[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 32, Number 36 (Monday, September 9, 1996)]
[Pages 1660-1666]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]
<R04>
Remarks at the Meeting of the National Baptist Convention USA in
Orlando, Florida
September 6, 1996
The President. Thank you. Thank you.
Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
[[Page 1661]]
The President. Thank you, Dr. Lyons, Thank you for your support.
Thank you for exciting the crowd here.
Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
The President. Thank you, thank you. Thank you, Dr. Lyons. Thank
you, ladies and gentlemen, for making me feel so very, very welcome. To
Mrs. Lyons and General Secretary Cooper, Mr. Lowery; Dr. Glover, Mrs.
Hickson, thank you for your work on this Teenage Alliance; to your
guests and my friends, Bishop Graves and Bishop Brown; to Governor
Chiles and Congresswoman Brown and Congressman Conyers. Congressman
Conyers, thank you especially for your leadership in the fight against
the church burnings. To Congressman Fauntroy and my good friend, Mayor
Webb.
Governor Chiles and I have had a good time in Florida the last 2
days, although I think we can all certify it's still summertime down
here. [Laughter] I was thinking about coming into this meeting today,
and I was thinking, I don't know how we could be so close to heaven, and
it still be so hot. [Laughter]
I know you've had a lot of distinguished speakers before me at this
podium--my good friends, Reverend Andrew Young and Reverend Jesse
Jackson. I thank Reverend Jackson for what he said yesterday about his
back to school program, which I heartily endorse, getting the parents to
take the children to school, meet their children's teachers, receive
report cards, turn the television off, and read to the kids. That's a
pretty good program. I thank him for that. And for his idea about going
to the juvenile system and saving our young people before they get in
trouble. I thank him for that, and I know you do.
I'd also like to say how very moved I was by Pat Brooks' singing
today. It was magnificent, and I thank her for that. I was thinking that
is truly a gift from God, and I'm glad she shared it with us today.
I'm glad to be back with you. I have a lot of friends in this
audience. My friends from Arkansas, Dr. James, Dr. O'Neil, Dr. Jones,
Reverend Keaton, Reverend Barnes. I've seen a few of them here. I'm sure
there are more here from home.
I thank your former president, Dr. Jemerson, for his long
friendship; and my good friend, John Matos Miles back there, from Kansas
City. I'm going to be in his town next Tuesday. Reverend Bifford--so
many others who are here--I thank you all for many, many, many years of
friendship and partnership.
I'm glad to be in Orlando, and I was thinking today about 2 years
ago when we were together in New Orleans. We talked then about what we
could do to build the kingdom of God here on Earth. I want to look at
the progress we have made since then and about what we have to do
together.
First, let me just say I'm sorry I was late today but I was getting
an update on the hurricane, and I'd like to share it with you and ask
for you to keep those people in your prayers. The people of the
Carolinas are working to cope with the effects of Hurricane Fran. Eleven
people have died. They and their families must be in our prayers.
Today I am declaring a major disaster in the State of North
Carolina. Our Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, James
Lee Witt, is on his way to the Carolinas even as we are here. We're
going to do everything we can to help the people of North Carolina and
South Carolina in this difficult time. But again, I say to you here in
Florida, those of you who went through Hurricane Andrew know what it's
like. We need to be praying for those people and supporting them. And
there are, doubtless, people here from those two States. In addition to
the hurricane, there has been and will be more rain, and there's a lot
to do.
You are people of faith. And today we need that faith more than
ever. The Scripture says that ``faith is the assurance of things hoped
for, the conviction of things unseen.'' And we have seen, all of us in
our own life, that if we have faith, we can make real and we can see
those things that we hope for, that we were convicted about.
That is why you teach your children right from wrong, why you pass
on the values that you believe in, in frequently tough surroundings, why
we try to build a better future, building strong families, strong
communities, strong lives. This church has done that in the toughest of
times.
