[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2002, Book II)]
[October 14, 2002]
[Pages 1790-1798]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks in Waterford, Michigan
October 14, 2002

    The President. Thank you all very much. Thanks for coming today. I 
want to thank you all for----
    Audience member. We love you! We love you! We love you!
    The President. Glad I came. I want to thank you all for coming. I 
particularly want to thank you all for bringing--if you have children, 
thanks for bringing them. I appreciate the chance to remind our 
youngsters what a great country we have. I appreciate the chance--I 
appreciate the chance to remind them that although we've got some issues 
and we've got some challenges, there's no doubt in my mind this great 
Nation you call home can accomplish anything--I mean anything--we set 
our mind to.
    So thanks for coming. I appreciate your interest in your State and 
in the political process of your State. I've come back to Michigan 
because I know that Dick Posthumus will make 
a great Governor of Michigan, and I'm here to ask you to help him get 
elected. I'm here to ask you to go to your coffee shops or your houses 
of worship or your neighborhood community centers and talk it up about 
this good man, to tell the people in your community, whether they be 
Republican, Democrat, independent--don't care--that when it comes to 
running the State of Michigan, he's got what it takes. He's got the 
character; he's got the leadership capacity.
    And just like me, he married well. I know 
that Pam Posthumus will be a fine first lady. 
Speaking about fine First Ladies--yes, she's 
doing fine. She sends her best to the good folks of Michigan. I saw her 
waving from the balcony when I choppered out of the White House grounds. 
She's doing just great. I can't tell you how proud I am of Laura.
    You might remember the story--when I asked her to marry me, she was a public school librarian. Truth 
of the matter is, she didn't particularly care for politics--
[laughter]--didn't like politicians. [Laughter] Now, here she is--
[laughter]--the First Lady. What a fabulous job she's done. She's 
brought great dignity and calm and class to the White House. I love 
her a lot. I

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love her a lot, and she's doing just great. People now understand why I 
asked her to marry me. A lot of her friends are wondering why in the 
heck she said yes. [Laughter] But we're doing great.
    I want to thank many of you for your prayers. I appreciate that a 
lot. It's a huge honor to be the President of a country that prays for 
the President and the First Lady. We feel the prayers, and we appreciate 
them.
    I also want to urge you all to make sure that the United States 
Congress stays in friendly hands, that Denny Hastert is the Speaker, a Congress with which I can work. And 
that means sending Thaddeus McCotter to 
the United States Congress. It means sending Candice Miller to the United States Congress. It means making sure a 
fine sitting Congressman, Joe Knollenberg, 
gets sent back to the United States Congress.
    I appreciate Joe's leadership, and I 
know that Thaddeus and Candice will do a fine job on behalf of all the people of 
Michigan, not just a few but everybody. And that's what's important. 
When you're looking at these people running for office, you've got--
you've got to understand that our jobs are not to represent a small 
segment of society. We're to lay out our principles and our values and 
represent everybody. And that's what I like about these candidates.
    I'm also proud to be traveling with a former United States Senator, 
now a member of my Cabinet, and that would be Spence Abraham. Spence, thank you for coming. You know, it's a sad 
day when he lost for the Senate. It hurt Michigan--it gave me a chance 
to put somebody good in the Cabinet. [Laughter] And he's doing a fine 
job working on an incredibly important issue, about which I'll speak in 
a second, and that's energy. But let me tell you one thing: If we had 
him in the Senate, if we had people like Spence in the Senate, there would be no question today about 
my judges getting confirmed.
    The Senate is doing a lousy job on my judge nominations. They're 
treating this like it's politics, not what's good for the country. You 
see, we need judges who will serve, not to write legislation. We've got 
plenty of legislators. We need judges who will strictly interpret the 
Constitution of the United States sitting on our benches.
    No, I heard a lot of reasons why we need to change the Senate, but 
one of them is to make sure that the Federal bench represents the way 
you want them to serve their jobs. We need a Senate change, and that's 
why you've got to put Rocky in the United States Senate. Hey, 
Rocky, good luck to you. You 
should never count out a guy named Rocky.
    I also want to thank my friend Brooks Patterson. Brooksie is from--been in politics quite a while. I 
got to know him in the 1988 campaign. I liked him then; I still like him 
now. And I appreciate him coming to say hello.
    I want to thank all the grassroots activists, the people who are 
manning the phone banks, the people who do the jobs that nobody thanks 
you for doing. Well, I'm here to thank you. I appreciate your hard work, 
and I appreciate your love for your country.
