky, Secretary/Senator Bentsen's old colleagues in the Cabinet, and Mr. Rubin, welcome home. Secretary Kissinger, thank you for coming. Governor 
Rossello, thank you for coming. Mrs. Ford, we're 
honored to have you here.

Shootings at the North Valley Jewish Community Center

    Let me just say, before I begin the ceremony, Hillary has already 
said that like all Americans, we have prayed for the welfare of the 
children and their families and the entire community affected by the 
shootings in Los Angeles yesterday. Most of you probably know by now 
that the FBI received the gunman, who 
turned himself in, earlier today. I want to congratulate the law 
enforcement officials at all levels of government who quickly responded 
to the crime, identified the suspect, and kept the pressure on.
    We are a long way from knowing all the facts about this case, and 
therefore, I think all of us have to be somewhat careful about 
commenting. But what we have heard about the suspect and his motives is deeply disturbing. Nothing could be 
further from the values we honor here today. Therefore, I would just 
say, again, I can only hope that this latest incident will intensify our 
resolve to make America a safer place and a place of healing across the 
lines that divide us.

Presidential Medal of Freedom

    President Kennedy once said that a nation reveals itself not only by 
the people it produces but by the people it honors. Today we honor men 
and women who represent the best of America with the Presidential Medal 
of Freedom. Our Nation's Founders believed, as do we, that freedom is a 
gift of God, not only to be defended but to be used to improve the human 
condition, to deepen the reach of freedom, to widen the circle of 
opportunity, to strengthen the bonds of our national community.
    By words and deeds, the Americans we honor today have done just 
that. And in honoring them, we honor also the values and principles of 
our Nation's founding and our Nation's future. Today I am proud to begin 
with a man who once held the office I am now 
privileged to occupy and one who has more than earned this honor.
    From his earliest days as a student and athlete, President Gerald 
Ford was destined for leadership. He was an 
outstanding player on the Michigan football team in a segregated era. 
And his horror at the discrimination to which one of his teammates was 
subjected spawned in him a lifelong commitment to equal rights for all 
people, regardless of race.
    He served with distinction on an aircraft 
carrier in the Pacific in World War II. Thirty years later, as 
Republican leader of the House, and with the strong support of his 
colleagues in Congress in both parties, he was chosen to fill the 
vacancy in the Vice Presidency, which imposed on him subsequently the 
awesome responsibility of piloting our Nation through the stormy seas of 
Watergate.
    Steady, trustworthy, Gerald Ford ended a 
long, national nightmare. He also ended a long and bitter war. And he 
signed the Helsinki Treaty on Human Rights that sent a signal of hope to 
people throughout the world and hastened the fall of communism.
    When he left the White House after 895 
days, America was stronger, calmer, and more self-confident. America 
was, in other words, more like President Ford himself.
    During 25 years in the House of Representatives, and as House 
Republican leader, he won respect from both 
sides of the aisle. It is not just his penchant for hard work or his 
acknowledged mastery of everything from budgets to

[[Page 1429]]

foreign policy to defense, but the way he conducted himself, arguing his 
position forcefully on the House floor but, at the end of the debate, 
always reaching over to shake the hand of his opponents. Gerald Ford 
knew when to put politics aside and when to put the interests of our 
Nation first.
    The respect he commands has grown in the 
years since he left office, whether advising Presidents in the Oval 
Office or defending affirmative action or making the case for free trade 
on the editorial pages of our leading newspapers. His opinions are still 
very much sought after. I am immensely grateful for the wise counsel he 
has given me over the years.
    And I think I can speak for Hillary and for all Americans when I also express my 
appreciation and thanks to Betty Ford, a 
tremendous First Lady who has demonstrated dignity, strength, and 
resolve, and inspired those qualities in millions of others in the way 
she has shared her life with us.
    President Ford represents what is best in 
public service and what is best about America. Colonel, please read the 
citation.

[Lt. Col. Carlton D. Everhart, USAF, Air 
Force Aide to the President, read the citation, and the President and 
the First Lady presented the medal.]

