    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000, Book I)]
    [April 14, 2000]
    [Pages 711-715]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a Reception for Representative Cynthia A. McKinney in Atlanta
    April 14, 2000

        The President. Thank you. Well, first of all, I'm glad to see you.
    [Laughter] And I'm glad to see you in such good spirits. And I want to
    thank you for being here for Cynthia and thank her for giving me a
    chance to come here and be with you.
        I think we ought to give another hand to our hosts, the Sadris, for letting us come
    into their beautiful home today. [Applause] Beautiful place. I
    appreciated Governor and Mrs. Barnes and Mayor Campbell for being
    here. They had to leave. And as Roy and Bill said on the way out,
    ``We've got to go, and besides, we've heard this speech before.''
    [Laughter]
        That reminds me of something Tina Turner said once. Tina Turner is
    my favorite political philosopher. [Laughter] I went to a concert of
    hers, and she sang all of these new songs. And at the very end, she
    started singing ``Proud Mary.'' It was her first hit. And the whole
    crowd just went nuts, you know, clapping for her. So she didn't start
    singing; she just waited until they quit clapping. She said, ``You know,
    I've been singing this song for 25 years, and it gets better every time
    I do it.'' [Laughter] So I thank the rest of you for hanging around.
        I want to acknowledge--in the audience we have Mayor Jack
    Ellis of Macon and Mayor Patsy Jo
    Hilliard of East Point and Representative
    Tyrone Brooks. Thanks for being here. And my
    old friend and '92 cochairman, Calvin Smyre;
    Representative Robert Brown; and Billy
    McKinney is here, Cynthia's daddy; and
    Senator Butler, thank you for coming. And
    there may be other members of the legislature here we've missed. State
    Representative Vernon Jornes--Jones--I can read
    Cynthia's handwriting; she can't read mine. [Laughter]
        And Dikembe, I want to thank you for
    coming. He came to the White House once with his whole family. And I
    went out to meet him. And you know, I'm not a small man. I felt like a
    total shrimp standing there. [Laughter] You know, all these members of
    the other party, they've been trying for 8 years to humiliate me. If
    they'd just gotten the Mutombo family standing around--[laughter]--they
    could have done it in a day. It would have been no problem.

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        Let me say to all of you, I am here basically for three reasons. One
    is, I wanted to thank Cynthia McKinney, in front of her constituents,
    for the support that she has given to our efforts to make America a
    better place, with a stronger economy, a stronger social fabric, greater
    equality and opportunity for people; an America that is truly one
    America across all racial, religious, and other lines that divide us.
    And you can see by the crowd today that that's the kind of person she's
    been. And that's the kind of America I've tried to build, and I thank
    her for that.
        The second reason that I'm here is to thank all of you for the work
    you do here and the example you set. I was listening as the--I saw
    Iranian-Americans, Chinese-Americans, Pakistani-Americans, Sikhs
    introduced. I was glad to see so many members of the Muslim community
    here. I think that I am the first President ever to consistently give
    messages on the Eid to the Muslim community around the world, to have
    Muslim Americans come into the White House and meet with us.
        I look around the world--and I'll just start--the third reason I
    came here is to tell you what I think this election this year is about.
    And I feel free to say it since it's the first time in 25 years I'm not
    running for anything. [Laughter] And I'm okay about it most days.
    [Laughter] I'm okay.
        But let me begin by saying this. Everybody knows what's going well
    today, and I won't go back over it except to just briefly say that we
    not only have the longest economic expansion in our history and the
    lowest unemployment rate in 30 years, the lowest welfare rolls in 30
    years, the lowest crime rate in 25 years, the lowest poverty rate in 20
    years, the lowest female unemployment rate in 40 years, highest
    homeownership in history, the lowest African-American and Hispanic
    unemployment rates ever recorded; we also have a sense, I think, of
    optimism and that we can do certain things. And as Cynthia said, we've
    tried to be a force for peace and freedom around the world.
