[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 37 (Monday, September 19, 1994)]
[Pages 1749-1750]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
The President's Radio Address

September 10, 1994

    Good morning. Let me begin by saying that Hillary and I send our 
deepest sympathies and our prayers to the friends and loved ones of the 
132 people killed in the air crash near Pittsburgh on Thursday. I know 
all Americans will send their thoughts and prayers to the grieving this 
weekend. Meanwhile, we're working to get to the bottom of what happened 
in the crash, and we're working to continue to assure the safety of 
American passengers.
    All across our country this week, Americans came back from vacation. 
Our children are back in school, and for many families this is what they 
regard as the real new year. As we get back to the business of our 
lives, it's a good time to stop and think about the work we have ahead 
of us as a nation.
    Unfortunately, that work includes a stark fact about our children. 
Too many of them are growing up in fear. All too many are growing up 
without the values of mainstream society, without knowing the difference 
between what's right and wrong, and without believing that it makes a 
difference whether they do right or wrong.
    By now, nearly all of us know the story of Robert Sandifer, known as 
Yummy to his friends. He was first arrested when he was 8 years old. A 
couple of weeks ago, when he was only 11, he became a suspect in the 
gang shooting of an innocent girl named Shavon Dean. Several days later, 
that boy died himself in what Chicago police say was yet another gang-
related killing.
    The number of gang homicides has nearly tripled since 1980 in Robert 
and Shavon's hometown. And all across America, too many decent people 
have felt the anguish of losing a child to the meanness of the streets. 
At younger and younger ages, boys and girls are turning to gangs and to 
guns.
    For a child without an involved family, a gang offers a feeling of 
belonging. For a young person without options for tomorrow, a gang 
offers a sense of purpose. For anyone born in a home barred and chained 
off from danger, life on the streets seems like a taste of freedom 
they've never known.
    But America knows how to use its freedom better than that. We see it 
every day in big cities and small towns as Americans do come together to 
take up their responsibilities and to put the spirit of community to 
work. And I believe we have many opportunities right now to do just that 
and to turn around the scourge of violence in the lives of our children.
    Much of that work begins with what each of us can do as caring 
Americans. Today I'll sign a proclamation designating next week as

[[Page 1750]]

National Gang Violence Prevention Week. I'm asking Americans to address 
this profound problem, each of them in their hometowns, to save a 
generation of our children. Every parent, every teacher, every person 
who has the chance to influence children must force a change in the 
lives of our kids. We have to show them we love them, and we have to 
teach them discipline and responsibility. Robert Sandifer's grandmother 
despaired at his funeral because, she said, ``I couldn't reach you.'' We 
must keep doing everything we can to reach those children. And we must 
help them respect the law and keep them safe.
    Next week I'll sign into law the historic crime bill that will be a 
tough but smart tool in every community's fight for our children's 
safety. It'll punish hardened young criminals with stronger penalties, 
and it will expand boot camps, drug courts, and other sanctions to stop 
first-time offenders from beginning lives of crime. It bans 19 assault 
weapons and goes a long way toward keeping the guns out of the hands of 
our children. And with prevention programs, the crime law will take on 
the sickness of gangs and drugs and give our young people a chance at a 
new and better life.
    Finally, we have to show our children before they enter gangs that 
they already belong to a community larger than themselves, in which they 
can feel important and serve a larger purpose. On Monday, here at the 
White House and at sites all across America, we'll kick off AmeriCorps, 
our national service effort.
    AmeriCorps is America at its best, people rolling up their sleeves 
and assuming responsibility to make our country better. At a time when 
so many of our people feel alienated or alone, the 20,000 new members of 
AmeriCorps will work closely with neighbors and fellow citizens all 
across this country to make our communities places where children can 
grow up to realize their God-given potential. They'll help make schools 
safe in Los Angeles, tutor second graders from Kentucky, repair 
neighborhoods in Philadelphia. Instead of just talking about problems, 
they'll be solving them. AmeriCorps will call upon the best of a 
generation to reclaim what has always been best about America.
    All these things will help us make this time a year and a season of 
renewal. It's a time in which I'll keep working to bring greater 
prosperity to our hard-working people. We already have over 4 million 
new jobs in this economy, but we've got a good ways to go. It's a time, 
with our new crime law, when we will send not just a legal but a moral 
message across America, that Americans have a right to be secure in 
their homes, on their streets, in their schools and places of work. And 
it's a time, with AmeriCorps, when we will renew the ethic of service 
that has always been a key to our greatness, offering first 20,000 and, 
in 2 years, 100,000 of our young people a chance to earn some credit 
against a college education in return for serving their country at the 
grassroots level.
    In all these ways, we'll be helping to fulfill our obligations to 
our children, to our Nation, and to our future.
    Thanks for listening.

Note: The President spoke at 10:06 a.m. from the Oval Office at the 
White House.