[[Page 1662]]
The Scripture commands us in Nehemiah to rise up and build and
strengthen our hands for the good work. Today, I ask your help in
building that bridge to the 21st century I have been talking about all
across America. A bridge that is wide enough and strong enough to carry
every American across.
Over the past 2 weeks I have taken a train ride and then a bus ride
with my wife, my daughter, the Vice President and Mrs. Gore through
America's heartland. In between, we had a pretty good convention in
Chicago. I went on this trip to say to the American people we are on the
right track to the 21st century, but I also wanted to look into the
eyes, the hearts, the faces of the people for whom I have worked and
fought for the last 4 years.
Let me assure you, we are not taking anymore or anyone's vote for
granted, and we know the only poll that counts is the one they take on
November the 5th. I ask you to remember that and help others remember it
as well.
But think about the progress we have made together. Four years ago
we had a skyrocketing deficit; unemployment at nearly 8 percent; new
jobs were scarce; wages were stagnant. I came to this office with a
simple strategy: Opportunity for all, responsibility from all, and a
place for everyone in our American community, stronger and more united.
Look at the results: Almost 4\1/2\ million new homeowners. The
growth of homeowners who are African-American exceeding the national
average. Record number of new small businesses and record number of
businesses owned by minorities and women. The deficit down 60 percent,
going down in each of our 4 years for the first time since before the
Civil War that has happened. Crime down for 4 years; 1.8 million fewer
people on the welfare rolls than the day I took the oath of office; a 40
percent increase in child support collections; an increase in the
minimum wage for 10 million Americans coming October 1st; 12 million
Americans taking some time off when their babies are born or their
parents are sick without losing their jobs because of the family leave
law; 15 million Americans getting a tax cut, the hardest working,
hardest pressed Americans; 40 million Americans having their pensions
protected because of actions that have been taken. Health care reform
that can help 25 million Americans because it says you can't lose your
health insurance anymore just because you change jobs, and you can't be
denied it just because someone in your family has been sick.
And we had more good news today. According to the latest economic
statistics, our economy is growing steady and strong, creating another
250,000 jobs in August--just the latest evidence--strong growth, the
highest consumer confidence in years. Since I became President our
country has created 10\1/2\ million new jobs; unemployment has dropped
to its lowest level in 7\1/2\ years. The American economy, my fellow
Americans, is on the right track, and we need to keep it going in that
direction.
We have honored a commitment to provide an administration that looks
like America and is committed to excellence. Forty-two African-Americans
have been nominated to the Federal court bench since I became President.
And our nominees as a whole have the highest ratings from the American
Bar Association of any administration since the ratings began. You can
have excellence and diversity. You can do that, and we are committed to
it.
Diversity and excellence has also been a hallmark of my Cabinet and
our other administration appointees. We were blessed with the service of
my great friend and the best friend American business and American
working people ever had in the Commerce Department, Commerce Secretary
Ron Brown. For the first time, three of the top staffers in the White
House are African-American.
Now, that is a good start, but we have to do more. We have to make
sure that all Americans have a chance to be a part of the prosperity and
the possibility we are creating for the 21st century. Every American who
is responsible should have the opportunity to succeed, to live out their
dreams, to live up to the fullest of their God-given potential. And that
is the great challenge we face today. I want to build a bridge to the
21st century where every single American has a chance to live up to
their God-given potential.
[[Page 1663]]
Nothing is more important to that, as Dr. Lyons said, than
education. In the last 4 years we have expanded Head Start, helped our
schools shrink class size, supported new, smaller charter schools to
help provide excellent educational opportunities, and we now know that
an enormous percentage of the students in them are minority students and
poor students.
We've expanded antidrug education and prevention programs, imposed a
zero tolerance for guns, opened the doors to college wider than ever
with more scholarships, and a lower cost college loan program. We have
created the national service program, which has provided opportunities
for 50,000 young people to serve in their communities, solving problems
and earning money for college.
Now we must do more. I want that bridge to the 21st century to be
one where computers are as much of the part of the classroom as
blackboards, where highly trained teachers expect, demand, and get peak
performance from all of our students, where every 8-year-old can point
to a book and say, ``I read it all by myself.''