        But since we've got all these folks here, let me say, I think it's
    very interesting that in this most modern of ages, where we're thrilled
    that our kids are on the Internet, and they can go to school with people
    of different cultures and backgrounds, and we're about to decode the
    mysteries of the human gene--just in the next few weeks, we'll be able
    to announce the whole gene sequence that's been completed. And after
    that happens, it won't be long before we'll be able to block the genetic
    flaws that cause Alzheimer's or Parkinson's. We'll be able to identify
    certain kinds of cancers when they're--just a few cells congeal. We may
    even find out early in the next century what's in those black holes in
    the universe. It will be the most modern of ages.
        No country can be isolated from it. Two years ago there were 2
    million Internet users in China. Last year there were 9 million. This
    year there will be over 20 million. Within 2 years, there will be over
    100 million, and the country will never be the same again.
        I just came back from the Indian subcontinent. I went to Bangladesh
    and Pakistan and India. And I was in this--and in India, the per capita
    income is $450 a year. And I was in this little village--I mean, a
    little village--you may have seen the pictures on the television of me
    dancing with the village women, and they were pelting me with flowers.
    It's better than other things I could be pelted with. [Laughter] I was
    delighted.
        But anyway, let me say, so here I am in this little remote village.
    And in the sole public building in the village, I met with the city
    council, 11 men and 4 women, representing 10 different tribes and
    castes. And I saw the village's computer. And this new mother comes in,
    to the village computer. And it was in Hindi, although they have these
    in all the various languages spoken in India. So she calls up the health
    department's webpage. And she's just had a baby, and she runs it out to
    the instructions for what the best care for a newborn is for the first 3
    months of his life. And then she hits the print button, and they have
    this fabulous software, and this beautiful program printed right out on
    a world-class printer. And she took home information as good as you
    could take home from any obstetrician in Atlanta. So it's wonderful.
    This is a very modern world.
        I went to another city where they give 18 government services on the
    Internet; nobody buys a driver's license in a revenue office anymore. I
    told Governor Barnes if he did that here, there
    would be no term limits and he could stay until he was 95. [Laughter]
        So that's the sort of picture we imagine for these children. And
    it's all modern, it's about science and technology, and we're relating
    to each other and how interesting it is. Don't you

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    think it's also interesting that the biggest problems the world faces
    are rooted in the oldest difficulties of humankind, that we're still
    basically scared of people that aren't like us?
        I mean, I see these Sikhs here, I thank them for coming here. The
    most heartbreaking thing that happened on my trip to the Indian
    subcontinent is that about 40 Sikhs were murdered in Kashmir. And I'm
    sure they were murdered because I was there. Those people lost their
    lives because I went to India and to Pakistan. And people who don't want
    their turmoil to be eased used my trip there as a pretext to highlight
    the difficulties. And somebody, we don't know who, killed 40 perfectly
    innocent people who, I might add, had never before been targeted in all
    the conflicts in Kashmir.
        In Rwanda--Cynthia talked about Rwanda--Rwanda's not like a lot of
    other African countries that were formed in 1885 by European powers.
    It's basically been a coherent country for 500 years, with two dominant
    tribes, the Hutus and the Tutsis--for 500 years. And they fought from
    now and then, but they basically worked it out to get along. And in 100
    days, 800,000 people were killed, almost with no guns.
        In the Middle East, we still are seeing these tensions between the
    Israelis and their neighbors. In the Balkans, a million Islamic
    Albanians were driven from their homes like cattle, driven from their
    countries, in a matter of weeks, until we stopped it and turned it
    around in Kosovo. Even in Northern Ireland, where the people voted
    overwhelmingly for peace, the leaders are still so in the grip of their
    problems they can't get along.
        Well, we know about India. We know that--I said before, I think the
    situation--here's an interesting story. The situation in Kashmir is
    interesting from an American's point of view for the following reason:
    Indian-Americans and Pakistani-Americans, of the 200 ethnic groups that
    exist in America today, both rank in the top 10 in per capita income and
    education. Obviously, if the difficulties over Kashmir could be
    resolved, people from South Asia would explode. There is literally no
    limit to the potential of the life that could be had there. But they are
    sort of kept back from the modern world by this ancient tension, or at
    least the tension that grew out of the founding of the nations of India
    and Pakistan.
