    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2006, Book II)]
    [September 18, 2006]
    [Pages 1663-1665]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at the White House Conference on Global Literacy in New York
    City
    September 18, 2006

        Thank you all. Thank you for attending this important conference. I
    look around the room and see some familiar faces--my mother. [Laughter] How are you doing? It's good to see you;
    my mother-in-law. [Laughter] Both of these
    ladies have instilled a great passion for literacy not only in
    Laura and me but for others around our country.
    Thank you all for coming. Laura, thank you for your leadership.
        Laura believes strongly in the power of
    literacy to change societies, and that's really what we're here to talk
    about. The capacity of--the simple act of teaching a child to read or an
    adult to read has the capacity to transform nations and yield the peace
    we all want.
        So I want to thank you for being here. I particularly want to thank
    the First Ladies who are here and the ministers from different
    Governments around the world. We're really proud you've taken time to
    join us here today.
        As you probably can tell, our Government takes this initiative
    seriously. After all, we've got the Secretary of State, Condoleezza
    Rice, and the Secretary of Education,
    Margaret Spellings, both here. It should
    say to people loud and clear that when you combine the resources of the
    Department of Education and the State Department, that we're serious
    about helping global literacy. And then we've added Randy
    Tobias, who's the head of USAID. He's the
    fellow who's got the responsibility of handing out some money--
    [laughter]--which is what we're doing because we believe strongly in
    this initiative. So I want to thank you all for taking time out of your
    busy schedules to send a clear message to folks.
        I want to thank Mr. Matsuura of
    UNESCO. Thank you very much for serving. Thanks for leading this vital
    organization. We want to work with you. And I see you're sitting next to
    one of my great friends--the Ambassador, Karen Hughes, is here as well.
        I want to thank Paul LeClerc of the--of
    this fantastic library. Isn't this a wonderful place to meet? Obviously,
    it makes sense to meet in a library if you're going to talk about
    literacy. It's really one of the most special spots here in New York.
    And I also want to thank Catie Marron
    for allowing us to use this facility. She's the chairman of the board,
    and Paul, of course, is the president and CEO of the New York Public
    Library.
        I want to thank those who have participated in panels. I had the
    honor of meeting some of the panelists and the panel leaders. I met
    Gerri Elliott, who is a corporate vice
    president of Microsoft. The reason I bring up Gerri Elliott is because
    in America, we believe that there is a combined responsibility to help.
    We believe government has got a vital role, but we also believe
    corporate America and our citizens have got a vital role to play in
    helping others benefit from learning how to read. And so I want to thank
    Gerri for setting such a good example.
        I call upon others in our country to understand the importance of
    this initiative and to step forth. After all, a literacy initiative will
    help spread prosperity and peace. And that's really why we're here at
    the UNGA. I've been looking forward to coming here. As you know, it's an
    annual event. Every year, I get to come. It gives me a chance to meet
    with fellow leaders, and it gives me a chance to clearly explain, the
    goals of this country are to help those who feel hopeless; the goals of
    this country are to spread liberty; the goals of this country is to
    enhance prosperity and peace.

    [[Page 1664]]

