[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000, Book I)]
[April 17, 2000]
[Pages 738-744]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]
Internet Video Conference in Shiprock
April 17, 2000
The President. Thank you. That was interesting. You did a good job,
and I think your Navajo is better than mine. [Laughter]
Participant. I'd like to ask some questions, if I may.
The President. Please do.
Participant. Do you like working with the Internet?
The President. I do. I especially like it when I don't have to
think, I can just talk to you. [Laughter] I don't even have to click the
mouse. I've got it on you, though, right on your hand and microphone. So
ask me a nice question. [Laughter]
Internet Access for Police Departments
Participant. Mr. President, our--[inaudible]--police department is
not connected to the Internet.
The President. Your police department?
[[Page 739]]
Participant. Yes. They do not have 911 services. People die because
police get their information late. If they had Internet, they could
communicate with other police departments better.
The President. Well, we are trying to get Internet service
throughout the Navajo Nation and, indeed, throughout all of Indian
country. And I will--when I go back, I'm going to see whether we can do
anything to accelerate Internet access, especially for police
departments. But I think we ought to have it in as many homes as
possible, as well. So we have to get telephone service out to everybody.
And then we need to get the Internet connections.
But the law enforcement issue is a separate issue. And I will do
what I can to speed it up.
Community and Home Internet Access
Participant. Mr. President, we are very thankful for getting the
Internet at our school.
The President. Could you ask the question again? I didn't hear you.
Participant. Mr. President, we are very thankful for getting the
Internet at Lake Valley Navajo School. How could you make sure the
students keep the Internet for future use?
The President. Future use? You mean after you leave school?
Participant. For more than just a year.
The President. Is that what you mean?
Participant. Yes.
The President. I think the most important thing is to make sure
that all the students who have Internet access now will be able to go on
to college, if they wish to go on, when they finish school, and will
also be able to have access to the Internet in their homes. I think
making sure that we have universal telephone service and that people's
homes will be able to be connected is the most important thing. The cost
of the computers will continue to go down, and the technology will
become less and less expensive if the infrastructure is there. So I
think that, to me, is the most important thing that we can do, in the
Government. And there are a lot of companies that are helping us try to
make sure that you will be able to have access to the Internet.
The other thing I think we ought to do is to make sure that every
community which needs it has a community center where adults, people of
all ages can come in and log on and use the Internet for whatever they
need. And we're trying to set up another 1,000 community computer
centers around the country right now.
Participant. Okay. Thank you. [Laughter]
The President. I wish you were in the press corps. They never let
me get off that light. That's great. You heard what she said; it was
okay. [Laughter]
President's Interest in the Navajo Nation
Participant. Mr. President, what is it about the Navajo Nation that
interests you?
The President. Oh, many things. I'm interested in the history. I'm
interested in the culture. I'm very interested in the creative arts. And
I'm interested in the commitment I see from your leaders and your
citizens and your young people to education and to using all this modern
technology to try to give Navajo people, especially Navajo young people,
the chance to fulfill their abilities and live out their dreams without
having to give up their culture, their language, their heritage. It's
very impressive to me, and I'm very interested in it. I hope that I'm
able to help you. I'm certainly going to try.
Participant. Okay. Thank you. [Laughter]
Internet Access for Schools
The President. Let me ask you a question. What do you think the
most important thing about access to the Internet is for young people?
Why do you care whether you can use this technology or not?
Participant. To communicate and get more information, research
projects.
The President. How many of the students who are there, not just you
two but all the others who are in the room with you, raise your hand if
you want to go to college. That's good.
One of the most important things about the Internet is it enables us
to bring information that's available anywhere in the world to people,
no matter remote where they live is. So, to me, one of the best things
about this is the possibility it offers to give you a world-class
education.
If you could change anything about your education and could get any
improvement you wanted, what would you do? What change would you make,
if you could do better?
Participant. Better schools, more equipment.
The President. Answer again; I didn't hear you.
[[Page 740]]
Participant. Better schools and more equipment.
The President. More equipment and better schools. Anybody else want
to answer that question?
Participant. [Inaudible]
The President. Okay, we got you in focus now. You can answer.
Participant. [Inaudible]
The President. I'm sorry, I couldn't hear. Say it one more time.
Participant. Internet access to all schools.
The President. Internet access to all schools, that's good. Right
now, over 90 percent of America's schools have Internet access. And what
we're trying to do is to make sure that 100 percent do, including all
the Native American schools in the country. And we have gotten the cost
of Internet access down low enough so that everyone can afford it now.