    I want to thank those who are seeking office, like Loren 
Bennett and Terri Lynn Land and Mike Cox, all fine candidates, 
to make sure this Republican ticket--[applause].
    Let me tell you why it's important to have a Governor who knows what 
he's doing. I know something about being a Governor. The most important 
job for a Governor is to make sure every single child gets a good 
education. That's what Dick Posthumus 
understands.
    But it takes a certain kind of attitude to make sure every child 
gets a good education. It starts with understanding that every child can 
learn, and to have leadership willing to challenge what I call the soft 
bigotry of low expectations. You see, if you believe certain kids can't 
learn and

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you have low standards, then you're going to get lousy results. You've 
got to understand every child can learn. You better make sure your 
Governor understands every child can learn. And then you'd better make 
sure the Governor trusts the local people, all around Michigan, to chart 
the path for excellence. One size doesn't fit all when it comes to 
running the Michigan schools.
    One of the things that's really important, if you believe every 
child can learn, then you want to ask the question, is every child 
learning? If you believe every child can learn to read and write and add 
and subtract, then you want to know that. And as a State, I hope you'll 
have a Governor who is willing to ask that question and holding the 
people account.
    You see, the worst thing that can happen is for people to believe 
every child can't learn, and they just shuffle them through the system. 
``Let's just move them on. Certain kids can't learn. Inner-city kids,'' 
they say, ``might be too tough to educate. We'll just move them along. 
Children whose parents don't speak English as a first language, they're 
tough to educate. We'll just move them along.'' We can't accept that in 
Michigan. We can't accept that anywhere in America. You must measure in 
this State. You must have strong accountability systems to test whether 
or not the curriculum is working, to test whether the teachers are 
teaching. You must understand that you've got to measure to make sure 
not one child gets left behind.
    And when you find children in schools that won't teach and won't 
change, you better have you a Governor who is willing to challenge the 
status quo, for the sake of the children. And that Governor is Dick 
Posthumus.
    Not only--listen, we're worried about people who can't find work. At 
least I am, and I know Dick is as well. 
Anytime we've got anybody in Michigan or anywhere in America looking for 
work and can't find work, it's a problem, and we have to deal with it. 
And that makes sure--that means you've got to make sure you've got a 
Governor who understands the role of Government is not to create wealth 
but an environment in which the small business can grow to be a big 
business, in which the entrepreneurs can find the entrepreneurial 
spirit.
    And that's why it's so important to have a Governor who is willing 
to hold the taxes down in order to make sure businesses can grow, so 
people can find work.
    No, you've got the right man in Dick Posthumus. He knows what he's doing. He's going to make a fine 
Governor for the State of Michigan.
    I want to share with you some of my concerns about our country. The 
character of our country doesn't concern me. The ability for our country 
to solve problems doesn't concern me. But I am concerned about an 
economy not doing as good as we want it to do. I am concerned about an 
economy that was in recession, that got affected by the terrorist 
attack. I am concerned about a society in which some of the members of 
our society thought it was okay to fudge the numbers, thought it was 
okay not to tell the truth when it came to profits and losses, thought 
it was okay to mistreat employee and shareholder alike. Those days are 
gone from America.
    Corporate malfeance has had an effect on our economy, and we need to 
do something about it. That's why I was honored to sign the most 
comprehensive corporate reform legislation since Franklin Roosevelt was 
the President. The message is clear now. The message is clear to people 
who should know better. If you think you're going to find easy money in 
this country, you're wrong. What you're going to find is hard time if 
you cheat the people.
    But there are some things Congress can do, before they go home, to 
help the working people of this country. See, they're fixing to go home. 
But they need to act. One of the things you'll find about Washington--or 
at least I found about it--there's

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a lot of good talkers--[laughter]--and not enough good doers. They're 
talking a good game up there. They're worried about the jobs, and so am 
I. So in order to make sure people can find work, there are some 
practical things Congress can do. And let me give you a couple of 
suggestions.
    One is, is that there's a lot of hardhats not working because the 
people can't find terrorism insurance. If you want to build a big 
project and you can't get insurance because of what the terrorists have 
done for America, you're going to put the project aside. There's over 
$15 billion of construction projects which are on hold, which aren't 
going forward, which means there's over 300,000 jobs that would be in 
place or soon to be in place that aren't in place. And so in my 
judgment, is--what Congress ought to do is, they ought to pass 
legislation to serve as a backdrop for terrorist insurance. They ought 
to serve as a backstop. If the terrorists don't attack, it hasn't cost 
anybody anything. If the terrorists attack, it'll help our economy 
recover quicker.
