[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 32, Number 32 (Monday, August 12, 1996)]
[Pages 1425-1430]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks to the Community in Salinas, California

August 8, 1996

    Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, Leon Panetta did not make me come 
here, I wanted to be here, and I am glad to be here today. I love 
looking at this crowd.
    Mayor Styles, thank you for your welcome and thank you for that 
wonderful plaque with the beautiful drawing by a young child on it. 
Chief Nelson, thank you for what you said and for the leadership you 
give. Anna Caballero thank you so much for your wonderful introduction.
    I was sitting listening to her speak--I thought, you know, she 
speaks better than most of us do. She ought to run for higher office 
someday. I think she will. She was very good.
    Simon Salinas, thank you for being here today. Congressman Farr, 
thank you for doing such a fine job. You know, he was talking about all 
these programs we supported. What you need to know is that Sam Farr 
voted for every one of them and every one of them was hard to pass. 
There were people who were actually trying to keep us from putting 
100,000 police on the street and doing those other things, and Sam Farr 
was there with me every step of the way. And I thank him for that.
    Sam Cabral and the International Union of Police Associations, I 
thank you for your

[[Page 1426]]

endorsement. I thank you especially this year because it means 
something. For years and years as a Governor and as attorney general, 
working with communities like Salinas in my home State when I was 
struggling to deal with the problems of crime, I always heard the 
politicians in Washington talk about crime, and I never heard anybody 
come out for it. I mean, all people in public life are against crime. 
You never hear somebody stand up and give a speech for crime. But nobody 
ever did anything about it in Washington.
    And I was determined that we would change the direction of our 
Nation in dealing with the crime problem at the grassroots level with 
local communities. And I thank you for validating that today.
    Ladies and gentlemen, there's someone else I want to introduce in 
the audience--I just saw him sitting out there--a man who has done as 
much as any individual citizen I can think of in the last few years to 
try to make our children safer, a man who lives not very far from you 
and who went through the unimaginable agony of having his own child 
abducted and killed. Her murderer was just convicted and sentenced. But 
in all these years he has borne his grief with dignity and worked to 
help us pass laws and adopt policies that would make other children 
safer in their homes. And I'd like you to welcome Mr. Marc Klaas. Marc, 
stand up. Thank you. God bless you, sir.
    I'd also like to say just one more word about Mr. Panetta. We were 
supposed to come here in a helicopter today and, believe it or not, it 
was too foggy for us in San Jose to take off, so we had to drive. So we 
drove over from San Jose, and Leon and Bruce Lindsey and I were sitting 
in the car together and the closer we got to Salinas the happier Leon 
got. [Laughter] He was like a kid with a new toy when we drove into 
town. And he was talking about where he used to have an office here. We 
got out of the car and the first thing Sam Farr said is, ``I got a 
better office than you did. I got another room.'' [Laughter]
    And he began to talk about you and about his life as a Congressman 
and about his friendships here and about what kind of community this 
was. And as we walked down the streets and people waved to us, this sort 
of flood of memories came out. And I don't know that there's a harder 
job in public life than being Chief of Staff to the President. He's 
responsible for whatever mistakes he makes and all of mine, too. 
[Laughter] He has to defend me on the bad days, as well as brag about 
the good days. You know, you've got to deal with Congress, run the White 
House, try to manage what's going on in the Cabinet, deal with the press 
and just wait for another tire to go flat on you. [Laughter] It is an 
unimaginably difficult job. He has been magnificent, and you should be 
very proud of him.
    But I think the ultimate reason for his success is he never forgets 
what the purpose of the job is. Washington is a long way from Salinas, 
and I know a lot of times the debates up there seem very far and almost 
alien, almost unreal, and excessively political. And Leon Panetta has 
never forgotten his roots. Every day when he goes to work he imagines 
what we're doing in terms of how it will impact people like you and how 
you will receive it and whether it will help us to raise our children. 
And other things being equal, he'd just as soon be back home, and we 
need more folks like that serving the public in our Nation's Capital.
    Finally, I would like to congratulate Alvin Harrison and his 
teammates on their great 1600-meter relay. They were magnificent. 
[Applause] Thank you.
    You know, Hillary and Chelsea and I had the privilege of going to 
the Olympics. Chelsea spent a week there, and Hillary went three times. 
I went twice. We got to speak to the team before the games began and 
then welcome all those who could come to the White House there 
yesterday. And I was trying to think to myself all during this whole 
thing and especially after the terrible bombing and then wondering how 
people would respond, and all the athletes showed up the next day, and 
all the spectators did, too. And people said, ``We're going on.'' And I 
was thinking to myself, what is it that we really love about the 
Olympics?
    I mean, Americans love all sports, and we're thrilled by sports 
achievements. But I think that we love the Olympics in part because we 
think it works the way we want the