So all schools should be able to get access within a year or so; we
should be almost to 100 percent of the schools.
Would any of you like to ask a question? Yes.
President's Age
Participant. How old are you? [Laughter]
The President. I am very old. [Laughter] I'm 53. How old are you?
Participant. Seven.
The President. I wish I could trade places with you. [Laughter]
It's going to be a very exciting life for you.
Any other questions? Yes?
President's Childhood
Participant. What is your favorite childhood memory?
The President. My favorite childhood memory? That's hard; I have a
lot of good childhood memories. I think going back to the little town
where I was born and talking to all my older relatives, listening to
them tell me stories of my family's life, the way they used to live;
talk to me about things in my past. I loved that. But I have lots of
good memories. I had a wonderful childhood.
President's Visit
Participant. [Inaudible]--what inspired you to--[inaudible].
The President. I think, first of all, I wanted to come to the
Navajo Nation, and I wanted to come someplace that was a long way away
from any city, because I wanted to make the point that the Internet can
bring us all close together, no matter where we live, anywhere in the
world, and can make available information. You've got those
encyclopedias back there; you can now get all the encyclopedias, or at
least I know one or two of the major ones are completely on the
Internet.
And so I wanted to come to a place in America where I knew there was
a commitment to education, and here this school manifested that--where I
knew that the tribal leaders were committed to giving modern
opportunities to the children, and that was a long way away. I also
always wanted to see Shiprock. [Laughter] I wanted to see that big rock.
But I got to--I took the helicopters that we came in today very, very
close in. You can't imagine how wonderful it is to see it from the
helicopter. So it was a little indulgence on my part.
Computers and the Navajo Nation
Participant. Why are computers important to the Navajo Nation?
The President. Computers are important to the Navajo Nation because
they will guarantee that children who go to schools that don't have a
lot of money and, therefore, can't buy a lot of things that other
schools can buy, that live where they live in big cities or suburbs--
whatever they can buy in terms of information can be given to you
directly through computers, so that for the first time in history, a
child in a district--no matter how far away it is, no matter how rural
it is, no matter how small it is--can have access to the same kind of
information anyone else can.
Computers are important to the Navajo Nation because they can
connect people who give you health care to very sophisticated medical
centers. And if someone here gets a strange, rare disease, you can
figure out what to do about it through the medical connections.
Computers are important, as you heard from this question here, because
if the law enforcement agencies are connected to computers, if someone
has an emergency they might have enabled you to save lives that
otherwise couldn't be saved.
Computers are important because they can enable people in the Navajo
Nation to start jobs and create businesses and earn incomes in a way
that wouldn't be possible. For example, look
[[Page 741]]
at all this lovely jewelry our heroine here has on. Now, if you could go
to a local travel store--maybe I could do it while I'm here--and buy
some of these, with the computer you can sell this jewelry without
leaving here. You could stay right here; you could sell this beautiful
jewelry in any city in America and in any foreign country in the world
that is also on the Internet. So that instead of having--instead of
being dependent on the customers that happen to drive by your store,
which if you're up here may not be many, you can put--you can get on the
Internet; you can make sure people know about your website; you can make
sure people can get pictures of all these. They can see it. Then anybody
anywhere in America or anywhere else in the world that's on the Internet
can be your customer.
Computers are important because they can give you pen pals anyplace
in the world. You can write letters and have E-mail back and forth to
people in Africa or Australia or South America. You could talk to native
peoples in Australia and find out how their experience is different from
native peoples in the United States. It could change everything.
Basically, they're important because they open the world of information
to you in a way nothing else ever has.
Do you have another question?
Women's Basketball
Participant. What's your favorite WNBA team? [Laughter]
The President. Rebecca's team. Did you
meet Rebecca? Whenever she plays, I cheer. [Laughter] Actually, what I'm
supposed to say is that I cheer for the hometown team, because we have a
team in Washington.
Now, you ask a question, and then we'll go back to the----
President's Birthday
Participant. When is your birthday?
The President. My birthday, is that what you said? My birthday is
August the 19th. So this August I'll be 54, and I'll be really old.
[Laughter]
Okay, do you have a question there, back in Lake Valley?
Next Administration and Native Americans
Participant. Yes, I do. Good afternoon, Mr. President.
The President. Good afternoon.