    For the sake of jobs, however, they need to get moving. There's too 
much talk in Washington, DC. And one of the stumbling blocks is whether 
or not they care more about the hardhat or the trial lawyer. We stand on 
the side of the hardhats in America, the hard-working people. And 
therefore, get me a terrorism insurance bill that recognizes their hard 
work and the need to get these people back to work.
    We need an energy bill in America. We need an energy bill. 
Spence has been working on one, a balanced, 
comprehensive approach that says, we need to do a better job of 
conserving energy; we need to unleash new technologies to make sure that 
we become less dependent on foreign sources of crude; but we need to 
explore in an environmentally friendly way here at home. Listen, the 
less energy we use from countries that may not like us, the more secure 
we are nationally. An energy bill will be good for jobs. An energy bill 
is important for our national security. They've been talking about that 
energy bill up there now for about a year. Before they go home, they 
need to get the energy bill to my desk.
    Let me tell you what else the Congress needs to do. The Congress 
needs to understand that when a person has more money in their pocket, 
they're likely to demand a good or service. And when they demand a good 
or a service, in this society, somebody is likely to produce the good or 
a service. And when somebody produces a good or a service, somebody is 
more likely to find work.
    The tax relief plan which we passed through the United States 
Congress came at the right time in American economic history. When your 
economy is slow, you let people keep more of their own money. That's the 
opposite of what some of them think up there. You see, they have--when 
they want to have a summit--you know what the summit means to me? It 
means after the elections, they're going to figure out a way to raise 
your taxes; that's what a summit means to me. And so, therefore, if 
Congress really wants to make sure the job base continues to expand, 
what they'll do is make the tax cuts permanent.
    Now, that's already--you say, ``Well, Mr. President, aren't they 
already permanent?'' No. Here's what happened. In the United States 
Senate, they have a rule that says on the one hand, we giveth, and on 
the other hand, we taketh away. [Laughter] It's hard to explain, but 
that's just what happened. Which means that the tax relief plan we 
passed--and it's phased in over 10 years--after 10 years goes back to 
the way it was. It's hard to plan that way. If you're a small-business 
owner, you need to have certainty in the Tax Code. If you're somebody 
who is going to risk capital, you need to have certainty in the Tax 
Code. For the sake of economic growth, for the sake of job creation, the 
United States Congress must make the tax cuts permanent.
    I made a decision the other day to help Michigan workers and help 
workers all

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across the country by invoking Taft-Hartley to open up the ports on our 
west coast. They couldn't get together. Workers couldn't get together, 
and the shippers couldn't get together. And their ship--they were 
locking down the ports. And that hurt manufacturers here in Michigan, 
and it hurt Michigan farmers, and it's going to hurt Michigan's 
consumers if it went on too long. For the sake of jobs, for the sake of 
job creation, I put the--I said, ``Get back to work for 80 days, and 
come together, for the sake of our country, during these tough economic 
times. We expect you to resolve your differences so people in other 
parts of the country won't suffer.''
    Until I'm satisfied that people can find work, I'm going to stay on 
the economy. I'm going to keep working with Congress, if need be, 
working with the American people, to do everything we can to keep our 
economy going. We've got good--we've got the foundation for growth, by 
the way. Interest rates are low. Inflation is low. We've got the best 
workers in the world. We've got the highest productivity in the world. 
The foundation for growth is strong. We've just got to keep working 
until we're satisfied that people can find work.
    And my biggest preoccupation, my biggest worry is that there's still 
an enemy out there which hates America, an enemy which still wants to 
take innocent life. Recently we've seen what I'm talking about, in Bali. 
There was a coldblooded attack. Innocent people, from all around the 
world, by the way--an American, at least we know of one or two 
Americans, many Australians, English--innocent people enjoying 
themselves at a resort, and a bunch of coldblooded killers decided to 
take life, to take innocent life, just like they did on September the 
11th, 2001.
    It's a stark reminder that there's an enemy which hates freedom-
loving countries, an enemy which does not value human life like we value 
human life here in America. See, in this country, every life is 
precious; everybody has got meaning; everybody has got worth.
    No, the attack on the French boat--which was, I believe, a terrorist 
attack--the attack at the resort, the attack on our marines in Kuwait 
shows that there's still an enemy which is active out there. And 
therefore, my biggest worry is to make sure we do everything we can to 
continue to protect America, to save innocent life.