[[Page 1427]]

world to work. I mean, if you think about it, there they are, people 
from 197 different nations--there's a small, isolated little island like 
Nauru that sends four or five people and a large, vast country like 
Russia or Australia, a country with only 18 million people, had the 
third biggest delegation--all these countries participating. People that 
give expression to their national pride and more than ever before.
    But they all come together and play by the same rules in an 
atmosphere of mutual respect, and they have to win by doing something 
good, not by doing something bad to their opponents. Nobody wins by 
breaking their opponent's bones or by standing up in a public forum and 
saying how terrible their opponents are. They win by doing well. And 
they win by working together and accepting these rules. And I think that 
we think the world would be better if it worked that way.
    The thing that made me so proud of the America team, as I looked at 
them I thought to myself, you know, if the American team were to 
disperse and walk out in the Olympic Village, but for their uniforms 
nobody would have any idea where they were from. They could be from 
Africa or Latin America. They could be from Mexico or India or Pakistan. 
They could be from any number of countries in the Middle East. They 
could be from China or Japan. They could be from Scandinavia. They could 
be from anywhere, because we are bound together not by our race but by 
our common commitment to this country and to the Constitution, the Bill 
of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence.
    I was gratified that Sam said one of your community groups here had 
as its motto the title of my wife's book, from that old African proverb, 
``It takes a village to raise a child.'' I want to talk to you about 
that today because that's really why I came here, because I think 
Salinas is a wonderful model of what has to be done by people in their 
communities if we're going to get this country in the shape it needs to 
be in to move into the 21st century.
    Yes, there are things we must do in Washington. Yes, there are 
things that others must do. But where it matters is where people's lives 
are changed, in their homes, in their schools, in their communities, in 
their places of worship, with civic groups, with the local media, with 
other people who are involved in giving people the chance to make the 
most of their own lives.
    I know, because some other people were telling me before I came out 
here of the very moving story of your Gold Medal winner and his twin 
brother. That's an American story. And what we need to do is to make 
sure that there are a thousand stories like that for every child we 
lose, instead of the other way around. We don't have a child to spare, 
not a child to--[applause].
    I have worked very hard in the last 3\1/2\ years to achieve my 
vision of what our country would be like when we move into the 21st 
century, and it's very simple. I want America to be a place where 
everybody, regardless of their race, their income, their background, 
their gender, has a chance to live out their dreams if they're 
responsible enough to work for it.
    I want this country to stand as a brilliant rebuke to all the places 
in the world that are consumed by racial and religious and ethnic and 
tribal hatred, where people are killing each other around the world 
because of their differences. I want us to embrace our differences with 
respect and affection and reach across the lines that divide us and say 
we are stronger because of our differences, because we share the same 
values and we share the same visions of the future.
    And I want our country--and this requires me to do some things that 
everybody doesn't like from time to time, but I want our country to 
continue to be the strongest force for peace and freedom and prosperity 
in the world, because, increasingly, threats to our security that seem a 
long way away can come right home. Whether it's terrorism or drugs or 
shipping weapons or organized crime, we have to stand as a force for 
peace and freedom and prosperity throughout the world, so that we can 
guarantee that future to our children here at home.
    So we worked very hard to do that, first to create opportunity by 
bringing our economy back. I'm grateful that the deficit has been cut in 
half, that trade is at an all-time high, that we're selling California 
agricultural products in markets they were never sold be- 

[[Page 1428]]

fore, that we have over 10 million new jobs, that the California economy 
is coming back. We've got a lot more to do, but we're moving in the 
right direction, and I'm grateful for that.
    We've tried to expand educational opportunity. One of my goals is to 
make sure every classroom and every library in America is connected to 
the information superhighway by the year 2000. And California is leading 
the way.
    We're moving to improve performance, to set higher standards, to 
support our schools, to help our schools support this by being able to 
stay open later hours, for example, and give children something to say 
yes to as well as something to say no to. We're working to open up the 
doors of college education to all Americans so that no young person 
should ever decline to go to school after high school just because of 
the cost of it.
    I tell you, there's a lot of talk--there's a lot of talk, you'll 
hear a lot of talk between now and November about tax cuts and how much 
we should have and whether we can afford them, and they all sound good. 
It's like going to the candy store, you know, ``I'll have some of that 
and some of that and some of that and some of that.'' But if you eat it 
all at once, you might get sick.
    So I say to you, it may not be popular, but I will not advocate any 
cut in taxes in this election that cannot be paid for in our attempts to 
balance the budget, invest in education, protect Medicare and Medicaid 
and the environment. But we have to do that. But we can afford some 
targeted tax cuts.
    I'm about to sign one when we raise the minimum wage that will give 
people a $500 tax credit if they'll adopt children, because we want to 
encourage more children to be adopted into stable families, to be given 
a good start in life. That's an important thing.
    I want to see tax relief for families when they're rearing their 
children. And the most important thing we could do, and I think the most 
significant tax cut we could give America's families is a deduction for 
the cost of college tuition, and I want to make 2 years of education 
after high school as universal and available as public education through 
the 12th grade is today by giving people a tax credit for the cost of a 
community college for 2 years after high school. Everybody should have 
that, everyone in America. It should be universal.
    But all this opportunity will not mean much to children who cannot 
play and learn and grow in safety. All this activity and opportunity 
will not mean much if children spend their whole childhood looking over 
their shoulder when they're walking to and from school to see if 
somebody is going to shoot them. All this activity and opportunity will 
not mean much to children who are lost in a fog of drug addiction or 
captured in a web of crime from which they cannot escape.
    And so I say to you, I came here today to honor your efforts in 
fighting crime and rescuing our children. And I just want to thank you 
from the bottom of my heart for what you have done. And I want to make a 
couple of points here. Have we got a doctor here? Is there a doctor in 
the house? We need a doctor up here. All this hot air is difficult. 
[Laughter] Okay, we're doing a good job. We have one doctor here and one 
in the crowd coming up. Come on up, sir. That's fine. We've got one 
already on the site there.
    Now, let me ask you to think about something that to me is very 
important. If I had told you--you heard all these people say all these 
good things we've done to fight crime. But the truth is that 4 years in 
a row the crime rate has come down in America, but until this year, it 
had been going up among juveniles. So we were winning the battle against 
crime and losing it with our kids. It seems inconceivable. Cocaine use 
dropped by a third in America in 3 years, but casual drug use has been 
going up among people under 18 since 1991.
    Now, we all know there are a lot of reasons for that. But the 
fundamental reason, I think, is that too many of these kids are growing 
up in chaotic circumstances where they're being left to raise 
themselves. And Salinas said, we are not going to do that anymore; we're 
going to rescue every single one of our children.
    We can create all the jobs in the world and all the opportunity in 
the world, but if we go into the 21st century with too many children 
killing children, too many children having children, too many children 
raising

[[Page 1429]]

children, and too many children raising themselves on the street, this 
country will not be what it ought to be. And the only way we can turn 
that around is if communities say, ``We're going to take all the 
resources we have, and we're going to go after every single child. 
They're all our children.''
    So I thank the chief and the mayor for pointing out that we have put 
funds into this community to hire police officers; we've put funds in 
this community to help you with your special projects. But if you hadn't 
used it properly it would not amount to a hill of beans. Nothing we do 
in Washington to try to rescue the children of America will work unless 
it is given life in the commitment of people in every community in 
America. You are doing that in Salinas. That's what I want every 
community in America to do.
    I do have some good news to tell you today. For the first time in 7 
years, violent crime arrests of juveniles went down last year--for the 
first time in 7 years. Arrests for murder by juveniles went down for the 
second year in a row by over 15 percent. We are moving in the right 
direction. We have to do more of what we are doing.
    All over this country people like you are coming alive to the fact 
that unless we do some things together we're not going to rescue our 
children. And I have tried to go around this country, to places where 
things are working, to highlight them, to urge every other American 
community to do the same, and to say what we in Washington can and will 
do to help. We can break the backs of gangs and youth violence, but we 
cannot do it unless the efforts we make in Washington find expression in 
the efforts you make on the streets of Salinas. Parents have to work 
with police; neighbors have to look out for each other; the schools, the 
community groups, everybody has to do it.
    Everyone has a role to play. Everyone has a responsibility to 
fulfill. But we know if we do it, we can win. You don't have to give up 
on our kids anymore. You don't have to give up on crime. You don't have 
to accept unacceptable rates of violence. You don't have to say that 
we're going to lose a large number of our children every year because 
they happen to be poor or they happen to be isolated or they happen to 
have been picked up by a gang. You can say no to all that. And you are 
proving it in Salinas, and I want you to keep doing it until you 
eradicate the problem entirely.
    Don't forget that not so long ago this community was literally 
invaded by an army of 20 gangs with 1,500 members. And don't forget that 
that led to drugs and drive-by murders and that a lot of kids wound up 
in those gangs just because they didn't have any other thing to belong 
to. You think about it; we all want to belong to a gang. We just want to 
be in good gangs. Alvin's relay team is a gang; it's a good gang. Right? 
Every church, every synagogue, that's a good gang. If you like your 
school, it's a good gang. People have a need; we are not destined to 
live isolated lives.
    And a lot of these kids who wound up in gangs are living in a vacuum 
alone, raising themselves, and they are drawn to the first magnet that 
makes them feel like they're more important. We all have that need, 
every single one of us. We need to know that we are a part of things 
that are bigger and better than ourselves, that we can find expression 
and meaning and force and direction in life by joining with other 
people. And when you have things like Peace Builders and when you tell 
kids that they matter and you tell them they can belong and that they 
can amount to something and they can live out their dreams and no matter 
where they start out they might wind up with a gold medal and at least 
they can win a gold medal in the race of life if they do the right 
things, then you can change this.
    So you have had these breathtaking reductions in violent crime by 
juveniles associated with gangs. The numbers are staggering. And what I 
want to ask everyone in America is, if your community hasn't done what 
they have done in Salinas, what's your excuse. Get off the dime, go to 
work, and we'll help you. Every child counts in every community in 
America. We need more of this.
    I also want to brag on the Alisal Union school district, where an 
antitruancy initiative is keeping children in school. Every school 
district in this country that has cracked down on truancy has reduced 
juvenile crime, reduced the dropout rate, increased learning, and given 
more kids a better chance. Uni- 

[[Page 1430]]

forms for elementary and middle school students keep them focused on 
what's inside, not what's outside. That also helps. Curfews keep the 
kids off the street and in a safe and secure place, and that's good.
    And finally, let me just say one other thing. The thing I like about 
what you have done here is that you have not only cracked down on what's 
going wrong, you've tried to make things go right. You know, it's easy 
for anybody to stand up at a microphone and tell kids what they ought 
not to do. That's easy to do--and it's important to do. It's really 
important what people should not do. But every human being needs 
something to say yes to, and too many of our children have not had 
enough things to say yes to. You are also giving them something to say 
yes to.
    And I encourage you, as you teach people right from wrong, never to 
forget you not only need to suppress the wrong, you need to lift up the 
right and give people something to live for and to shoot for and to 
strive for.
    I believe the most important thing we can do in Washington today, at 
a time when we have reduced the size of the bureaucracy, we are moving 
to balance the budget, is to say that we still have to have a Government 
that is strong enough to help people when they're flat on their back--as 
you are if you have a flood or a base closing and you need to change the 
whole direction of your economy or recover from a disaster--and also to 
help people make the most of their own lives, to build strong families, 
strong communities, strong workplaces, and a strong nation.
    You are a building block of that. I hope everyone in America will 
see somewhere tonight on a news report this great, vast sea of faces in 
this wonderful farming area, from all walks of life and all different 
backgrounds, who said simply, ``We are not giving up on our children. We 
are lifting up our children.''
    Thank you, and God bless you all.

Note: The President spoke at 12:24 p.m. at the Monterey County 
Courthouse. In his remarks, he referred to Alan Styles, mayor, Daniel T. 
Nelson, chief of police, and Anna Caballero, city council member, 
Salinas, CA; and Sam Cabral, president, International Union of Police 
Associations.