[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 12 (Monday, March 29, 1999)]
[Pages 512-513]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on the Unveiling of a Portrait of Commerce Secretary Ronald H. 
Brown

March 24, 1999

    Thank you very much. Let me, first of all, say I thought Secretary 
Daley did a remarkable job today, and he was the funniest I have ever 
heard him--[laughter]--which means either that the Commerce Department 
has been very good for him, or he has found an extraordinary 
speechwriter. [Laughter] If it is the former, I thank you. If it is the 
latter, I would like that person dispatched to the White House this 
afternoon. [Laughter]
    I want to thank Congressman Ford and Mr. Mayor and all of our 
Cabinet for being here. And Mickey, Heidi, thank you for being here--
members of the Brown family. This is both a happy and a bittersweet day. 
We are now in the springtime, even though Washington is not quite 
behaving like it yet. Soon the dogwood that we planted on the back of 
the White House lawn will be blooming for Ron again. And now this 
portrait will be here forever, to remind us all of his service and his 
spirit. Mr. Polson, I think you did a terrific job, and I congratulate 
you. We love it.
    If Ron Brown were here, I know exactly what he'd say. He'd say, 
``Well, you did well. I'm dressed well''--[laughter]--``and I look very 
strong. But you could have made me a little thinner.'' [Laughter]
    And I'd just like to just take a minute to remind all of you about 
the spirit. Secretary Daley was kind enough to say that I have tried to 
elevate the Commerce Department. I think that is true, but I would like 
to just say a word about it as it relates to Ron Brown.
    After the election of 1992, when we were putting together our 
economic team and I had been listening rather carefully to what others 
had said and what I had seen about previous administrations and how they 
ran their economic policy, it seemed to me that, by and large, previous 
administrations had lodged the making of economic policy too much either 
in Treasury or the White House, or both, and had sort of overlooked the 
integral role of Commerce and our Trade Ambassador, on a daily basis, to 
the development of our long-term economic well-being.
    Same thing could be said of other departments, the Agriculture 
Department, the Energy Department--how they were needed to make a joint 
economic policy. And so we put together this National Economic Council 
to integrate all the Departments. And then we decided to elevate the 
economic role, particularly of the Commerce Department, and to try to 
bring the Trade Ambassador into the daily work of the economic life of 
the administration, not just when there was some big trade negotiation 
going on.
    And I think the evidence is, it worked pretty well. But it worked 
pretty well in no small measure because Ron Brown was here and Mickey 
Kantor was our Trade Ambassador and because Ron Brown believed me when I 
told him that I thought the Commerce Department had been grossly 
underutilized, at least in recent history, in terms of building the 
economic potential of America, within our country and beyond our 
borders. So he bought the big idea, and then he sold the big idea.

[[Page 513]]

    But the second point I want to make is that he did it, in no small 
measure, because of the spirit you see reflected in the set of the jaw 
and the glance of the eyes in this fine portrait. He basically believed 
there was no mountain that couldn't be climbed. He believed that 
American businesses had a responsibility to act in their enlightened 
self-interest to help themselves and others, here at home and around the 
world.
    He also believed that people driven by ancient hatreds could find a 
way to put them aside. I will never forget how excited he was in the 
last conversation we had right before he left for Bosnia, how proud he 
was that he could lead a delegation of American business people to the 
Balkans to try to make peace.
    Well, the peace process is working in Bosnia. As all of you know, 
it's under siege again in the Balkans because of what is going on in 
Kosovo. I don't want to talk about that here today except to say that 
there are basically two kinds of people that are dominating the public 
discourse around the world today: There are people that are determined 
to divide and drive wedges between and depress people because they're of 
different ethnic and racial and religious groups; and then there are 
people like Ron Brown, who believe that everybody ought to be lifted up 
and brought together and don't understand why anyone would waste lives 
and take other people's lives to gain a false sense of power in a 
smaller and smaller life based on oppression.
    And when you look at this picture today, when you go out, first of 
all, I want all the members of the Commerce Department to be proud of 
what you are doing, proud of what he did, and proud of what you are 
doing under Secretary Daley, who has also, in my judgment, done a 
magnificent job. And I want you to think about the troubles of the world 
today, and I want you to see your life as an instrument of bringing out 
the spirit that Ron Brown brought to his life and his work in this 
Department every day and think about it for what it is, the principal 
opposing force to all this destructive racial, ethnic, religious, and 
cultural destruction we see all over the world today.
    Every country has to make that choice, and in a way, every business 
has to make that choice and every person has to make that choice.
    We're all blessed that we knew Ron Brown. We're glad that his family 
is here today. We're glad we've got Alma right where we want her; she 
can't talk back. I could have given her a whole lecture today. 
[Laughter] But I know Ron Brown would want me to say, to use this moment 
to say, ``Look at this picture. Look at this life. Look at the troubles 
of the world.'' The choice is clear: America needs to stay on the path 
that he blazed.
    Thank you, and God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 10:49 a.m. in the Herbert Hoover Building 
Auditorium at the Department of Commerce. In his remarks, he referred to 
Mayor Anthony A. Williams of Washington, DC; former Trade Ambassador 
Mickey Kantor and his wife, Heidi; artist Steven Polson, who painted the 
official portrait; and Alma Brown, widow of Ron Brown.