    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000, Book I)]
    [March 3, 2000]
    [Pages 372-376]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a Democratic National Committee Dinner in San Francisco,
    California
    March 3, 2000

        Thank you very much. The first thing I would like to say to all of
    you, after thank you for the warm welcome, is that this is not the first
    time I have come here to campaign for Senator Feinstein's reelection. In fact, I'm an old hand at this. I came
    here in '94 to campaign for Senator Feinstein's reelection, and she
    stayed in Washington. I had to do it all by myself. [Laughter] So it's
    nice to be here with the evidence of my argument. I thank you very much.
        I also want to thank Senator Barbara Boxer
    and Stu for being here, and Representative
    Barbara Lee, who is also off to a very fast
    start. The women from California in the Senate and the House have defied
    all of the preconceptions about how long it takes to become effective in
    the Congress. It could have something to do with that practical instinct
    of worrying more about what you're doing than where you're sitting. And
    they have really, really done a good job.
        I thank the McCarthys for chairing this event. And as you said, I can't
    remember anybody who ever got more done in her first term in the Senate
    than Dianne Feinstein. And I want you to
    know, I'm here for many reasons--and I'm not running for anything--
    [laughter]--and on most days I'm okay with it. [Laughter] But I care a
    great deal about not whether we're going to change but how we're going
    to change and where we're going from here.
        And one of the things that I always admired about Dianne
    Feinstein and her husband, Dick--who's been giving me training in how to be a
    Senate spouse--[laughter]--Stu Boxer and Dick
    and I decided that we would start right now planning for next year.
    We're looking for a fourth--[laughter]--for golf, for tea, for whatever;
    we're open. [Laughter] Life's funny, isn't it? I mean, really, it's
    great. [Laughter]
        Let me say, one of the things that I really admire, maybe the thing
    I admire most about Dianne Feinstein is,
    first of all, she cares about a lot of things. How many conversations
    have we had about China, about Tibet, about different parts of the
    world; about saving the California redwoods, which meant a lot to me,
    too; about setting aside the desert--now we have two national parks--
    it's meant a lot to me, too; about taking on this gun issue, which I
    started to try to do with the Brady bill concept as Governor more than
    16 years ago, and I backed off, to my everlasting regret. When I became
    President, I promised myself as long as I was standing I would do it.
    And she's been a great ally, and I thank her for that.
        But one thing that Dianne does that
    sometimes politicians in both parties, especially when you get in
    Washington and you get all caught up in this atmosphere, you know, and
    you spend all your time watching talk shows--[laughter]--do you realize
    that if you've got a halfway good cable selection, you don't ever have
    to watch anything but talk shows anymore? [Laughter] And do you realize,
    to get on one, all you have to do is take a firm position and never
    change your mind, and it's better if you don't know anything. [Laughter]
    Actually, if you have any evidence, any background, any real policy
    knowledge, it's a terrific encumbrance because you're supposed to be
    shouting to great effect on these programs. [Laughter] Now, we're all
    laughing, but you know it's pretty close to the truth. [Laughter]
        And Dianne, you know, she's like me.
    We're still under the illusion that when you elect us to these things,
    they're actually jobs, and we're supposed to get up and go to work every
    day. And like your job, it yields to effort. I mean, it really makes a
    difference if you pass a few

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    days in the headlines to figure out what actually ought to be in the
    bill. And then if you actually pass a law, it can really change people's
    lives.
        Now, you're laughing, but I'm telling you, you have no idea how hard
    it is to concentrate on your job if you live in Washington today.
    Barbara is nodding her head. Representative
    Lee is nodding her head. We live in this sort of
    constant culture of critiquing and carping and talking and who's up and
    who's down and who's in and who's out. And I wanted to be here tonight;
    I'm proud to show up for somebody who still believes being a United
    States Senator is one of the most important jobs in the world, and with
    effort you can get results which change people's lives for the better.
    And that is the measure of public service, and she fulfills it in an
    astonishing way.
        Now, the second reason I'm here is to tell you I want you to go vote
    on Tuesday. I can't vote in this primary, but I hope you'll vote. You've
    got a big ballot. You'll have an opportunity to vote for things that
    will affect your future and to send a signal where California is. I hope
    you'll vote, as Dianne said, for proposition 26. Why? Because it'll
    build people up; because we're going to have 2 million teachers retire
    in the next few years as our student bodies get larger; because we've
    got, already, untold numbers of kids in schools that are either
    overcrowded or tumbling down; and because California has shown a
    commitment to turn around failing schools, to adopt charter schools, to
    try things that will work. And you need to get all the roadblocks out of
    your way to building your children's future.