        I say that to make this point only--I'm basically, you know, a very
    optimistic person. And I always have been, and I remain so today. But
    let's take it closer to home. Isn't it interesting that here in Atlanta
    is the home of more international companies than any other American
    city, and we're still fighting in the South about whether there ought to
    be a Confederate flag on our flag? [Laughter] So there's something wrong
    with this picture here, you know? [Laughter] At least we can put it on a
    website. [Laughter]
        What's the point of all--here's the point of all this: not to get
    you down but to get you back up, but to remind you that our progress and
    our good fortune is the product of constant effort, good values, good
    people, good ideas, hard work. It is not an accident, nor is it
    inevitable, nor can you depend on it to last forever.
        A time like this for any country comes along once in a blue moon.
    And so the election is not about whether Cynthia McKinney had a good
    voting record or Bill Clinton was a good President. The real issue is,
    what are we going to do with this moment?
        And you know, I feel very strongly that the American people should
    be humbled by this good fortune. And I think we should say, we're going
    to take on the big challenges facing our country. One, we've got to keep
    the economy going, because if we don't, the wheels will start to run
    off, and then we'll not be able to think about big things. That's why I
    want to keep paying the debt down. We can be debt-free for the first
    time since 1835. I want to do that.
        Number two, we ought to bring economic opportunity to people and
    places that have been left behind in this country. That's why I want to
    give people the same incentives to invest in poor areas in America they
    have to invest around the world. That's why I want to close the digital
    divide and bring computer opportunities to schools and work places and
    entrepreneurs in distant rural places, Indian reservations, inner-city
    neighborhoods.
        Number three, we ought to give a world-class education to every one
    of our children. We know how to do it now, so we don't have an excuse.
        Number four, we ought to help people whose parents work to better
    balance the demands of work and family--equal pay for women and men;
    improved tax treatment for lower income working people; more health care
    coverage for children and for their parents if they can't afford it
    now--we have a program I want to expand;

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    a long-term care tax credit for people that are caring for their elderly
    relatives or disabled relatives--a lot of people are doing that now, and
    it's a terrible burden on them. And we want to keep families together,
    but we ought to help them do that. We ought to help them balance work
    and family.
        Number five, we ought to make America the safest big country in the
    world. You know, Georgia and my home State of Arkansas are States with a
    strong hunting culture. But there's no excuse for not doing a background
    check every time somebody buys a handgun. There's no excuse. The law
    we've had has kept half a million felons, fugitives, and stalkers from
    getting handguns, and we got gun crime down 35 percent to a 30-year low
    in the last 7 years. But we can make America the safest big country in
    the world if we work at it.
        Number six, we ought to prove we can improve our environment and the
    world's and grow the economy. If we don't do that, we will never get
    out--50 years from now, the children of the children in this audience
    will be living on a planet that will be much more difficult to navigate
    if we do not meet the environmental challenges of our time. And we don't
    have to mess up the economy to do it.
        Number seven, we ought to keep in the lead in science and
    technology.
        Number eight, we ought to do more to be good citizens in the world.
    I've been trying to pass a bill to buy more products from Africa and our
    neighbors in the Caribbean Basin. We can afford it in America, and a
    little bit of effort here does a phenomenal amount of good there. And I
    want to relieve the debts of the world's poorest nations. I want to head
    a global effort to develop vaccines for AIDS and malaria and TB. It
    could save millions of lives.
        You know what the number one killer in poor countries still is?
        Audience member. I believe it's malaria, no?
        The President. No.
        Audience member. What is it?
        The President. Well, malaria is the second. It's basically problems
    related to the absence of clean water--still--problems related,
    including total dehydration, which kills a lot of kids.
        I think we ought to do these things. I think we ought to keep trying
    to help people solve their racial and ethnic and religious problems. I
    think it is worth it. I also believe we ought to bring China into the
    world's trading system, because if we don't, they'll think we're
    isolating them, and there's a greater likelihood of a war there.
        I just finished reading President Woodrow Wilson's private
    secretary's memoirs of the end of World War I, and how the Congress ran
    off and left him and they stiffed all of our opponents, and how it made
    World War II inevitable. Somebody asked me the other day, ``What have
    you learned about foreign policy since you've been President?'' And I
    said, ``I've learned it's a whole lot more like life than I thought it
    was.'' What do I mean by that? That people everywhere, across all
    different cultures, are far more likely to respond to the outstretched
    hand than they are to respond to the clenched fist.