I want us to build a bridge to the 21st century which makes at least
2 years of college as universal as a high school education is today. I
propose a $1,500 tuition tax credit, a Hope scholarship to make the
typical community college available to every single American, a
refundable tax credit to cover the costs of tuition. I believe we should
give our families a tax deduction of up to $10,000 a year for the cost
of any education after high school, 4 years of college and graduate
school, whatever it takes. This kind of investment would be good for
America. I believe we should let families save in an IRA, an individual
retirement account, and withdraw from it, if necessary, to pay for an
education without any penalty.
But we must do more. Forty percent of our 8-year-olds cannot read as
well as they should. But every child--every child should be able to read
on his or her own by the 3d grade. I propose to send 30,000 reading
specialists into our communities to work with volunteers, to mobilize an
army of volunteers with the help of our young AmeriCorps people, with
the help of college students on work-study, to mobilize up to one
million tutors so that every single child in this country who needs a
tutor can get one, so that by the time all of our children are eight
they can read on their own. They can't learn the rest of the way unless
they can read young.
I want to connect every classroom and library in every school in
America to the information superhighway by the year 2000, not just
computers and trained teachers but a connection to the vast array of
knowledge that is now available at the fingertips of anyone who knows
how to use it.
Think of what this means, my fellow Americans. If we can do this it
means that, for the first time in the entire history of the United
States, children in the poorest rural classroom, in the remotest area of
America, children in the poorest inner-city classrooms, in the most
isolated parts of America, for the first time will have access to the
same information in the same way at the same level of quality as the
children in the richest schools in America. This will democratize
education in a way we have never done before ever in our history.
I want the United States Government to help our local school
districts for the first time in helping to rebuild dilapidated schools
and build new ones in the areas that are growing and do not have the
resources to do it on their own. We have never done this, but I see over
and over and over again as the largest class of students in American
history start school this year, you cannot expect these children to
learn if they are in circumstances that are absolutely deplorable. And
if local people will do their part to do more, we will help them to do
more so that we can build the schools of the 21st century.
Now, if we do these things, every 8-year-old will be able to read,
every 12-year-old will be able to log in on the Internet, every 18-year-
old will be able to go to college. That's a bridge worth building. Will
you help me build that bridge to the 21st century?
I want to build a bridge to the 21st century in which all Americans
take personal responsibility for themselves and their families and their
communities and for our country. I want every child to grow up in a
community where work is the standard, where earning a paycheck is a
thing of pride. The welfare reform law I signed gives millions of Ameri-
[[Page 1664]]
cans a chance, but not a certainty, to have that new kind of beginning.
We fought hard to keep the guarantees of health care, school
lunches, nutrition and child care for children and families. But this
new law also says, from now on, able-bodied people must work for the
income check.
Now, I strongly believe that. I was proud and I was proud to see you
clapping when I said the welfare rolls were smaller by 1.8 million in
the last 4 years. A strong economy helped that to happen. But the
experiments, the work we've been doing with people like Governor Chiles
to help people move from welfare to work, has also helped.
So I say to you, it's all very well for the Congress or the
Governors to say, ``Okay, we have a new system and everybody who is
able-bodied has to work,'' but to make that morally defensible and
practically possible, there has to be work for those people to do.
I want to tell you about some of the things we are doing to help
create more work in the inner cities, in other poor areas, for people on
welfare, for single, unemployed men who depend upon food stamps but
don't have welfare and can't find jobs. Under this law, every State--
when it becomes effective, every State in the country can say to any
employer, any private sector business, any non-profit organization, and
any church, anybody that employs people--now the State can say, ``If you
will hire somebody off welfare, we'll give you the welfare check as a
supplement for the wages and the training.''
It means, folks, when you go back home, your church could receive a
person's welfare check, and add to it only a modest amount of money to
make a living wage and to take some time to train people and bring their
children into the church and make sure their children are all right and
give them a home and a family.