        And for me, I hope you'll vote against proposition 22 because--
    [applause]--now, wait a minute. Calm down. I want to say--I'll say more
    about this in a minute--because however you stand on the question of gay
    marriage--and I realize that San Francisco is different from the rest of
    California, is different from the rest of America. But that's not what
    is at stake here. This initiative will have no practical effect
    whatever. This is a solution in search of a problem that isn't there.
        So people are being asked to vote on this to get everybody in a
    white heat and to divide people at a time when--you know, look around,
    folks, we just had this little 6-year-old girl
    killed in Michigan by a 6-year-old boy who got a gun that was stolen,
    that he shouldn't have been able to get his hands on. That's a problem
    we ought to be working on. You had a guy flip
    out in western Pennsylvania and start shooting people at random,
    apparently out of his imagined grievance that had some racial basis. You
    had a guy in Los Angeles shoot at Jewish kids--kids--who were going to
    school, just because they were Jewish. And then he killed a Filipino
    postal worker just because he was a Filipino and he worked for the
    Federal Government; he had double satisfaction. You had Matthew Shepard
    stretched out on a rack in Wyoming. You had James Byrd dragged to death
    in Texas. You had this guy who said he belonged to a church that didn't
    believe in God, but did believe in white supremacy, kill a Korean
    Christian walking out of his church and the former basketball coach of
    Northwestern, an African-American, last year. And I could go on and on.
        We've had all the turmoil in New York City over this Diallo case.
    And I don't want--as I said before, I don't pretend for a moment to
    second-guess the jury. I didn't sit there and listen to the evidence.
    But I know most people in America of all races believe that if it had
    been a young white man in a young, all-white neighborhood, it probably
    wouldn't have happened. Now, that doesn't mean they were guilty under
    the criminal law. And the Justice Department is looking into that, in
    the Civil Rights Division, and that's the way to handle that.
        But what it does mean is, there's this huge gulf out there still, in
    too many places, where people wonder if they can be treated fairly. So
    what I'm trying to do--the reason I ran for President was that the
    country was in trouble. California was in real trouble back in '92, and
    Washington was dominated by sort of a talk show mentality--and the
    Congress, too, and in the White House. ``Did you get your 10 seconds on
    the news tonight?'' And the only way you could get it is if you were
    bombing the other side. And there was the liberal position, and there
    was the conservative position. There was the Democrat position, and
    there was a Republican position, and we were supposed to get in here and
    basically fight. And it didn't matter if anything ever got done.
        And I thought to myself, you know, I've been a Governor for 10
    years. I thought, if I ran my State that way, we'd be in the ditch; if
    you ran your business that way, you would be broke; and if we ran our
    homes that way, the divorce rate would be 100 percent. I mean, this is--
    it was crazy. And what I want you to think

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    about tonight is this. I thank Dianne and
    others who have been so generous. So many of you said to me tonight kind
    things about my service for which I am grateful. But I want you to think
    about that tonight.
        Elections are about the future. America has stayed young by thinking
    about tomorrow. And the point I want to make to you, if you like the
    fact that America is doing well, the only way we can continue to do well
    is to keep striving to do better, because the world is changing very
    rapidly and because there are still unsolved problems and unseized
    opportunities in this country. And that's what this election is about.
        Dianne mentioned a few of them. How are we going to keep the economy
    going? How are we going to bring economic opportunity to people in
    places that have been left behind: the Mississippi Delta, where I come
    from; the Rio Grande Valley, where I was last week; the Pine Ridge
    Indian Reservation and other reservations, where unemployment runs as
    high as 70 percent; the inner-city neighborhoods in California and
    elsewhere, where there is still an unemployment rate 2, 3, 4 times the
    national average. What are we going to do to reach them? The rest of us
    need that. If you want to keep doing well, you've got to try to do
    better. Why? Because if you invest there, you get inflation-free growth
    that benefits everyone else. We're living in a time where, economically,
    doing the morally right thing happens to be good for you, too. Equal pay
    for equal work for women is morally right; it's good for the economy.
    Raising the minimum wage is good for the economy. Closing the digital
    divide is good for the economy.
