[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 32, Number 40 (Monday, October 7, 1996)]
[Pages 1928-1931]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at a Campaign Concert for Senator John Kerry in Boston

September 28, 1996

    Thank you. You know, I just was looking at Senator Kerry giving his 
speech. He gives me a beanpot. [Laughter] Whoever said he didn't have a 
sense of humor? Do you believe that Governor Weld would have the guts to 
stand up here and say he couldn't believe that we had all those people 
from the sixties play and everybody kept their clothes on?

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[Laughter] Next thing you know John Kerry will be doing the macarena 
with Al Gore.
    Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for the warm and wonderful reception 
you have given me tonight. Thank you for being here. Thank you for being 
here for John Kerry, who richly deserves your support for reelection 
because he has been fighting for your future, for the future of 
Massachusetts and the future of the United States, for a very long time. 
And he has consistently been on the right side of that future.
    You know, I remember in 1993, when we had a stagnant economy and 
high unemployment and the country was dividing economically and socially 
and people were becoming more and more cynical, and I put an economic 
plan forward to the Congress, and not a single person in the other party 
voted for it. And they all tried to terrify our side and say, ``Oh, this 
is a terrible plan. It will raise the deficit; it will increase 
unemployment, bankrupt the country.'' Well, John Kerry and Senator Ted 
Kennedy stood with the President. And now we know, 10\1/2\ million jobs 
later, we know that John Kerry was right and they were wrong.
    I remember in 1994, after crime had bedeviled so many of our 
communities and people in Washington had talked about the need for a 
crime bill for 6 years and I had run on the

promise of putting 100,000 more police officers on our streets to prevent 
crime, to make our streets, our schools, our neighborhoods safer--I 
remember that the leaders of the other party said, ``Oh, this is a terrible 
thing.'' And they won a lot of their elections in `94 by convincing hunters 
in places like my home State they'd lose their guns. But John Kerry stood 
firm, and we got that 100,000 police. We got the Brady bill. We got the 
assault weapons ban. And this is a safer country with 4 years of declining 
crime. Thank you, John Kerry, for being on the right side of history.

    When Christopher Reeve spoke tonight, it reminded me so clearly of 
everything he said at a time when we were faced last year with the 
budget--``take it or leave it or we'll shut the Government down''--it 
cut education, cut the environment, cut our investments in research and 
technology, weakened our commitments for Medicare and Medicaid. I said 
no, and so did Senator Kennedy and so did John Kerry. And we did get 
more for medical research because he asked for more for medical research 
in the spinal cord area. And let me tell you, folks, lest you think 
that's a pipe dream, just a few days before Christopher Reeve spoke at 
the Democratic National Convention, for the first time ever a laboratory 
animal with its spine completely severed got movement back in its lower 
limbs because of a nerve transplant to the spine. We are going to solve 
that problem and many others if we keep people like John Kerry, who are 
on the right side of history. He deserves the support.
    And I can't let this moment go without saying, after all the fights 
we had over the budget over the last 2 years, it was a wonderful thing 
to see in the last few weeks, after the American people made their 
voices heard, Senator Kennedy taking the lead in passing a health care 
reform bill he's worked on for years that says you can't be denied 
insurance anymore if you change jobs or if someone in your family has 
been sick. Twenty-five million Americans will be better off because of 
that, and that's on the right side of history.
    Tuesday, October 1st, 10 million Americans will get a pay raise when 
the minimum wage goes into effect because Senator Kennedy worked and 
Senator Kerry helped him and we got a minimum wage increase. It was the 
right thing to do.
    Well, we've been here a long time, and I know you want to go home. 
And I don't want to take a lot of your time, but I want to say something 
especially to the young people here tonight. I want to tell you 
something about being on the right side of history, and I want you to 
think about it seriously just for a minute.
    Once in a generation or so our people in our long march of democracy 
have been confronted with a set of decisions that are so profound that 
they will affect how we live and how we relate to each other and the 
rest of the world for a very long time. This is that sort of time. We 
are being asked, basically because of the differences between ourselves 
and our opponents, to decide two fundamental questions about what we're 
going to be like when we go roaring into the 21st

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century. No matter what happens, those of us that are well-prepared, 
especially our young people, will have more changes to live out our 
dreams than any generation of Americans has ever had.
    But the two great questions we have to face that will shape what we 
are as a country and what we look like 50 years from now are, number 
one, do we believe that we have to build a bridge to the future that 
every American is given the ability to walk across? I think the answer 
to that is yes, but not everybody does. Whether you believe that or not 
determines how you answer questions like whether you're for the Family 
and Medical Leave Act, whether you believe it should be preserved and 
expanded so that people can succeed at home and at work. Whether you 
believe that or not depends upon whether you think we should be 
providing an opportunity for every person who wants to go to college to 
go, through tax credits and tax deductions and savings programs. I 
believe we should, and John Kerry believes we should. And that is the 
right side of history.
    The other great question we have to face is whether this incredible 
mosaic of diversity that is America, all the differences that you can 
see here just by looking around this great hall tonight, will be a 
source of strength and sustenance to us that will add to our prosperity 
and more to the richness and quality of our lives or whether we will be 
bedeviled, divided, and weakened by the differences among us.
    Look all around the world today. How much of your time as President 
do I have to spend--from the Middle East to Northern Ireland, to Bosnia, 
to Rwanda and Burundi, to so many other places around the world--how 
much time trying to get people to stop defining their lives in terms of 
who they can hate, whom they can look down upon because they are 
different because of race or religion or region or gender or tribe? It 
is wrong. It is wrong. And we have to decide--we have to decide whether 
we're going to beat the odds. These are the two great questions.
    I don't like bumper stickers much, but the truth is it's pretty good 
to say the question is, are we going to build a bridge to the future or 
try to reach back to the past? I think you know the answer to that. You 
can also say, as my opponent did in all candor and completely honestly 
when he spoke at the Republican

