[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 32, Number 49 (Monday, December 9, 1996)]
[Pages 2443-2444]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

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The President's Radio Address

November 30, 1996

    Good morning. This week, millions of American families gathered 
around their dinner tables to enjoy our annual feast of Thanksgiving. 
Now many of us who traveled great distances to be with loved ones are 
making the trip back home.
    Today I want to talk about how we can extend the spirit of 
Thanksgiving beyond this holiday weekend. Thanksgiving is our oldest 
tradition. In 1789, George Washington made Thanksgiving his first 
proclamation for our new Nation. Much has changed for America in the two 
centuries since that first proclamation. Today we not only feed 
ourselves well, our bounty helps to feed the world. The light of freedom 
that drew founders to our shores not only shines here. For the first 
time in history, more than half the world's people who once lived in the 
shadows of tyranny and depression now live under governments of their 
own choosing.
    On this year's Thanksgiving, we are reminded that we are a nation 
truly blessed. Crime and poverty are down. Employment is up. We are a 
nation at peace. For the most part, foods and jobs are plentiful. Our 
children have more to look forward to than any generation of young 
people in human history.
    But as President Lincoln once so powerfully reminded us, this 
country cannot afford to be materially rich and spiritually poor. That 
perhaps is the greatest lesson of Thanksgiving. For more than any other 
holiday, it reminds us of the importance of family and community and the 
duty we owe to each other. I want to thank those across our Nation who 
donated food or volunteered time to provide a Thanksgiving meal for 
those among us who are homeless and hungry.
    Unfortunately, hunger and homelessness don't take a holiday; they 
are with us all year long. So we must not wait until Thanksgiving to 
reach out to those in need. And we must not pack our compassion back in 
the cupboard like fine china that only gets used once a year.
    The spirit of family and faith and community that shines so 
brilliantly on Thanksgiving can enable us to meet every challenge before 
us all year long. So let us resolve to go forward together to lift 
millions of people from welfare and dependency into lives of dignity and 
independence. Now that we have ended welfare as we know it, let the 
change not be to have even more children in more abject poverty but to 
move people who can work into jobs.
    Let us pledge to give our children the best education in the world 
and the support they need to build strong futures, higher standards in 
our schools, more choices, and the opportunity for all Americans to go 
on to college.
    Let us work together to keep our homes, our neighborhoods, our 
schools free from the ravages of crime and drugs and violence, finishing 
the job of putting 100,000 police on our streets, targeting violent teen 
gangs, and doing more at the grassroots level to turn our children from 
drugs and gangs and guns and violence.
    And let us always remember that when America is united, we always 
win, but when we're divided, we defeat ourselves.
    In the global economy of the 21st century, the marvelous diversity 
of America will be a great blessing if we all treat each other with 
dignity and respect and remember we don't have a person to waste.
    Whenever I travel around the world, as I did last week, I always 
return home with a renewed appreciation for the rich blessings so many 
of us take for granted. And while we should be thankful that technology 
and cultural exchanges are bringing much of the world closer together, 
it is also clear that people all over the globe still look to America 
for moral leadership.

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    As Hillary reminded us last weekend when she visited a project to 
assist young women struggling in Thailand, we do have a responsibility 
to help build lives of hope and security for suffering children not only 
here in America but all over the world. That is what we have tried to do 
in Bosnia, in Haiti, in working for peace in the Middle East and 
Northern Ireland, in so many of our efforts all around the globe.
    Let me close today with a personal note of thanks to every one of 
you for affording me the opportunity to continue my service as 
President. For the past 4 years I've worked hard to stand up for our 
values as a nation and to give all our citizens the tools to make the 
most of their own lives. And we've come a long way together, but there 
is still much, much more to do. And we know that the only way we can 
succeed is if we all work together.
    So let us all be guided, as I try to be guided every day, by the 
words of the Scripture which teaches that, ``to those to whom much is 
given, much is required.'' So, as we set our sights on a joyous holiday 
season, let us all pledge by our devotion to God and family and 
community to keep the spirit of Thanksgiving alive all year long.
    Thanks for listening.

Note: The President spoke at 10:06 a.m. from Camp David, MD.