        I was out in northern California a couple of months ago, and I was
    with some eBay executives who informed me that 20,000 Americans now make
    a living on eBay--not working for eBay, trading on eBay. And they've
    done a profile of these people and, lo and behold, they found that a lot
    of them used to be on welfare. So what happened? That little computer--
    when the digital divide was bridged--I believe intelligence is equally
    distributed across racial and income lines. And I grew up in one of the
    poorest places in America, and some of the smartest people I ever met I
    had known by the time I was 10 years old. I've always felt that luck had
    something to do with the fact that I was standing here, even though all
    politicians want you to believe they were born in log cabins they built
    themselves. [Laughter]
        But anyway, consider this. What does it mean that 20,000 people are
    making a living on eBay and some of them used to be on welfare? It means
    if you bridge the digital divide, you collapse the distance not only
    between people who are physically isolated from markets and
    opportunities but may be isolated from bank loans, isolated from
    education, isolated from other things. So it's a big question.
        How are you going to educate all these kids? I mentioned proposition
    26. California is doing better, with the most diverse student body in
    the country. But I can tell you, we've got a lot to do. But we know what
    to do. I was laughing with some of my old Governor friends the other
    day; we didn't always know what to do. Now we know how to turn failing
    schools around. It's just a question of whether we're prepared to invest
    the money and the time and the effort and the discipline and the
    accountability and give the support to the kids in trouble with after-
    school and summer school and mentoring and other programs to do what
    needs to be done. But we know what to do now.
        How are you going to help people to balance work and family? Are we
    going to do more about child care or not? I could go on and on. How are
    we going to make efforts to continue to grow the economy and improve the
    environment? It is now no longer necessary to degrade the environment to
    grow the economy. This is a digital economy. We don't have to do that
    anymore.
        And for those of you that are younger than me, I'll make you a
    prediction: Within 20 years it will become clear, and probably within a
    decade, that the only way to improve the economy is to continue to
    improve the environment. There is a trillion-dollar market out there for
    people who are committed to new technologies to combat global warming.
        Now, how are we going to make the most of the scientific technical
    revolution? What does it mean that we're going to sequence the human
    genome? What will it be like when we can cure all kinds of cancers when
    there are just a few cells forming, so there's no possibility of
    metastasis? What will it mean when we can block the defective genes that
    cause Alzheimer's or diabetes or Parkinson's? What will it mean? If you
    live to be 65 in America, your average life expectancy is already 82.
    Dianne told me tonight that there were three people that she knew of
    that were 90 years old in this audience. Can

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    you imagine? Just 10 years ago you'd never go to a group like this, at
    this hour of the night, and find three people who were 90 years old.
    True. [Laughter] Ten years from now--10 years from now you will come to
    a meeting like this, and there will be 25 people that are 90 years old.
    Now, what does all this mean to us?
        What does it mean to say we're in a global economy, in a global
    society? What are our responsibilities to those poor people that are
    clinging for life on those trees in Mozambique tonight? Was I right or
    wrong to send the NATO planes, the American planes in so that the people
    could go home in Kosovo? These are big questions. What are our
    obligations to the peace process in the Middle East, in Northern
    Ireland, in the tribal wars in Africa? What is it that binds us together
    as a people?
        That's what this election is about. You've got to think about these
    big things. Don't get into this sort of old, broken-record, kind of
    cheap-slug mentality in this election. This is a big election. And it's
    not about what will get you 15 seconds on the evening news or what makes
    for a hard punch on a talk show.
        This country is doing well because we have been animated by good
    ideas, new ideas rooted in basic values: opportunities for all,
    responsibility from all, a community of all Americans. It's working
    because we have--our crowd does, in Washington--some basic ideas. We
    think everybody is important, everyone matters. We think everybody ought
    to get a chance. We think everybody's got a role to play. We think we
    all do better when we help each other. That's what we believe.
        Now, the results are pretty encouraging. But I am imploring you: Do
    not be lulled into a false sense of confidence or think for a moment it
    does not matter whether you keep looking to tomorrow or whether you
    exert particular efforts to vote in the elections this year.
        I want to close with a little story which will betray my age.
    [Laughter] Over Thanksgiving I had the kids of friends of ours over--
    Hillary and I had a couple friends and their kids come stay with us. And
    this one beautiful little girl looked up at me--she was 6 years old--and
    she said, ``How old are you, anyway?'' [Laughter] And I said, ``Well,
    Mary, I'm 53.'' And she said, ``That's a lot.'' [Laughter]
        And to those of you who are younger I will say--and to those of you
    who are older, you know what I'm saying--it is a lot, but it doesn't
    take long to live a life, no matter how long it is.
