[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (1999, Book II)]
[August 13, 1999]
[Page 1442]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Statement on the Anniversary of the Death of Mickey Leland
August 13, 1999

    Hillary and I would like to mark a sad occasion in our Nation's 
history, the death of Representative Mickey Leland (D-TX). Ten years ago 
this week, while on a hunger mission to Gambela, Ethiopia, 
Representative Leland died in a plane crash. A six-term Member of 
Congress, former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus and 
cofounder and chair of the House Select Committee on Hunger, he was 
instrumental in bringing the issues of poverty and hunger to our 
Nation's consciousness. Because of his work, the plight of poverty was 
eased around the world, in Africa, the countries of the former Soviet 
Union, and within the United States.
    Representative Leland's hallmark legislation, the Africa Famine 
Relief and Recovery Act of 1985, provided $800 million in food aid and 
humanitarian relief supplies to the poverty-stricken continent. One of 
his quotes effectively illustrates the human rights and moral aspects of 
the hunger fight: ``I cannot get used to hunger and desperate poverty in 
our plentiful land. There is no reason for it. There is no excuse for 
it, and it is time that we as a nation put an end to it.'' This struggle 
to make economic prosperity inclusive of more of our population has 
become a focus of the work of my administration. In another example of 
his foresight, Leland was an outspoken critic of violence on television 
long before it became the national issue that it is today.
    The work of Mickey Leland must go on, and I would like to thank 
those individuals and organizations working to carry out his legacy. We 
must never forget Mickey Leland, the pressing issues for which he 
worked, the voiceless poor for whom he spoke, and the global principles 
for which he lived.