[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.