Participant. I'm a student at CIT, which is the Crownpoint
Institute of Technology, majoring in accounting. I wanted to ask you a
question about the new administration that is going to be coming in.
What are you doing----
The President. You ought to be asking--go ahead.
Participant. Okay. What are you doing--the new administration--
[inaudible]. And how is this going to affect the education of Indians
here in the United States?
The President. Well, first, we have supported very strongly a
tribal sovereignty relationship that would honor the principle of tribal
sovereignty, increase the U.S. Government's investment in education and
health care, but would basically be committed to empowering tribal
leaders and Native American people all over our country to lift
themselves up, and their families, through economic and educational
initiatives. And of course, if Vice President Gore is the next President, I think he will continue that
policy.
But let me just say this. What I have tried to do is to put this
beyond party politics. And I have with me today a Republican Senator,
Senator Bennett from Utah, whom I
appreciate coming here because he supports the idea of bringing the
power of the Internet to tribal peoples throughout America. And what we
ought to strive for is a relationship with our tribes so that you can
vote in elections like all other Americans do, based on specific issues
and whether you like someone better than someone else, or you agree with
them on their general economic policy or their general education policy
or their general foreign policy.
And the reason I've spent so much time for over 7 years now trying
to get this relationship right is because I would like it if it became--
my policy became America's policy, and that every leader without regard
to party would follow the same path. That's what I really hope will
happen, because I think that's what's best for you and what's best for
us.
You can only know that as you ask people questions and listen to
their answers as the campaign unfolds. I can't make that decision for
you, and I shouldn't try.
Participant. Thank you, Mr. President. I would like to ask you
first--[inaudible]--my great grandfather is--[inaudible].
The President. Thank you.
[[Page 742]]
President's Hobbies
Participant. Mr. President, do you have any favorite hobbies?
The President. Favorite hobbies? Yes, I like to read. I like to
play golf. I like to play my saxophone, and I like to go to the movies.
And I like to listen to music, all kinds of music.
Participant. Okay. Thank you. [Laughter]
The President. I have so many hobbies, sometimes I have to remind
myself to work. [Laughter] But usually, the people who work for me don't
let me forget that I'm supposed to work. So I also do a little work
every day.
Do you all have any other questions, anybody else here?
Universal Internet Access
Participant. How are you going to incorporate--[inaudible].
The President. Well, the first thing you have to do is to make sure
that there's universal telephone service. You can use a computer, but
you can't be on the Internet unless there are telephones. At least now.
Pretty soon I think wireless technology will--but right now we have to
have universal telephone service. So that's what we're working on.
We made an announcement today that we would be able to provide
telephone service to every household in Indian country for no more than
a dollar a month, for basic telephone service. So that's important. So
then we have to make sure that the access charges for the Internet--that
you can afford to do it. And that's what the so-called E-rate is about.
That helps public institutions like libraries and schools. And then it's
just a question of getting the equipment in and having access to the
software. And that's what all these great companies are doing. There are
a lot of companies that are helping. And I'm trying to get Congress to
pass a bill to give big tax incentives to companies to basically make
Internet access universal.
And I think what our goal ought to be, in America and Shiprock,
would be to have Internet access as universal as telephone access.
That's really what my objective is. Ultimately, I think that it won't be
very long anyway before technology will cure all this because you'll be
able to hold something in your hand that will do this, that will give
you--that will be the source of the Internet and television and movies
and telephone and your own files and everything else. But that's what
we've got to do.
The more we can make access to this technology universal, the more
we will be able to make equal educational opportunities universal. And
then, from there, we will be able to move on to making people's economic
opportunity more universal. That's my goal.
Okay, do you have a question? Go ahead.
Native American Youth
Participant. In comparison to the youth of inner cities like
Washington, how do you perceive the Native American youth as you visit
different reservations?
The President. Well, they have their own challenges. By American
standards, city standards, the unemployment rate in Washington is still
fairly high, and there is a fairly high rate of poverty. But the
unemployment rate is far higher on the reservations, mostly because of
physical remoteness. The main difference here is physical remoteness.
And yes, you have a different culture and a native language that is
different from theirs. But basically, I find young people to have more
in common than you would imagine. Those kids want to learn; they want to
have access to the Internet. I've been at schools in Washington, DC,
that are just now being hooked up to--and where the number of computers
and the number of trained teachers and the number of classrooms in the
school building have doubled, and it's still nowhere near what I would
like to see.