        Now, there are some people who do things that I think require us to
    clench our fist. When Mr. Milosevic did
    what he did in Bosnia and Kosovo, we clenched our fist. But on the
    whole, we ought to encourage the positive developments around the world
    and try to help people get together. I think this is important.
        And the last point I want to say is what I started with: If we want
    to do good around the world, we've got to be good at home. We've got to
    keep working. You know, we haven't solved all of our problems here. We
    still have racial prejudice; we still have religious prejudice; we still
    have people who are shot because of their race or because they're gay or
    for some other reason. And we have to keep working on this.
        If I received a message from God tonight and He said, ``You can't
    finish your term. I'm checking you out tomorrow, and you get one wish.
    I'm not a genie; you don't get three wishes. You get one''--I would not
    even wish for continued prosperity. I would wish for us to be truly one
    community, one Nation, because--because just look around this room here.
    Look at all the intelligence, the experience, the understanding, the
    energy in this room, from the youngest to the eldest and all in between.
    If we can just keep our bearings, if we can keep our spirits, if we can
    keep centered, there is no limit to what we can do.
        And what I want you to understand is, that means that we have to pay
    very close attention in this election. The last thing I will say to
    you--you have to pay very close attention. People get in a lot of
    trouble when times are good because they think there are no consequences
    to what they do. Sometimes you can get in

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    more trouble in good times than you can in bad times because you break
    your attention. You've worked so hard, you've labored, you've worked,
    and you think, ``Gosh, I just want to forget about this now.''
        And I was just talking to Tyrone Brooks.
    He was at Selma when I was there, celebrating the 35th anniversary of
    the march over the Pettus Bridge, and it put me to thinking--I will
    close with this point--when we celebrate the longest economic expansion
    in American history in February, I got all my advisers together and I
    said, ``Now, when was the longest economic expansion in history?'' When
    many of you weren't here--it was between 1961 and 1969. You either
    weren't born or you were in another country. I was here. [Laughter]
        Now, let me tell you what happened. Let me tell you what happened.
    In the full bloom of expansion in 1964, I graduated from high school.
    And yes, we were sort of peripherally involved in Vietnam, and yes, we
    did have a big civil rights challenge. But unemployment was low;
    inflation was low; growth was high; productivity was high. Most
    everybody then thought that our new President, Lyndon Johnson, with the
    great sympathy the country had after President Kennedy had been killed,
    would solve the civil rights problems of America in the Congress, and
    those that wouldn't be solved in the Congress would be solved in the
    courts. And no one believed Vietnam would tear the country up. And we
    all thought in the course of time we would win the cold war, and we
    would always just be prosperous.
        Now, 4 years later, I graduated from college in Washington, DC--4
    years--2 days after Senator Kennedy was killed, 2 months after Martin
    Luther King was killed, 9 weeks after Lyndon Johnson couldn't run for
    reelection because the country was split down the middle. And within
    just a few weeks, the longest economic expansion in American history was
    itself history.
        What's the point? Not to be down but to be determined, to realize it
    makes a difference who is in the Congress, to realize it makes a
    difference who is the President, to realize it makes a difference what
    people think the subject of this election is. The subject of this
    election is, what are we going to do with this magic moment in our
    history?
        I've done the best I could to turn this country around and to get us
    moving in the right direction. But the best is still out there. That's
    what I want you to believe. And forget about me being President; as a
    citizen, I have waited 35 years for my country again to be in the
    position to build the future of our dreams for our children.
        And it is a so much more interesting country now because so many of
    you are here. And the world is more interesting, and the potential is so
    great. But whether we seize it depends upon whether we understand what
    the issue is about, whether we work and vote, and whether people like
    Cynthia are in the United States Congress.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 1:40 p.m. at a private residence. In his
    remarks, he referred to reception hosts Saeid and Sudabeh Sadri; Gov.
    Roy Barnes of Georgia and his wife, Marie; Mayor Bill Campbell of
    Atlanta; State Representatives Tyrone Brooks, Calvin Smyre, and J. E.
    (Billy) McKinney; State Senators Robert Brown and Gloria S. Butler; NBA
    Atlanta Hawks player Dikembe Mutombo; and President Slobodan Milosevic
    of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro).