[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.