[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 34, Number 5 (Monday, February 2, 1998)]
[Pages 146-147]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks to an Overflow Crowd at the University of Illinois in Champaign-
Urbana

January 28, 1998

    Thank you. First of all, thank you for coming, and thank you for 
waiting. I'm sorry you had to wait so long. [Applause] Thank you.
    I want to thank Secretary Riley and the Vice President, and I also 
want to thank your Congressman, Congressman Tom Ewing, for coming along 
with me. Let's give him a big hand. [Applause]
    We have had an incredible day at the University of Illinois--an 
incredible day. You know, this is the third meeting we've been to. You 
had to sit through the other two, didn't you? Is that okay? [Applause]
    This reminds me--I hate to give the same speech over, but once I 
went to a concert where Tina Turner sang--you all know who Tina Turner 
is--and at the end of the concert, after singing all her new songs, she 
started to sing her first hit, ``Proud Mary.'' And the crowd started 
clapping, and she said, ``I have been singing this song for 25 years, 
but it gets better every time I do it.''
    But I'm not going to give you the whole dose again. I want to just 
make two points very briefly. Number one, the Vice President and I and 
our administration, we've worked very hard these last 5 years to get 
America in good shape, to have this country work again for ordinary 
people. And I think you can see, from the condition of the economy and 
from the fact that we're making real progress on our social problems and 
from our work in the world at large, that we're making that kind of 
progress.
    Now is the time we need to be thinking about what the 21st century 
will look like for all the young people here. And that means a 
commitment to education for everybody, all the way through college. It 
means a commitment to the idea that we can preserve and improve our 
environment while we grow the economy. It means a commitment to the idea 
that we can reform Social Security so that the big baby boom generation, 
that I'm the oldest member of, can retire without putting unfair burdens 
on those of you who are younger and your children.
    And it means that we can find a way in our increasingly diverse 
country to come together, across all the lines that divide us, into one 
America, because in a global society, believe you me, a great democracy 
like ours that can accommodate people of every race, every background, 
every religion, and still be bound together by shared values is the most 
blessed place on Earth.
    Our best days are ahead of us as a nation. And we are here today to 
ask you to stand

[[Page 147]]

with us in that fight, to imagine that kind of future and to be a part 
of it. And I am very grateful to you for coming out.
    Thank you, and God bless you. I want to go shake hands. Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 1:04 p.m. in Gymnasium 2 of the Intramural 
Physical Education Building.