[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 31, Number 14 (Monday, April 10, 1995)]
[Pages 527-531]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at the Dedication of the Dean B. Ellis Library at Arkansas State 
University in Jonesboro, Arkansas

April 3, 1995

    Thank you very much. I think Molly Mayer did a great job, don't you? 
[Applause] I am delighted to be here today with so many old friends. I 
look out across this crowd and see a great portion of my life looking 
back at me, and I'm glad to see you all here.
    I'm delighted to be back at ASU. I got myself a list from my staff--
as I get older my memory begins to fade--I got my staff to pull up a 
list of all the times I have been here at least in official capacity to 
this campus as Governor, and we found--or as attorney general--we found 
a dozen times. I've been here a dozen more times, I know, just to see 
students and have meetings. But it is wonderful to be back here.
    I was glad to see Gene Smith giving his speech. And I'm kind of glad 
you didn't let him retire. [Laughter] He looks young enough to keep 
working to me, and he's certainly done a wonderful job. I thank my 
friend, John Trout, for what he said. I cannot even begin to recount all 
the instances in which I worked with people from Craighead County and 
indeed from all of northeast Arkansas in trying to generate more 
economic opportunities here. I was very glad to be accompanied here 
today by two of your former presidents, Carl Whillock and, of course, 
Congressman Thornton.
    And Rodney Slater and Mack McLarty and I all came up on a 
helicopter. We didn't mean to interrupt your ceremony, but anyway, it's 
not a bad sight to see us coming down. And we were all talking about all 
the changes that had occurred at ASU over the last several years and how 
much better things are. And for that I thank all the members of the 
board of trustees, Larry Ross and the others. And I'm glad to see a lot 
of people I appointed still serving. That's an immensely rewarding 
thing, as well as the members of the board of higher education.
    I'd like to say a special word of thanks to Congresswoman Blanche 
Lambert Lincoln for what is literally a ferocious job of lobbying she 
does in behalf of the interest of the people of the first district. 
There is no Member of the House of Representatives who is on my doorstep 
more often for more different things. And when I complained about it one 
day, she said, ``Well, that's just the way you used to behave when you 
were Governor.'' [Laughter]
    Let me say a special word of thanks to the members of the Arkansas 
Legislature I see out here in the audience. One of them was in 
Washington the other day for a meeting, and he said, ``You know, I kind 
of miss you, and I never thought I'd say that.'' [Laughter]
    I remember coming here in 1977 when I was attorney general. This is 
how I really got interested in helping ASU. I came here to speak to a 
commencement. And it was supposed to be a beautiful day like this, and 
instead it rained, and we had to go inside to the old field house where 
there was no air conditioning. And the rain--you know how it is when it 
gets warm here. The rain just makes it worse. The humidity was sizzling 
around. No one could breathe. The faculty and the students were 
suffocating in their beautiful robes. And I gave a 6-minute speech. 
[Laughter] And I made up my mind that if God ever gave me the 
opportunity to serve long enough, I'd build us a place with air 
conditioning where I could give a longer speech. [Laughter] And that's 
how the Convocation Center got started.
    I have enjoyed immensely being involved with this wonderful place. 
It was mentioned already, the Communications and Education Building and 
the Convocation Center, and now this library. I'll never forget the 
first time I went to an event in the Convocation Center. I've seen a lot 
of games, a lot of athletics. I remember the first time Jonesboro got to 
host the AAU national championship basketball tournament. And I came and 
saw two high school kids play basketball, named Chris Webber and Grant 
Hill, who later had a pretty good career, all because they had the 
experience of playing basketball here when they were 16 years of age.

[[Page 528]]

    I'd also like to say a special word of appreciation to all of you 
who have run all of the programs here, the extra-curricular programs 
here at the university. And I'd like to say a special word of 
appreciation to one of your students who became very, very famous this 
year in that remarkable, wonderful contribution to our understanding of 
American life, ``Hoop Dreams.'' Arthur Agee has really been a great 
example of what we could do with our dreams.
    I'd like to say one other word of introduction. I was profoundly 
pleased to know that a special part of this new library has been set 
aside for a Delta Studies Center. As has already been said, the Delta 
region of our State has always had special meaning for me. When I was a 
boy coming home from college, I used to take a day of my Christmas 
vacation every year and just drive around in the Delta. I never saw a 
place that was so poor economically and so rich in spirit and people.
    And when I was head of the Lower Mississippi Delta Study Commission, 
we made a common commitment to try to invest more in our people so that 
we could be rich in spirit and rich economically. And I know that this 
studies center will carry on the work of that commission and will 
continue its important mission.
    I'd like to say also that--all of you know this, and it's already 
been said, but--I actually ran for Governor for a pretty simple and 
straightforward reason many years ago. I wanted to see the people of my 
State have the same opportunities as the people of the rest of this 
country had. And I believed that the only way we could do it was by 
concentrating on building the economy, maintaining our unique quality of 
life, and educating our people, and doing it in a spirit of partnership.
    All my life I had seen our State held down by public leaders who 
played on our fears and divided us one from another. And for a good long 
time here in Arkansas now we've been working in the opposite direction, 
developing our economy, educating our people, preserving our quality of 
life, and working together.
    I think it's pretty clear that that course has been more successful. 
If you look at the faces of the young people here, if you look at all of 
you here, not only from the cities of eastern Arkansas but from the 
smallest little hamlets who support Arkansas State University, if you 
look at the remarkable job growth our State has enjoyed just in the last 
few years, after a decade of struggling to modernize our economy, it is 
obvious that we made the right decision as a people.
    I ran for President because just as I thought Arkansas was going to 
catch up to the rest of the country, our country was clearly having 
problems getting into the next century with the American dream of 
opportunity for all alive.
    We live in a very unusual time, indeed, almost without precedent I 
think, in human history, where our economy is growing but most of our 
people say they feel insecure. How can that happen? How could we have 2 
years where we'd have over 6 million new jobs, a dramatic drop in the 
unemployment rate, the lowest rates of inflation and unemployment 
combined in 25 years, and still, a majority of the American people say, 
``I am really worried about my future.''
    It has happened because of what America's role in the global economy 
is doing to the lives of ordinary Americans. It has happened because 
even as we create more jobs, most people haven't had an increase in 
their income, and there is increasing inequality in America.
    From the year I was born at the end of World War II until the year I 
was elected Governor in 1978, America rose together economically. Every 
income group and every region was doing better, and they were rising 
together. But in the last 15 years, that's all changed. And it makes 
your mission even more important.
    In the last 15 years, the wealthiest and best educated Americans 
have done right well as we've moved in the global economy. About a third 
of us are doing fine. But about 60 percent of us are working harder for 
the same or lower wages, so that even when we create jobs in America, 
many people wind up being insecure. They say, ``Well, maybe I'll be one 
of the people laid off.''
    And as we move from big corporations to small businesses being our 
main employers, a lot of those big companies are laying people off. Is 
that cause for despair? Not at all. Don't

[[Page 529]]

you forget this, this is still the greatest country in the world. We've 
still got the strongest economy. We're still producing more jobs. We've 
still got the greatest ability to adapt. We still do better at relating 
to one another across racial and religious and ethnic lines than any 
multifaceted country in human history. You should be optimistic about 
the future.
    But what it does mean is that we must now nationally do what we 
tried to do here. As a country we should be focused on growing our 
economy, maintaining our quality of life, educating our people, and 
doing it together. There is a huge debate today about what the 
Government in Washington ought to be doing.
    And you know, ever since the beginning of this Republic, we've all 
loved to cuss the Government, especially at tax time. Every one of us 
can tell at least one, and sometimes 50, stories, that just prove beyond 
any doubt that the Government would mess up a one-car parade. [Laughter] 
But the truth is, if you look over the 200-year history of this country, 
we're still here, the longest lasting democracy in human history, 
because most of the time we did the right thing. Most of the time we met 
the challenges of the day and did the right thing.
    Just parenthetically, I'll tell you, I wish all of you could have 
been with me in Haiti a few days ago to see all our young men and women 
in uniform who revolutionized a country that was mired in violence and 
did it with barely a shot fired. Those young Americans are the best that 
we have to offer. And if we look at them and what works there, that'll 
work for our country as well.
    So now that I'm living in Washington instead of down here with you, 
every day I hear this big debate up there. And the popular thing, of 
course, is just to talk about how the Government would mess up a one-car 
parade and tell everybody they're against it, and say, let's just cut 
everything. That's the new rage in Washington, ``If there were no 
Federal Government, we'd have no problem.'' And the old rage was that 
the Federal Government could solve all the problems.
    Well, based on my experience with you, I would say both ideas are 
wrong and present a false choice. The great things about this country 
are things that the Government can't reach. They have to do with how we 
behave personally and with our families and our communities and what we 
do in the workplace.
    But we need our Government as a partner. And I have tried to say I 
believe with all my heart, if you want us to do well in the 21st 
century, we got to do four things: We've got to have more jobs and 
higher income; we've got to educate our people; we need a Government 
that is smaller and less bureaucratic, that's more oriented toward the 
future than the past; and we have to have more security, more security 
in a profound sense.
    I am proud of the fact that since I've been President there are no 
Russian missiles pointed at the children of the United States for the 
first time since the dawn of the nuclear age. But I also know that our 
security is threatened when there is too much violence on our streets, 
too much violence in our schools. Our security is threatened by drugs. 
Our security is threatened by the strains on families. And our security 
is threatened when families who work hard and do the right things by 
their children are mistreated and abused, and don't have the chances 
they need to support a better future.
    So I'd like to say to you in front of this library today, our 
country under Franklin Roosevelt began to create a safety net for the 
elderly. It was Social Security, and it included Medicare later. We 
developed a certain safety net for poor people. But in the future, if we 
are really going to become what we ought to be, we need a commitment to 
the middle class that will end this income stagnation, that will end 
this increasing inequality. That is a safety net for all Americans. And 
it is one word: education, education, education.
    Today the people who believe that everything the Government does is 
wrong want to cut everything, either to balance the budget or to give a 
tax cut. Well, I'm for doing both. We've reduced this deficit $600 
billion since I've been President. We're going to have 3 years of 
declining deficits for the first time since Harry Truman was President. 
I am for cutting unnecessary spending. We ought to do that.