I think what I would like to see you do is to use this technology
and have this kind of conversation as we're having with Lake Valley
Elementary, with a school in Washington, DC. And then you could ask them
questions, and they could ask you questions, and you could figure out
for yourselves how you're different and how you're the same. I think you
would like it a lot. And you might be surprised at what you find.
You know, when I gave the speech out here, the young lady who introduced me, who won a computer but then couldn't
hook up to the Internet in her home--I don't know if you saw the speech,
but she introduced me. When she was introduced, Congressman Udall introduced her and said that her favorite musical group
was NSYNC. And I can tell you that you could say that about a
significant percentage of the children her age in Washington, DC. So I
thought, we're not all that different after all.
[[Page 743]]
What were you going to say?
Internet Access Costs
Participant. I have a question. In the future, will the Navajo
Reservation be able to connect to the Internet locally, rather than
long-distance?
The President. Anybody here who can answer that? Somebody back
there.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman William E.
Kennard. What's the question?
Participant. I'd like to know, in the future, will the Navajo
Reservation be able to connect to the Internet locally, rather than
long-distance?
[Chairman Kennard stated that the FCC was
working with the State to redefine the borders for long-distance calls
and thereby make it easier to access the Internet.]
The President. I'm glad you asked that, because I never thought
about it before. Good for you. We'll look into that.
Yes, ma'am. Go ahead.
[A teacher asked the President how he would assist families so they
could maintain computer technology at home and still have enough money
for essentials.]
The President. I have two reactions. First of all, I think the
basics of life are still, obviously, the most important thing. And one
of the things that we have done a lot of work on--Secretary Cuomo is here, the Secretary of Housing and Urban
Development, to try to increase the stock of housing in Indian country.
I think that is very important.
Now, the second thing is, obviously, to get computers in homes.
Right now, we're trying to make them universal in all the schools, in
all the classrooms. To get them in all the homes in the short term, we
are going to have to have the help of people who will donate them. And
if we can make telephone access, monthly telephone access available and
affordable, then you will be able to have the computer. And then one of
the things we will do is we will create several jobs repairing them for
people who live here. It will create all kinds of new businesses.
The answer to the last question you raised is, I will be bitterly
disappointed if 50 years from now we have to worry about how to maintain
computer technology. First, the stuff that we are putting in now will be
obsolete within 5 or 6 years. And I really believe all the lines of
communication and all the sources of information are going to merge into
a common, user-friendly technology within the next several years, maybe
the next few years, that people will then be able to afford and access.
And what I am trying to do is to create an environment here where we
can get investment in so that we can start businesses, create jobs,
raise incomes, so that within a matter of a few years the income and job
opportunity on a place like Shiprock--in a place like Shiprock will be
much more like the income and job opportunities in any other place in
America.
My whole premise is that the communications revolution is shrinking
the meaning, the economic meaning of distance. We know it is shrinking
the educational meaning of distance because you've got the Encyclopedia
Britannica on the Internet, for example. What we're trying to do is to
shrink the economic meaning of distance, so that people can live here or
in the Appalachian Mountains or in the remote Ozark Mountains, where I
came from, or in little villages they grew up in in the Mississippi
Delta, which is the poorest part of America except for the Native
American reservations, and still make a living.
So my whole--you've got to understand, my whole goal is to make this
irrelevant. I will be deeply disappointed if two Presidents down the
road--if a President doesn't come here to celebrate the fact that
everybody is in first-class housing, nobody worries about nutrition,
unemployment rate is no higher than it is anyplace else in the country,
and the children are having a world-class education, and we're all on an
Internet connection talking to people in Russia or China or someplace
else. I mean, I will be really disappointed if that doesn't happen.
The whole point of this effort is to tell people that the children
of Native America are intelligent, and they deserve world-class
opportunities, and the adults are able, and they deserve a chance to
make a living. That's the whole point of this whole enterprise.
Thank you.
Participant. Thank you.
The President. You guys were great. Thanks.
Note: The conference began at 7:09 p.m. in the lobby at Dine College
on the Navajo Indian Reservation. Participants included faculty,
students,
[[Page 744]]
and guests at the college as well as Internet participants from Lake
Valley School, a Bureau of Indian Affairs elementary school remotely
located on the reservation about 150 miles southeast of Shiprock. In his
remarks, the President referred to Rebecca Lobo, player, New York
Liberty, Women's National Basketball Association.