        When we passed this milestone this month and we had the longest
    economic expansion in history, I went back and studied the last economic
    expansion in history. Do you know when the record was that we broke?
    Nineteen sixty-one to 1969. Now, let me tell you a little something from
    my 53 years of life.
        In 1964, I finished high school. Our country had been heartbroken by
    President Kennedy's assassination, but then we had rallied behind
    President Johnson. And he was wildly popular because we had an economy
    we thought would go on forever: high growth, low inflation, low
    unemployment. We were passing civil rights bills right and left in the
    United States Congress. And most people believed we would actually solve
    the problems of race through the laws, through Congress and the courts.
    The Vietnam war had not yet manifested itself in the way it later did.
    And most people believed that we would prevail in the cold war, which we
    subsequently did, but most people thought we would do it without
    torment, turmoil, and division. We were feeling pretty cool in the
    summer of 1964. We thought we'd have social justice, economic progress,
    and freedom and national security in the world--and it would just
    happen. That's what we thought when I graduated from high school.
        Not long after that, we had the Watts riots. Not long after that,
    the streets of every major city were filled with antiwar demonstrations.
    Within 4 years, when I graduated from college at Georgetown, it was 2
    days after Robert Kennedy had been killed, 2 months after Martin Luther
    King had been killed, 9 weeks after Lyndon Johnson said he wouldn't run
    for reelection. Our country was split right down the middle over the
    Vietnam war. And in just a couple of months, President Nixon would be
    elected President on the first of our campaigns of division. You may
    remember, he said he was representing the Silent Majority, which meant
    the rest of us, I guess, were in the loud minority. [Laughter] But the
    message was clear: ``America is divided into two camps, `us' and `them.'
    And anybody who's not with us is `them.''' And we've been ``us-ing'' and
    ``them-ing'' ever since, in some way or another.
        And ever since I ran in 1992, I have done my best to heal those
    breaches and to bring us together and to get us to let go of some

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    of that stuff, that poison, that venom, that need we always seem to have
    to be divided one from another.
        But I tell you this because when I was 18 in 1964, times were just
    about like they are now, and I thought it would all be fine. And in next
    to no time, all the wheels ran off, and by 1967 everything was divided.
    And within a few more months in 1968, within a few more months our
    expansion came to an end.
        I say this to you not as your President but as a citizen. I have
    waited for 35 years for my country to be in a position to build the
    future of our dreams for our children that all of us could be a part of,
    not just those of us that are wealthy enough to come here but the people
    that were good enough to serve us tonight, not just those of us that are
    doing great and have lived most of our lives but those of us that are
    just beginning.
        But I remember. Don't you be overconfident. Don't you be overcasual.
    You know, in life we're always lucky when we get a second chance, and
    most of us are lucky enough to have had more than one. But a country is
    indeed graced by God to get a second chance. I'm glad I helped to build
    America's second chance these last 7 years. We've got it now. I've
    waited 35 years to see it.
        That's why I'm for Dianne Feinstein.
    That's why I'm traipsing all over the country trying to get people to
    think about this. And when this political debate goes on, don't you get
    caught in all this little stuff. You lift this country up; lift the
    people in your community up. Tell the people why they ought to vote.
    Remind them of how we lost our last expansion. Think about all the
    possibilities for the future. Be big. Be big and remember: We all do
    better when we help each other, and the only way to keep doing well is
    to be committed to doing better.
        Thank you, and God bless you.

    Note: The President spoke at 7:50 p.m. in the Peacock Court at the Mark
    Hopkins InterContinental Hotel. In his remarks, he referred to Stewart
    Boxer, husband of Senator Barbara Boxer; dinner chairs Robert J. and
    Suzanne McCarthy; Richard Blum, husband of Senator Dianne Feinstein;
    Kayla Rolland, who died after she was shot by 6-year-old classmate
    Dedrick Owens in Mount Morris Township, MI; Ronald Taylor, who allegedly
    went on a deadly shooting spree in Wilkinsburg, PA; and West African
    immigrant Amadou Diallo, who died after being shot in the Bronx Borough
    of New York City by four police officers, who were acquitted of all
    criminal charges on February 25 in Albany, NY. The President also
    referred to California's proposition 26, School Facilities Local
    Majority Vote, to permit a simple majority for school bond issues as
    opposed to the super majority currently required; and proposition 22,
    Limit on Marriage Initiative, to ban gay marriages in California.