    And so therefore, I've asked Congress to join me in developing a 
Department of Homeland Security, a Department which will take the 
agencies involved with protecting the homeland security, putting them 
under one umbrella so that the focus will be your protection, so that 
the number one priority will be the protection of the American people. 
We made progress in the House, but we're stuck in the Senate. We're 
stuck in the Senate because some Senators want there to be a big, thick 
book of bureaucratic regulations to tell this administration and future 
administrations how to run the Department.
    I'll give you an example. On the border, we need to know who is 
coming in and what they're bringing when they come in and whether or not 
they're leaving when they say they're going to leave. And yet we've got 
three different agencies on the border, full of fine people, by the way. 
You've got your Customs and INS and the Border Patrol. Yet in some 
sectors, they've got different strategies. They wear different uniforms. 
They've got different tasks. For the sake of homeland security, any 
administration ought to have the flexibility to put the agencies 
together or to put the right people at the right place at the right time 
to protect the American people. The Senate version doesn't let me do 
that.
    People ought to be able to organize if they want to organize. There 
ought to be collective bargaining, and that's fine with me. But for the 
sake of national security, I ought to have the capacity, on a limited 
basis, to say our national security is more

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important than some collective bargaining rights.
    And I'll give you an example. Let me give you an example. Our 
Customs, they ought to be wearing radiation detection devices to 
determine whether somebody is trying to sneak a weapon of mass 
destruction into America. The leadership of that particular group of 
people said, ``No way. We need to have a collective bargaining session 
over whether or not our people should be made to wear these devices.'' 
And that could take a long period of time. We don't have time, when it 
comes to an enemy. We need to have the flexibility to run this 
Department so I can assure you.
    But the best way to protect the homeland is to hunt these killers 
down, one at a time, and bring them to justice. And that's what we're 
going to do. That's exactly what we're going to do. You know, they--I 
don't know what went through their minds when they hit us. They probably 
thought after September the 11th, 2001, we'd take a step back and file a 
lawsuit or two. [Laughter] See, they didn't understand about America. 
They don't understand that we love freedom. We don't embrace freedom; we 
love freedom. And nobody is going to take our freedoms away from us.
    No, they probably thought that we were so selfish and self-absorbed 
and materialistic that after they hit us, we would try to understand 
them--[laughter]--take a step back, and maybe get them some therapy. 
[Laughter] As we've seen this weekend, as we've seen in the past, 
there's only one therapy, and that's to bring them to justice, which is 
exactly what the United States is going to do.
    This is a different kind of war; it's a different kind of war. In 
the old days, you could measure progress based upon the number of tanks 
destroyed or aircraft shot out of the sky or ships that were sunk. This 
is a different kind of war. We face a shadowy enemy. They're real. 
They're tough. They are determined. But their leaders will hide in caves 
and send their young warriors to their suicidal death. It's a different 
kind of enemy we face.
    And sometimes you'll see progress on your TV screens, and sometimes 
you're just not going to see what's happening. A different kind of 
battle we face. But you've got to know we're making progress. We're 
making steady progress. I bet you we have hauled in--I say ``we''--by 
the way, the doctrine that says, ``Either you're with them, or you're 
with us,'' still stands. Either you're with the United States of 
America, or you're with the enemy.
    And we're making progress. A couple of thousand have been hauled in. 
Slowly but surely, we're dismantling this terrorist network. Sure, 
they're still out there, but they're not nearly as strong as they were a 
year ago. Slowly but surely, we're hauling them in. And a like number 
weren't as lucky as those who were captured; like number met their 
justice a different way. And we're still on them. We will continue to 
deny them training bases. We will continue to try to deny them sanctuary 
anywhere. We're going to keep getting them on the run. Slowly but 
surely, no matter how long it takes, my fellow Americans, we will do 
what it takes to make the homeland secure and to free the American 
people from terror.
    And that's why I sent to Congress a significant increase in our 
defense spending, and I want to explain why. Anytime we put one of our 
youngsters into harm's way, they deserve the best pay, the best 
training, and the best possible equipment. We owe that to our soldiers. 
We owe that to the loved ones of our soldiers. And if there are any 
loved ones out there, I can't tell you how proud I am of our military, 
how confident I am of my military, and how good our military is. Thank 
you for coming.
    I also asked for a big increase in defense spending because I wanted 
to send a message to our friend and to our foe that we ain't quitting. 