[[Page 530]]

    And I believe we ought to cut taxes for people in ways that will 
raise their incomes today and tomorrow. That's why I think the best 
thing we could do is to give people a tax deduction for the cost of all 
their and their children's education expenses after high school.
    But let me say, Arkansas is not where it is today because we cut 
education. And if we'd started investing in education and improving 
education 10 or 20 years earlier than we did, we'd be further ahead 
today. There's not a person in this audience who doubts the truth of 
that statement. And therefore I say to you: You should say to all of us, 
``Get that deficit down. Get this economy going. Be fair to American 
taxpayers, but do not cut education.''
    In the last 2 years, we have expanded Head Start. We have given our 
schools the opportunity to meet national education goals and still have 
more flexibility than the Federal Government used to give them. We 
helped States to establish apprenticeship programs for young people who 
don't go on to college but who do want good jobs. And we have 
dramatically expanded the availability of affordable college loans with 
better repayment terms to the young people of this country. We have 
started the national service program to give young people the chance to 
earn money for college while working in their communities. And some of 
our volunteers are over here in the audience today. They've worked with 
migrant workers in Hope. They've helped to reduce school dropouts in 
Texarkana. They've done a lot of really wonderful things.
    And there are people today in Washington who think the answer to our 
problems is to restrict the availability of student loans, to cut Head 
Start, to reduce our commitment to the national education goals, to 
destroy the national service program, even, believe it or not, to cut 
the school lunch program or to eliminate the program to make our schools 
safer and more drug-free.
    My friends, this has never been a partisan political issue. When we 
were in Little Rock working on education, we had Republicans and 
Democrats working on it together. Last year and the year before, every 
piece of legislation we passed for education in Washington had the 
support of Democrats and Republicans. This has not been a partisan 
political issue, and we dare not let it become one. If we walk away from 
education when the 21st century depends upon what we know and what we 
can learn, it will be just as dangerous as it would have been for us to 
disarm in the middle of the cold war. We didn't do that, and we 
shouldn't do this.
    So let me say in closing, you know, I'm feeling a little sentimental 
today. I'm sitting here wishing I could focus on the hundreds of people 
I've already seen that I've walked so many roads with. Those of you who 
were working for me in 1982 in these 11 counties in northeast Arkansas 
know that if it hadn't been for you then, I wouldn't be here now as 
President.
    But let me say that in spite of all the sentiment and warm feelings 
I have, the main thing I want to say is when I look at you, I think you 
have good common sense. I think you love your communities, and you love 
your families, and you love this country. The people I know up here have 
spent a lifetime trying to make things better for their families and 
their communities and their future. And I am telling you that we can't 
afford sentiment today because we've got to make some tough decisions.
    Yes, we've got to cut unnecessary, wasteful, bloated Government. 
Yes, we have to get things under control in Washington. I've been 
working like crazy for 2 years to do it. But we dare not in the 
information age believe that the answer to America's growing insecurity 
about jobs and incomes is to undermine the very thing that will take us 
into the 21st century still the strongest country in the world, still 
the greatest country the world has ever known, still the home of the 
American dream that says no matter who you are or where you're from, if 
you work hard and play by the rules, you can live up to your God-given 
capacities and your wildest dreams. And that, my fellow Americans, is 
education.
    Now, the country needs that strategy. And I ask you to support your 
Members of Congress, to support the people here, and to remind everybody 
that this is not rocket science. This is basic. And this is America's 
future.

[[Page 531]]

    I am delighted to be here. I'm honored to have played a role in this 
library and all the other things that are here at ASU. But the most 
important thing that's here at ASU is the speaker who introduced me and 
all the other students. They are our future. And all of us had better 
decide that our first commitment is to do right by them. If we do, the 
rest of us will do just fine.
    Thank you, and God bless you all.

Note: The President spoke at 10:55 a.m. at the front of library. In his 
remarks, he referred to Molly Mayer, president, Arkansas State 
University student government; Eugene Smith, president, Arkansas State 
University; John Trout, Jr., editor and publisher, Jonesboro Sun; and 
Rodney Slater, Federal Highway Administrator.