    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 19 (Monday, May 16, 1994)]
    [Pages 1061-1064]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Remarks at the Gallaudet University Commencement Ceremony

    May 13, 1994

        Thank you. Thank you so much for the warm reception and for the
    honorary degree.
        I must tell you at the beginning that I have been deeply moved by
    the wonderful statements of your students, Jeanette and Andre. I think
    they have already said everything I could hope to say as well or better.
    And I wish only that I could say it to you in their language as well.
        I'm delighted to be here with Dr. Jordan, whom I have admired so
    much and Dr. Anderson, a native of my home State; with my great friend
    and your champion, Senator Tom Harkin; with many Members of Congress,
    including Major Owens, who will receive an honorary degree, Congressman
    David Bonior, Congressman Steve Gunderson, and your own Representative
    in Congress, Eleanor Holmes Norton.
        I honor, too, here the presence of those in the disability rights
    community, the members of our own administration, but most of all, you
    the class of 1994, your families, and your friends. You have come to
    this extraordinary moment in your own life at a very special moment in
    the life of your country and what it stands for.
        Everywhere, nations and peoples are struggling to move toward the
    freedom and democracy that we take for granted here. Our example is now
    over 200 years old, but it continues to be a powerful magnet, pulling
    people toward those noble goals. This week we all watched and wondered
    as a former prisoner stood shoulder to shoulder with his former guards
    to become a President of free and democratic South Africa.
        Yet each day across the--from Bosnia to Rwanda and Burundi, and here
    in America in neighborhood after neighborhood, we wonder whether peace
    and progress will win out over the divisions of race and ethnicity, of
    region and religion, over the impulse of violence to conquer virtue.
    Each day we are barraged in the news as mutual respect and the bonds of
    civility are broken down a little more here at home and around the
    world.
        It is not difficult to find in literature today many who suggest
    that there are large num-

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    bers of your generation who feel a sense of pessimism about the future.
    People in my generation worry about that. They worry whether young
    people will continue to try to change what is wrong, continue to take
    responsibility for the hard work of renewing the American community.
        I wish everyone who is worried about America could see your faces
    today and could have heard your class speakers today. Our whole history
    and our own experience in this lifetime contradict the impulse to
    pessimism. For those who believe that nothing can change, I say, look at
    the experience of Rabin and Arafat as the police representing the
    Palestinians begin to move into Gaza and to Jericho. For those who
    proclaim there is no future for racial harmony and no hope in our common
    humanity, I say, look at the experience of Mandela and de Klerk. For
    those who believe that in the end people are so vulnerable to their own
    weakness they will not have the courage to preserve democracy and
    freedom, I say, look to the south of our borders where today of almost 3
    dozen nations in Latin America, all but two, are ruled by democratically
    elected leaders.
        Here at home, with all of our terrible problems, for every act of
    craven violence, there are 100 more acts of kindness and courage. To be
    sure, the work of building opportunity and community, of maintaining
    freedom and renewing America's hope in each and every generation is
    hard. And it requires of each generation a real commitment to our
    values, to our institutions, and to our common destiny.
        The students of Gallaudet University who have struggled so mightily,
    first for simple dignity and then for equal opportunity, you have built
    yourselves, and in the process you have built for the rest of us, your
    fellow citizens of this country and the world, a much better world. You
    have regiven to all of us our hope. Gallaudet is a national treasure.
        It is fitting, as Dr. Anderson said, that President Lincoln granted
    your charter because he understood better than others the sacrifices
    required to preserve a democracy under diversity. And ultimately,
    Lincoln gave his life to the cause of renewing our national rights. He
    signed your first charter in the midst of the Civil War where he had the
    vision to see not just farmland and a tiny school but the fact that we
    could use education to tear down the walls between us, to touch and
    improve lives and lift the spirits of those who for too long had been
    kept down.
        Over the years, pioneers have built Gallaudet, sustained by
    generations of students and faculty, committed to the richness and
    possibility of the deaf community and the fullness of the American
    dream. This school stands for the renewal that all America needs today.
        Lincoln's charter was an important law. But let me refer to another
    great president to make an equally important point, that just as
    important as laws are the attitudes that animate our approach to one
    another. The president that I'm referring to is your president, King
    Jordan. When the Americans with Disabilities Act passed, he said, and I
    quote, ``We now stand at the threshold of a new era for all Americans,
    those of us with disabilities and those of us without.'' He went on to
    say that in this pursuit, as in every pursuit of democracy, our task is
    to reach out and to educate each other about our possibilities, our
    capabilities, and who we are.
        I ran for President because I thought we were standing on the
    threshold of a new era, just as President Jordan says. I felt we were in
    danger of coming apart when we ought to be coming together, of arguing
    too much about going left or right, when we ought to be holding hands
    and going forward into the future together. I grew weary of hearing
    people predict that my own daughter's generation would be the first
    generation of Americans to do less well than their parents. I was tired
    of hearing people say that our country's best days were behind us. I
    didn't believe it in 1992, and I sure don't believe it after being here
    with you today.
        My responsibilities to you and your generation are significant.
    That's why all of us have worked hard to restore the economy, to reward
    work, to bring down the deficit, to increase our trade with other
    nations, to create more jobs; why we've worked to empower all Americans
    to compete and win in a global economy through early education and
    lifetime training and learning, through reforming the college loan
    program, to open the doors of college to all Americans; why we have
    worked to strengthen the family