We're just not going to quit when it comes to defending America. It

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doesn't matter how long it takes. We don't have a calendar on my desk--
there's not a calendar on my desk in the great Oval Office that flips 
to, you know, flip it one day and it says, oh, it's time to quit. That's 
just not the way we think in America. We understand the task. We 
understand it's a different kind of war. We understand it requires 
patience and to be steadfast in purpose, and that's exactly the way this 
Nation is going to remain. We will pursue the enemy no matter where he 
tries to hide, no matter what cave he's in, no matter what city he hides 
in, until justice is done.
    And the war on terror is just not Al Qaida. There are other 
terrorists around. There are other threats to our country with which we 
must deal. And that means--and one place is Iraq. I want to--let me 
share with you some thoughts, a serious, serious, subject. It's one 
that's got a lot of folks debating in the coffee shops or in the homes 
about Iraq. I want to remind you of a couple of things.
    First of all, 11 years ago this leader of Iraq, the dictator of Iraq, made a pledge that he would not 
have weapons of mass destruction. He promised the world after he got 
whipped that he wouldn't have weapons of mass destruction. And the 
Security Council of the United Nations passed a resolution which said, 
``You won't have weapons of mass destruction.'' Since that time, he has 
lied; he has deceived; he has not listened to the U.N. Security Council 
resolutions. Since that time, we now recognize as a country that oceans 
no longer protect us like they used to. A new reality set in, in 
America. It used to be we could kind of sit back and look at a threat 
from afar and say, ``Well, that may affect somebody else, but it doesn't 
affect us.''
    Prior to September the 11th, we had the comfort of realizing or 
looking back in history and saying that we're pretty safe here in 
America. Others may be threatened--after all, he attacked two in his 
neighborhood; he gassed his own people--but not us. September the 11th 
changed the equation, changed our thinking. It also changed our thinking 
when we began to realize that one of the most dangerous things that can 
happen in the modern era is for a deceiving dictator who has gassed his own people, who has weapons of mass 
destruction, to team up with an organization like Al Qaida.
    As I said--I was a little more diplomatic in my speech, but we need 
to think about Saddam Hussein using Al Qaida 
to do his dirty work to not leave fingerprints behind. I went to the 
United Nations. I did so because I wanted to challenge that body. 
Sixteen resolutions, sixteen defiances: They passed resolution after 
resolution after resolution, and 16 times Saddam Hussein has defied 
those resolutions. For the sake of keeping peace, it's important that 
there be an international body that has backbone, that can work to keep 
the peace in this new era we're in. And now is the time for choice. The 
United Nations can decide whether it's the League of Nations or whether 
or not it is a United Nations capable of keeping the peace.
    There is universal agreement that Saddam Hussein poses a serious threat. He's a threat to the 
neighborhood. He's a threat to our allies. There is universal 
understanding that right after the Gulf war he was close to having a 
nuclear weapon. He still wants to have a nuclear weapon. For the sake of 
peace, for the sake of our security, now is the time to make sure that 
Saddam says what he said he would do. He must disarm. It's his choice to 
make. He said he would disarm. He must disarm. The U.N. said he must 
disarm. They can disarm him.
    But for the sake of security of our country--their choice to make--I 
hope it's done peacefully. I hope we never use a military--one military 
troop in Iraq. But for the sake of the peace and security of the United 
States, Saddam Hussein must disarm, or the 
United States, with friends and allies, will disarm him.

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    I say that because I want there to be peace. I speak as a man who 
has a goal for the world, and that's peace. I believe out of the evil 
done to America can come a peaceful world. There'll be some tough times, 
no question about it. But if we remain strong and resolved, if we hold 
dear to the principles, the God-given principles and values that we hold 
dear to our hearts--the principle of freedom, that every life counts, 
that people should be free--if we hold that dear and remain strong, we 
can achieve peace, and I hope we do. That's my goal.
    The enemy thinks that they can cause America to retreat from our 
obligations. We're not. They believe we'll cower in the face of their 
coldblooded murder. We won't. And out of the evil done to this great 
country and now out of the evil being done elsewhere, we can achieve 
peace. We've been given an opportunity to lead the world to peace.
    And at home, we can have a better America, too. We can have a better 
America. There are people who hurt in America. There are pockets of 
despair and loneliness, people who are addicted, people who wonder 
whether or not the American Dream is meant for them. So long as some of 
us hurt, we all hurt in this country. But I'm absolutely convinced that 
as a nation we can rise up, not only to keep the peace and make it 
secure but rise up to make America a better place, a more hopeful place, 
a place of love and compassion. If you want to help, if you want to help 
in the war against terror, if you want to fight evil, love your neighbor 
like you'd like to be loved yourself.