Will you do that? Will you go home and consider hiring somebody from
welfare to work if your State will give you some money to help you do
it? I want every pastor in this audience to think about it. Just think
about it. If every church in America hired one person off welfare, if
every church in America could get some help to do that, it would set an
example that would require the business community to follow, that would
require charitable and other nonprofit organizations to follow. We
cannot create a Government jobs program big enough to solve this whole
thing, but if everybody did it one by one, we could do this job. We
could give those folks the work we promised and expect the
responsibility we ask in that law. And I hope you will consider doing
that. You could make all the difference in the world.
We must do more for businesses. I propose to give an extra tax
credit for people who hire folks off welfare. I propose to give private
job placement firms who do a good job of placing other people, funds if
they place people from welfare to work and they stay there.
I want to have 3 times as many empowerment zones as the ones we now
have in cities like Chicago and New York and Baltimore and Kansas City.
I want to have 3 times as many of those, because I have seen in Detroit
alone, $2 billion in private section investment poured into inner-city
Detroit. The unemployment rate in 3 years dropped from 8\1/2\ percent to
under 4 percent. We can bring jobs back to the inner city when business
understands that the greatest market for American business are people in
America who are underemployed and unemployed in places that need new
investment. I hope you will support that approach as well.
I propose to create more community development banks, 3 times as
many empowerment zones. I propose an investment fund to help our cities
put welfare recipients to work immediately, repairing schools, making
their neighborhoods clean and safer. We can do this, but we're all going
to have to work at it. And I want you to help me build that bridge to
the 21st century that says if we tell you you have to work, we're going
to make sure you have work to do. There's plenty to do in this country,
we just have to organize it so we can all do it together. I want you to
help me do that.
I want to build a bridge to the 21st century in which all Americans
live in strong, healthy communities. If you will give us 4 more years,
we'll clean up two-thirds of the toxic waste sites that are still out
there so our children can grow up in every community next to parks, not
poison. It's wrong that 10 million
[[Page 1665]]
children live within four miles of toxic waste sites, and we can change
it.
We want to clean up the ones that block our urban centers, called
brownfields. We can do that, create more jobs in the cities, attract
more business and development by cleaning the environment. I want to
build a bridge to the 21st century where we have stronger families and
we help our parents to raise their children and to protect them. Proverb
says, ``Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he
will not depart from it.'' That is why we passed the Family and Medical
Leave Act and why we want to expand it; why we have done our best to
stop the advertising, marketing, and sales of cigarettes to children;
why we are giving parents the V-chip to help them screen out
inappropriate television shows; why we are helping parents and
communities to give our young people both discipline and values through
supporting communities who decide on their own to have curfew policies,
tougher truancy laws, school uniform programs.
All these things are our way of saying to communities and parents,
we want to help you do the job that we know you want to do. We want
people to succeed at home and at work. If America cannot succeed at home
and at work, and do both, America cannot succeed.
Finally, let me say, I know here above all I am preaching to the
choir, but I want you to help me build a bridge to the 21st century that
can only be built by all of us together. Nothing we do will matter if we
cannot heal the divisions and bigotry that still crop up in this country
from time to time.
That is why I have said on affirmative action, we ought to make it
better, we should mend it, but it's not time to end it. That is why I
put the full force of my office behind the effort to stop the rash of
church burnings that have plagued us in recent months. And let me say, I
know, as church people and as Americans, you feel exactly the same way
whenever you see a white church burned, a synagogue defaced, or an
Islamic center destroyed. It's wrong for everybody. It's wrong for
everybody.
If you look around the world, folks, it's amazing how much time I
have to spend as your President trying to get other people to lay down
their hatreds. And what are these hatreds rooted in--in the Middle East,
in Northern Ireland, in Bosnia, in Rwanda, and Burundi? What are they
rooted in? Religious, racial, ethnic, tribal hatreds. People get in the
habit of living so that they define themselves and how good they are by
how bad their neighbors are. How holy they are in their faith by how
unholy people who have another faith are. How righteous they are by how
evil people who are different are. And it is a miserable way to live. It
is self defeating.