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    through the Family and Medical Leave Act; why we have worked to create a
    safer America with the Brady bill and the ban on assault weapons and
    putting more police on the street and punishing and preventing more
    crime as well.
        But I say to you that, in the end, America is a country that has
    always been carried by its citizens, not its Government. The Government
    is a partner, but the people, the people realize the possibility of this
    country and ensure its continuation from generation to generation.
        I think there is no better symbol of this than the program which I
    hope will be the enduring legacy of our efforts to rebuild the American
    community, the national service program. Six Gallaudet students,
    including four members of this class, will be part of our national
    service program, Americorps' very first class of 20,000 volunteers. I am
    very proud of you for giving something back to your country.
        By joining the Conservation Corps and committing yourselves to
    rebuild our Nation, by exercising your freedom and your responsibility
    to give something back to your country and earning something for
    education in return, you have embodied the renewal that America must
    seek. As King Jordan reminded us, Government can make good laws, and we
    need them. But it can't make good people. In the end, it's our values
    and our attitudes that make the difference. Having those values and
    attitudes and living by them is everyone's responsibility and our great
    opportunity.
        Look at the changes which have occurred through that kind of effort.
    Because previous generations refused to be denied a place at the table
    simply because others thought they were different, the world is now open
    to those of you who graduate today. Most of you came here knowing you
    could be doctors, entrepreneurs, software engineers, lawyers, or
    cheerleaders--[laughter]--because over the years, others spoke up for
    you and gave you a chance to move up. And you have clearly done your
    part. You have made a difference. You have believed in broadening the
    unique world you share with each other by joining it to the community at
    large and letting the rest of us in on your richness, your hearts, your
    minds, and your possibilities. For that, we are all in your debt.
        Perhaps the greatest moment in the history of this university
    occurred in 1988 when the community came together and said, ``We will no
    longer accept the judgment of others about our lives and leadership in
    this university; these are our responsibilities and we accept the
    challenge.'' In days, what was known as the ``Deaf President Now''
    movement changed the way our entire country looks at deaf people. The
    Nation watched as you organized and built a movement of conscience
    unlike any other. You removed barriers of limited expectations, and our
    Nation saw that deaf people can do anything hearing people can, but
    hear.
        That people's movement was a part of the American disability rights
    movement. Just 2 months after King Jordan took office, the Americans
    with Disabilities Act was introduced with the leadership of many,
    including my friend Tom Harkin. In 2 years it became law and proved once
    again that the right cause can unite us. Over partisanship and prejudice
    we can still come together. For the now more than 49 million Americans
    who are deaf or disabled, the signing of the ADA was the most important
    legal event in history. For almost a billion persons with disabilities
    around the world, it stands as a symbol of simple justice and
    inalienable human rights.
        I believe that being deaf or having any disability is not tragic,
    but the stereotypes attached to it are tragic. Discrimination is tragic.
    Not getting a job or having the chance to reach your God-given potential
    because someone else is handicapped by prejudice or fear is tragic. It
    must not be tolerated because none of us can afford it. We need each
    other, and we do not have a person to waste.
        The ADA is part of the seamless web of civil rights that so many
    have worked for so long to build in America, a constant fabric wrapped
    in the hopes and aspirations of all right-thinking Americans. As your
    President, I pledge to see that it is fully implemented and aggressively
    enforced in schools, in the workplace, in Government, in public places.
    It is time to move from exclusion to inclusion, from dependence to
    independence, from paternalism to empowerment.

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        I mention briefly now only two of the many tasks still before me as
    your President and you as citizens. Our health care system today denies
    or discriminates in coverage against 81 million Americans who are part
    of families with what we call preexisting conditions, including
    Americans with disabilities. It must be changed. If we want to open up
    the workplace and if we are serious about giving every American the
    chance to live up to his or her potential, then we cannot discriminate
    against which workers get health care and how much it costs. If you can
    do the job, you ought to be able to get covered. It's as a simple as
    that. And that simple message is one I implore you to communicate to the
    Congress. We have fooled around for 60 years. Your time has come. You
    are ready. You are leaving this university. You want a full, good life
    and you do not wish to be discriminated against on health care grounds.
    Pass health care reform in 1994.
        The last thing I wish to say that faces us today also affects your
    future. The Vice President has worked very hard on what is called the
    information superhighway. We know that America is working hard to be the
    technological leader of the information age. The technologies in which
    we are now investing will open up vast new opportunities to all of our
    people. But information, which will be education, which will be
    employment, which will be income, which will be possibility, must flow
    to all Americans on terms of equal accessibility without regard to
    physical condition. And we are committed to doing that.
        Finally, let me just say today a personal word. A few days ago when
    we celebrated Mother's Day, it was my first Mother's Day without my
    mother. And so I have been thinking about what I should say to all of
    you, those of you who are lucky enough still to have your parents and,
    perhaps, some of you who do not. On graduations, it is important for us
    to remember that none of us ever achieves anything alone. I dare say, as
    difficult as your lives have been, you are here today not only because
    of your own courage and your own effort but because someone loved you
    and believed in you and helped you along the way. I hope today that you
    will thank them and love them and, in so doing, remember that all across
    this country perhaps our biggest problem is that there are too many
    children, most of who can hear just fine, who never hear the kind of
    love and support that every person needs to do well. And we must commit
    ourselves to giving that to those children.
        So I say, there may be those who are pessimistic about our future.
    And all of us should be realistic about our challenges. I used to say
    that I still believed in a place called Hope, the little town in which I
    was born. Today I say, I know the future of this country will be in good
    hands because of a place called Gallaudet.
        For 125 years, young people have believed in themselves, their
    families, their country, and their future with the courage to dream and
    the willingness to work to realize those dreams. You have inspired your
    President today and a generation. And I say to you, good luck and
    Godspeed.

    Note: The President spoke at 2:20 p.m. In his remarks, he referred to
    Jeanette Anne Pereira and Andre Laurent Thibeault, students; I. King
    Jordan, president; and Glenn B. Anderson, chairman, board of trustees,
    Gallaudet University. A tape was not available for verification of the
    content of these remarks.