    There are things Government can do to help people, to empower 
people. Government needs to trust citizens. It starts with making sure 
everybody has a good education. We need to also make sure our medical 
systems are modern. Listen, Medicare is an incredibly important program. 
Medicine has changed; Medicare hasn't. Medicine is modern; Medicare 
isn't. For the sake of our seniors, for the sake of a better life in 
America, our seniors need to have a Medicare program that gives them 
choices and gives them prescription drug benefits.
    We need to make sure, as we authorize welfare, to understand the 
whole--the reason welfare works, the reason welfare reform works is 
because we help people find work. Work is the backbone of the welfare 
system. It ought to remain the backbone of a good welfare system. People 
get dignity when they find work. They're less dependent on a Government 
that can sap their soul and drain their spirit.
    There are things Government can do to make America a better place 
but not nearly as importantly as what our fellow Americans can do to 
make America a better place. Government can hand out money, but what 
Government cannot do is put hope in people's hearts or a sense of 
purpose in people's lives. That's up to our fellow Americans.
    Today we've got with us Lenny Compton. Lenny is in his second year--right here, Lenny--he's in 
his second year as AmeriCorps. Let me tell you about him. You know what 
he does? He mentors a child. He mentors kids in the first, second, and 
third grade. He understands one person can't do everything to change 
America, but one person can do something. One person can help change 
America, one heart, one soul, one conscience at a time. I want to thank 
you, Lenny.
    And that's what we need to do to show the enemy the true nature of 
America. Each of us can be that one person, helping somebody in need. It 
doesn't require a lot. Listen, walking across the street to a shut-in, 
saying ``I love you'' on a regular basis, is what I'm talking about. 
Running a Boy Scout troop is what I'm talking about. Being involved with 
a Girl--Girls Clubs and Boys Clubs, going to your church or your 
synagogue or your mosque and helping feed the hungry and find shelter 
for the homeless, it's all a part of the great

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fabric of America. In order to fight evil, do some good--do some good.
    One of the things that's happening in America as a result of the 
attack by the enemy is that people are taking a good, hard look at 
what's important in life. We're beginning to have a cultural shift, it 
seems like to me. I want to be a part of that shift. It's a shift away 
from a culture that has said, ``If it feels good, just go ahead and do 
it,'' and ``If you've got a problem, blame somebody else,'' to a new era 
that says, ``Each of us are responsible for the decisions we make in 
life.''
    If you are a mom or a dad, if you're lucky enough to be a mom or a 
dad, you're responsible for loving that child with all your heart and 
all your soul. If you're living in Oakland County, you're responsible 
for the quality of education. If you're dissatisfied with the quality of 
education, do something about it. If you're satisfied, go hug a teacher, 
and thank him or her for doing such an important job.
    No, I think it's happening. I think people are beginning to 
understand that being a patriot is more than just putting your hand over 
your heart. Being a patriot is working to make America a more 
compassionate and decent and hopeful place.
    No, I think it's happening. I remember and will never forget what 
took place on Flight 93. We had average citizens flying across the 
country. All of a sudden they became aware of the new reality, that 
America was under attack. They were on the phones to their loved ones. 
The word ``love'' was used a lot. They said goodbye. They said a prayer. 
They asked for blessing from an Almighty. A guy said, ``Let's roll.'' 
They took the plane into the ground to save life. These Americans 
understood that being a patriot was to serve something greater than 
yourself in life.
    No, the American spirit is strong and alive. There's no doubt in my 
mind, my friends and fellow Americans, no doubt in my mind that we can 
achieve peace, no doubt in my mind that we can secure our homeland. 
There is no doubt in my mind that we can educate our children and 
provide a hopeful future for everybody who is living here in America. 
And the reason I say that is because I say with the utmost of confidence 
that this is the finest nation, full of the finest people, on the face 
of the Earth.
    May God bless you all, and may God bless America.

Note: The President spoke at 3:49 p.m. at Oakland County International 
Airport. In his remarks, he referred to Thaddeus McCotter, candidate for 
Michigan's 11th Congressional District; Candice Miller, candidate for 
Michigan's 10th Congressional District; senatorial candidate Andrew 
``Rocky'' Raczkowski; L. Brooks Patterson, Oakland County Executive; 
Loren Bennett and Terri Lynn Land, candidates for Michigan secretary of 
state; Mike Cox, candidate for Michigan attorney general; and President 
Saddam Hussein of Iraq.