Why in the wide world people would tear up that beautiful little
country of Bosnia? Yes, they have different religions and, yes, they
have different ethnic labels, but the truth is, biologically they're not
different. It is a product of historical accident. For decades, they
lived in peace together. Sarajevo, one of the beautiful cities in the
world--why do they keep doing this? What is it in the human heart that
we have to purge? How wise were our Founders not to make America a place
where you had to do anything but believe in the values of the
Constitution. How wise was Thomas Jefferson to know that the great
hypocrisy in our founding was slavery when he said, ``I tremble--when I
think of slavery, I tremble to think that God is just.''
And now we are struggling not only to deal with the relationships
between African-Americans and the majority community with all of the
progress we've made in over 200 years, but also the fact that the
fastest growing minority in America are the Hispanic-Americans. The fact
that we had 197 nations represented at the Olympics; in our largest
county, Los Angeles County, there are people from 150 of those places--
in only one American county.
Now, if you look at the world we are living in and the one toward
which we are going, if we can all get along together, that's going to be
the greatest asset any country in the world has. We have folks here from
everywhere.
I gave a speech a few years ago to one of the California State
University campuses in Los Angeles, and there were people in the student
body in one school from 122 different national, racial, and ethnic
groups, in
[[Page 1666]]
one school. That is an enormous asset in a global world, where we're all
being drawn closer together.
On the other hand, if we fall into the trap that is strangling
country after country after country and think the only way we can amount
to something, the only way we can be somebody is to find somebody else
to look down on, we're in for big trouble, because we've got more of
that than any country in the world does--all of this difference.
So I say to you, no people in this country have suffered more or
longer than African-Americans from discrimination, but you know you will
never and can never become what you wish to be by returning that in
kind. That is the lesson you must teach others. That's why I react so
strongly to these church burnings, because I see how other countries
have been consumed. I see how far we've come in my own lifetime. I see
that bright, shining future out there where there will be more
possibilities for our children to do more things than ever before. In 10
years our children will be doing jobs that have not been invented yet.
They will be doing work that has not been imagined yet.
I just approved a joint venture with IBM to develop a supercomputer
within the next couple of years that will be able to do more
calculations in a second that you can go home and pick up a pocket
calculator and do in 30,000 years. That's how much change is going on.
It's got to be a good thing for America. And it can only be a good thing
if we go forward together--if we say, if you believe in the
Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, and
you're willing to show up and do right tomorrow, you're my kind of
American. I don't care what your race is, I don't care what your
religion is, I don't care where you started out in life. We're going to
join arm in arm and go across that bridge together.
Will you help me build that bridge to the 21st century?
Thank you, and God bless you all. Thank you.
Note: The President spoke at 10:32 a.m. at the Convention Center. In his
remarks, he referred to Henry J. Lyons, president, and his wife,
Deborah, Roscoe D. Cooper, Jr., general secretary, and his wife,
Crystal, T.J. Jemison, past president, John Modest Miles, liaison,
government affairs, and Rev. Richard Bifford, secretary, National
Baptist Convention USA; John Lowery, chief executive officer, Revelation
Corp.; Clarence Glover, president, and Sandra Hickson, executive vice
president, Teens Alliance With Clergy; Bishop William H. Graves,
presiding bishop, Christian Methodist Episcopal Church; Bishop E. Lynn
Brown, presiding bishop, 9th Episcopal District, Christian Methodist
Episcopal Church; Mayor Wellington Webb of Denver, CO; Rev. Andrew
Young, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations; civil rights leader
Rev. Jesse Jackson; P.J. James, president, and D.L. O'Neil and O.C.
Jones, former presidents, Arkansas Baptist Convention; and Rev. R.J.
Keaton, president, Arkansas Baptist College. A portion of these remarks
could not be verified because the tape was incomplete.