    The President. A Texas farmhand by the age of 6, a bomber pilot by 
21, a Congressman by 27, an immensely successful businessman by 35, 
Lloyd Bentsen saw and did more in his youth 
than most see and do in an entire lifetime.
    During his second 35 years, he managed 
another whole lifetime of achievement and service as a distinguished 
United States Senator from Texas. He rose to become chairman of the 
Finance Committee, where he demonstrated his lifetime concern for the 
interest of business and labor and the poor and his conviction that 
America should advance all these together.
    Then, at the tender age of 71, when he had 
every right to settle back and enjoy the comforts of retirement, Lloyd 
Bentsen answered my call to take on perhaps the toughest challenge of 
his public life, to become Secretary of the Treasury at a time of grave 
economic difficulty for our Nation.
    He accepted that challenge with 
characteristic gusto. He became one of the strongest voices in America 
and in our administration for fiscal discipline and expanded 
international trade. He became an acknowledged world leader in financial 
and economic affairs. His work with Chairman Greenspan and Mr. Rubin and others on 
our economic team earned respect around the world. Under his leadership 
in 1993, when some of the rest of us had our doubts, we passed the 
economic plan that paved the way for what is now the longest peacetime 
expansion in our history.
    For a lifetime of exceptional service to his country, I am proud to 
bestow the Medal of Freedom on Lloyd Bentsen.
    Colonel, read the citation.

[Lieutenant Colonel Everhart read the citation, and the President and 
the First Lady presented the medal.]

    The President. Edgar Bronfman 
once said that, in forcing the world to face up to an ugly past, we help 
shape a more honorable future. That fairly describes his own personal 
mission over these last 20 years. As chairman of Seagram's, he's helped 
to build on his father's legacy and take the company to new heights. As 
President of the World Jewish Congress, he's traveled the world to 
expose the legacy of oppression of the Jewish people and to spur action 
on their behalf, winning freedom for Soviet Jews in the 1980's, 
demanding justice from financial institutions on behalf of Holocaust 
survivors in the 1990's, and, in between, supporting philanthropies that 
work to break down barriers between nations and lift the lives of 
disadvantaged young people. A life of remarkable citizen service.
    Colonel, read the citation.

[Lieutenant Colonel Everhart read the citation, and the President and 
the First Lady presented the medal.]

    The President. Evy Dubrow came to Washington 
more than 40 years ago, ready to do battle for America's garment 
workers, and do battle she did. When it came to the well-being of 
workers and their families, this tiny woman was larger than life. The 
Halls of Congress still echo with the sound of her voice, advocating a 
higher minimum wage, safer workplaces, better education for the children 
of working families. And in opposition to President Ford and me, she also was against NAFTA. [Laughter]
    No matter how divisive the issue, however, Evy always seemed to find a way to bring people together, to 
find a solution. As she put it, there

[[Page 1430]]

are good people on both sides of each issue, and she had a knack for 
finding those people.
    By the time she retired 2 years ago, at the 
age of 80, she had won a special chair in the House Chamber, a special 
spot at the poker table in the Filibuster Room--[laughter]--and a 
special place in the hearts of even the most hard-bitten politicians in 
Washington. Even more important, for decades and decades, she won 
victory after victory for social justice.
    Colonel, read the citation.

[Lieutenant Colonel Everhart read the citation, and the President and 
the First Lady presented the medal.]

    The President. Sister Isolina Ferre. 
For more than 20 years, in a poverty-stricken barrio in Puerto Rico, 
Sister Isolina Ferre started passing out cameras to children. She told 
them to photograph whatever they saw. The point of the project she later 
recalled, was not just to teach young people to take pictures but to 
teach them to take pride in themselves. That is what Sister Isolina does 
best, teaching people to see the best in themselves and in their 
communities and making sure they had the tools to make the most of the 
gifts God has given them.
    Armed only with her faith, she taught 
warring gangs in New York City to solve their differences without 
violence. In Puerto Rico, her network of community service centers, the 
Centro Sor Isolina Ferre, have transformed ravaged neighborhoods by 
helping residents to advocate for themselves. Her passionate fight 
against poverty, violence, and despair have earned her many awards and 
countless tributes from all around the world. Sister Isolina once said 
that a community grows only when it rediscovers itself. On behalf of the 
many communities you have helped to make that wonderful discovery, a 
grateful nation says thank you to you today.
    Colonel, please read the citation.

[Lieutenant Colonel Everhart read the citation, and the President and 
the First Lady presented the medal.]