Convention--he said he really thought that the First Lady was wrong, that 
we were better off being left to ourselves and families to make our way. 
But I think she was right. I believe it takes a village to make the most of 
all of our lives. And I believe that you think that, too.

    And so I ask you--I ask those of you, especially those of you who 
are young--some of you may have indulged all of us who were singing our 
old songs here tonight; some of you now know them as well as we do and 
love them as well. But all of you, I ask you to think about this: This 
great choice is going to affect how you live. Those of you who have most 
of your tomorrows in front of you, this choice will affect them, because 
of the profound changes going on in our country and in our world.
    Whether we decide to build that bridge to the future that enables 
everyone to make the most of their own lives, whether we decide to stay 
with the idea that we are a village and we have to respect one another 
and bond together and be stronger and richer because of our differences, 
these things will determine what America looks like when we cross the 
bridge to the 21st century, when our children are our age and in 100 
years when people write back their histories about what we did in our 
time.
    And do not underestimate the weight of this decision. This is a huge 
decision. These are big questions. They will define the United States of 
America for a long time to come. This is a decision that comes along 
once in a generation, maybe once every 50 years. Think how different the 
world would have been when the Founding Fathers in Massachusetts and the 
other 12 States had made the other decision they were asked to make: 
Don't make this one country, make this a club of 13 different States, 
just sort of a social organization; you can come and go as you please. I 
wouldn't be here because there would never have been a Louisiana 
Purchase and I wouldn't be an American.
    Think how different this country would be if Abraham Lincoln had not 
been President when the States said, ``Well, hey, we formed

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this country; we've got the right to get out.'' And Abraham Lincoln 
said, ``I don't think so. I don't think so.'' [Laughter] And he was 
willing to give a half a million lives, including his own life, to keep 
this country together. And then to face the next question: ``Well, if 
we're going to stay together, don't we have to quit lying about who we 
are? How can we have a Constitution that says all of us are created 
equal and keep slavery? So we've got to get rid of that.'' Think how 
different this country would be if we hadn't made that decision 130-odd 
years ago. Think how different. Would all the other immigrants be here 
today? Would this place look like it does today? I don't think so.
    Think how different this country would have been when Theodore 
Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson had to manage our transition from

being a rural country of small farmers to an urban country of great cities 
like this one, which Mayor Menino leads so well today. Think how different 
it would have been if they had answered these questions differently. They 
had to say, okay, now we're an industrial country. Are we going to let a 
few monopolies run out all the small business people, or are we going to 
preserve free enterprise? They voted for free enterprise. Are we going to 
let these big companies destroy our natural heritage, or are we going to 
preserve things like the Grand Canyon and other national parks and keep 
something for all generations to come? Are we going to let our children 
work 70 hours a week in coal mines and sweatshops as they were doing then, 
or are we going to stop that and give our children their childhoods back 
and their education? Think how different America would be if we had 
answered those questions differently.

    These are the questions that are being asked of you and your 
generation. These are the kinds of questions that we are facing. When 
you ask which budget do you want, it's really about what kind of people 
are we. Are we going together, respecting our differences, building a 
bridge? Or are we going to say, ``It's every person for himself; I wish 
you well''?
    I believe I know the answer. And I ask those of you who are young--
you have 38 days. John Kerry has earned the right to be reelected 
Senator from Massachusetts, because he has been on the side of your 
future--on the side of your future.
    You do not have to believe one bad thing personally about his 
opponent. You do not have to make this a negative race at all. All you 
have to do is to look at the fundamental choices before you. And for 
those of you who are young especially, I say, imagine in your mind what 
you want this country to be like in 4 years when we go roaring into a 
new century and a new millennium, what you want our country to be like 
when your own children are your age. What do you want the history of 
America to be 100 years from now? What will they say about what we did 
now? I hope they'll say, America decided it takes a village, and we're 
going to build a bridge to the 21st century that we can all walk across.
    Thank you. God bless you. Bear down and bring a victory for us. 
Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 11:11 p.m. at the Fleet Center. In his 
remarks, he referred to Gov. William F. Weld of Massachusetts and Mayor 
Thomas Menino of Boston. A tape was not available for verification of 
the content of these remarks.