        You can't have prosperity unless people can read. It's just as
    simple as that. You know, one of the things that we have committed
    ourselves to in America is to help eradicate persistent poverty. But
    there is a direct link between illiteracy and persistent poverty.
    Oftentimes when we're talking about prosperity and helping this world
    become a more prosperous place, we tend to focus only on trade. And no
    question, good trade agreements and tearing down the barriers that
    prevent the free flow of goods will help enhance prosperity. But you
    can't be a prosperous nation if you don't have people who can read.
        I mean, think about it. It's pretty clear, in order to be an
    informed consumer, you have to read. In order to be able to take
    advantages of jobs that may come to your country as a result of
    expanding economic opportunity, you've got to read. In order to be a
    productive worker, you have to be able to read the manual. And so part
    of this initiative, part of the practical application of this initiative
    is to encourage prosperity by enhancing people's capacity to read. And I
    want to thank you for your focus on that important issue.
        I also strongly believe that those of us who have the benefits of
    living in free society must help others realize the benefits of liberty.
    I believe that. I believe that's part of America's responsibility in the
    world. I realize we can't impose our vision of government, nor should we
    try. But we believe here in America in the universality of freedom. We
    don't believe freedom belongs only to the United States of America; we
    believe that liberty is universal in its applications. We also believe
    strongly that as the world becomes more free, we'll see peace. That's
    what we believe. And we're going to act on those beliefs.
        But one thing that's for certain: It is very hard to have free
    societies if the citizens cannot read. Think about that. It's much
    harder for a society to realize the universal blessings of liberty if
    your citizens can't read the newspaper in order to be able to make
    informed choices and decisions about what may be taking place in a
    country. You can't realize the blessings of liberty if you can't read a
    ballot or if you can't read what others are saying about the future of
    your country.
        I am deeply concerned about the spread of radicalism, and I know you
    are as well. We long for the days when people don't feel comfortable or
    empowered to take innocent life to achieve an objective. One reason
    radicals are able to recruit young men, for example, to become suicide
    bombers is because of hopelessness. One way to defeat hopelessness is
    through literacy, is to giving people the fantastic hope that comes by
    being able to read and realize dreams.
        So this literacy initiative is vital as far as the United States of
    America is concerned, and we want to help. That's what I'm here to say.
    I want to thank you for being here, and let you know that we want to
    lend our help.
        I know Laura talked about our initiative on
    the continent of Africa. It is a firm, real, dedicated commitment to
    helping folks become literate. We share--we have that same sense of
    commitment in more places than Africa. I mean, for example, in our own
    neighborhood, we are deeply concerned about illiteracy, and we believe
    it's in our national interest to help folks become literate in Central
    and South America.
        One of the most, I guess, heartwarming literacy initiatives that I
    have witnessed as President was the Women's Teacher Training Institute
    in Kabul. I know there's some people from Afghanistan here, and I want
    to thank you for your courage and your bravery. I don't know if you know
    what the institute has been doing, but think back to the days prior to
    liberation when women really weren't let out of the house; young girls
    couldn't go to school. There was an underground teacher movement because
    of the great passion teachers feel for their students. And so after the
    liberation of the

    [[Page 1665]]

    country, we have worked with that institute to teach trainers--teach
    teachers how to teach, in the knowledge that when they leave the
    institute, they'll then go to their village.
        It's kind of this cascading movement of skill so that people can
    fulfill their compassion, fulfill their dreams about a more literate
    Afghanistan. This young democracy will survive. And one of the reasons
    it will survive is because of the committed effort by a lot of folks,
    not just the United States but by people around the world, to help the
    brave educational entrepreneurs that recognize hope and peace come about
    as a result of education.
        We--a lot of times you hear a lot of words--people are pretty good
    talkers in this society of ours. People step up and make promises and,
    kind of, flowery statements. I want it to be said that our Government is
    doing more than just talking, that our Government is willing to act.
    We've doubled the development assistance since I've been the President.
    We have set forth what's called the Millennium Challenge Account. We
    said we were going to help people, particularly those who fight
    corruption, those who believe in markets, but equally important, those
    who invest in the education and health of their citizens.
        We believe strongly that this world must confront the pandemic of
    HIV/AIDS and believe that to whom much is given, much is required in
    order to solve disease and poverty--a lot of it brought about because--a
    lot of that poverty brought about because of illiteracy.
        And so one thing I'd like for you to take away from today is, one,
    we're committed. We believe that the United States of America must not
    isolate ourselves from the problems of the world. We believe we have an
    opportunity to help you solve problems of the world.
        There is nothing more hopeful, there's no greater gift than to teach
    a person to read. When I was the Governor of Texas, I remember an
    African American woman walking up to me, and we were talking about the
    importance of teaching every child to read--not just a few, but every
    child to read. We believe in America that reading shouldn't be the right
    of just a few people; it ought to be--it's universal as well. And the
    woman walked up to me, and she said, ``Mr. Governor,'' she said, ``I
    want you to understand how people in my community feel.'' She said,
    ``Reading is the new civil right.'' I feel the same way about global
    literacy. Reading will yield the peace we want.
        So thanks for coming. God bless.

    Note: The President spoke at 12:10 p.m. at the New York Public Library.
    In his remarks, he referred to Koichiro Matsuura, director-general,
    United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The
    transcript released by the Office of the Press Secretary also included
    the remarks of the First Lady, who introduced the President. The Office
    of the Press Secretary also released a Spanish language transcript of
    these remarks.