    The President. I wonder whether any of the assembled parents, 
family, and friends in the audience at the law school graduation at 
Howard University in 1933 knew that they were watching history in the 
making?
    Among the many talented people who graduated that day, two men stood 
side by side, one the valedictorian, the other salutatorian. Separated 
in class rank by a mere point or two, they were united in their 
determination to hasten our Nation to a day when equal opportunity was 
the birthright of every American.
    One of these men was the late Thurgood Marshall. We're honored to 
have his wife here with us today. The other 
was the man it is our privilege to honor today, Oliver White Hill. Together, these two struck a fatal blow against 
the injustice embedded in our Nation's law, the disgraceful doctrine of 
separate but equal, that kept Americans apart and held too many 
Americans back for far too long.
    In the 45 years since the Supreme Court handed down its landmark 
decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which both Thurgood Marshall 
and Oliver Hill were active in, Oliver 
Hill has barely had time to catch his breath. Throughout his long and 
rich life, he has challenged the laws of our land and the conscience of 
our country. He has stood up for equal pay, better schools, fair 
housing, for everything that is necessary to make America, truly, one, 
indivisible, and equal.
    The presence in this audience today of so many people who have 
devoted their lives to the cause of civil rights is ample evidence to 
the absolutely irreplaceable role he has 
played over these many decades. Our Nation is in his debt.
    Colonel, read the citation.

[Lieutenant Colonel Everhart read the citation, and the President and 
the First Lady presented the medal.]

    The President. Max Kampelman was probably 
not the first young man to work his way through college who made ends 
meet by skipping meals. But surely he is one of the few people who ever 
served his country in World War II by agreeing to stop eating 
altogether. [Laughter] He volunteered to participate in a military 
experiment on the effects of starvation, hoping to help doctors find new 
ways to treat returning POW's and concentration camp survivors, 
bespeaking a lifelong passion to alleviate the suffering of the victims 
of human rights abuses.
    Forty years later, after a career spent advising public officials at 
the highest level, he would again help his 
country to fight oppression in Europe. As head of the United States 
delegation overseeing the Helsinki Act, his unflinching words kept human 
rights at the center of East-

[[Page 1431]]

West relations. An uncommonly gifted negotiator, he won crucial arms 
control agreements.
    Together, these efforts helped to set in motion the collapse of 
communism and the beginning of a new era of democracy. He has excelled as a diplomat, a philanthropist, a 
humanitarian. He has served both Republican and Democratic Presidents 
well. In so doing, he has been a quintessential American citizen.
    Colonel, read the citation.

[Lieutenant Colonel Everhart read the citation, and the President and 
the First Lady presented the medal.]

    The President. I wish we all had been there with Edgar 
Wayburn when he first laid eyes on the 
spectacular vistas of the land north of San Francisco, for then we could 
have experienced the wilderness from his unique and wonderful 
perspective. As it is, millions of Americans and visitors from other 
lands have been able to experience our great American wilderness because 
of Edgar Wayburn.
    From the broad shores of Point Reyes, where we spent our second 
anniversary, to the sharp peaks of the Alaska range, to the majestic 
heights of the California redwoods, Edgar Wayburn has helped to preserve the most breathtaking examples 
of the American landscape. In fact, over the course of the more than 
half a century, both as president of the Sierra Club and as a private 
citizen, he has saved more of our wilderness than any other person 
alive. And I might add, his wife, who is here 
with us today, has been his colleague every step of the way in that 
endeavor. Those who have been involved in these struggles with him 
credit his success to his persistence and to his profound conviction as 
a physician and a conservationist that our physical health depends upon 
the health of our environment.
    As we look toward a 21st century in which the world and the United 
States must combat new challenges to our environment, and especially the 
challenge of climate change, we will need Edgar Wayburn as a model and a guide. And we should be very grateful 
that we have him.
    Colonel, read the citation.

[Lieutenant Colonel Everhart read the citation, and the President and 
the First Lady presented the medal.]

    The President. The ancient Greeks used to bestow various honors upon 
citizens who performed outstanding service, everything from laurel 
crowns, the equivalent of our Medal of Freedom, to a lifetime of free 
dinners at state expense. [Laughter] I have not yet won bipartisan 
agreement in the Congress for that to be attached to the Medal of 
Freedom, but I can invite you to join us in the State Dining Room for a 
reception.
    Ladies and gentlemen, if hearing these life stories doesn't make us 
all prouder to be Americans, I don't know what would. I thank these 
people for the lives they have lived and the light they have shined.
    Again, we welcome them and all of you to the White House and ask you 
to join us in the State Dining Room.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 3:15 p.m. in the East Room at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to former Secretary of the Treasury 
Robert E. Rubin; former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger; Gov. 
Pedro Rossello of Puerto Rico; former First Lady Betty Ford; alleged 
gunman Buford O. Furrow; Cecilia A. Suyat, widow of Supreme Court 
Justice Thurgood A. Marshall; and Mr. Wayburn's wife, Peggy. The 
transcript released by the Office of the Press Secretary also included 
the remarks of the First Lady.