[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 21 (Monday, May 31, 1999)]
[Pages 967-971]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at the Sons of Italy Foundation Dinner

May 22, 1999

    Thank you very much, Larry. Larry King, there's a great Italian-
American for you. [Laughter] And congratulations on your new baby. Paul 
Polo--yes, let's give him a hand. That's great. [Applause]
    I want to thank Paul Polo and Phil Piccigallo and all of you for 
giving me another chance to come by here. And I think Congresswoman 
Morella is in the audience, and Ambassador Salleo, who does a wonderful 
job for his country and for ours.
    I want to congratulate Andy Giancamilli of Kmart and Tony Bennett 
for their awards tonight. We have the president of one of our great 
retailers and America's greatest living pop singer; that's a pretty good 
representation of the gifts that Italian-Americans have given to our 
Nation, and you should be proud of them.
    I'd like to say a special word of thanks to Tony Bennett for being a 
good friend to me and to my wife and our family. I wanted to be here for 
you tonight; you've been here

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for our country for a long time. God bless you, and thank you, my 
friend. Thank you.
    You know, there have been so many years when I have spoken to you or 
other Italian-American groups, and I've been almost embarrassed by the 
number of Italians in my administration. Secretary Cuomo was waiting for 
me tonight when I got here. You know, I've had two Italian-American 
chiefs of staff: Leon Panetta--who introduced me in Rome, in Italian--
and John Podesta. And you know, ever since Podesta took over from 
Erskine Bowles, we've had people like Steve Richetti, Karen Tramontano, 
Loretta Ucelli, Ginny Apuzzo, coming to work for me. I don't know what's 
been going on here. [Laughter] Maybe this is the new plot to take over 
America that we've been hearing about. [Laughter]
    I saw Phil on the way in, and I thank him, too, for giving me the 
opportunity that I had the last time I was with you to meet with your 
young scholarship recipients, because those you honor tonight for their 
gifts--from physics to music to political science to community service--
prove that people of Italian descent will continue to make enormous 
contributions to our country in the century just ahead.
    I thank you, too, for your emphasis on education, and I ask you to 
remember, tonight, that even though we live in a time of unprecedented 
prosperity, for which we should thank God and the labors of our people--
that we have the longest peacetime expansion in our history and the 
lowest unemployment in a generation, the highest homeownership ever, 
welfare rolls cut by more than half in the last 6 years, crime dropping 
to a 30-year low--we all only have to look around ourselves and our 
lives to know that we have a lot more to do, especially in areas that 
have historically been of enormous concern to Italian-Americans.
    First, of course, in education: We have a great agenda before the 
Congress--and I hope it will be acted upon--for higher standards, for no 
social promotion, for after-school and summer school programs, for more 
and better prepared teachers, modern schools, and technology.
    But tonight I want to talk just a moment about something else, and I 
particularly appreciated what Larry said when he introduced me. I want 
to talk about family in the literal sense and family in the larger sense 
and what it means to our future as a country.
    Hillary and I, on Thursday, went to Columbine High School in 
Littleton, Colorado. We met with the families of the children and the 
wonderful teacher who lost their lives. We saw other children still in 
wheelchairs from their grievous wounds. We saw thousands of kids, just 
like any group of kids anywhere, still full of enthusiasm and hopes for 
the future. After the ceremony, we spent quite a long time there just 
shaking hands with them and talking to them, listening to them, and 
trying to answer their questions.
    I say that to say what is self-evident to you, which is that the 
most important job of any society is not the creation of wealth but the 
creation of richness and wholeness in the lives of the children. There 
is no more important work. And in this day and age, when technology and 
the explosion of global commerce and culture is bringing us closer and 
closer and closer together, we cannot connect all of our children to a 
positive reality unless they are both connected to their literal 
families, and then they see others who may differ from them--they may 
differ in race, or ethnicity, or religion, or politics, or sexual 
orientation, or just what they like to do--but they have to be seen as 
part of our larger family.
    There are things for all of us to do to give our children safe and 
wholesome childhoods and to try to support that for the children of the 
world. Here in Washington we actually had quite a good week, with some 
of the most responsible action in the history of Congress to try to keep 
guns out of the hands of children and criminals. And I particularly 
thank--[applause]--I particularly thank the Vice President for being 
there to cast the tie-breaking vote on the gun show loophole issue, 
something I know quite a bit about; and I am thankful for that. I hope 
that before the House of Representatives goes home this week for the 
Memorial Day recess, they will follow suit and pass the same bill.
    There are things to be done by those who have influence on our 
larger culture, who make our movies, our television programs, our video 
games. It is true that no movie or game could ever cause a child to take 
another

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child's life. But it is also true that in our society, the faster we 
move and the busier we are, and the harder and harder parents have to 
work outside the home, the more kids are left on their own, the more 
vulnerable children we have, and if you have a larger number of 
vulnerable children, it stands to reason that more bad things will 
happen if it's easier for them to get guns, especially assault weapons, 
and if they are subjected to a torrent of violent impulses.
    You know the average 18-year-old has seen 40,000 murders already on 
television, in the movies, and in video games? And there are 300 studies 
already which show that--let me say that again: 300 serious professional 
studies already--that show that by the time this happens to you, for 18 
years, it diminishes your sensitivity to violence and your feeling for 
the consequences of it.
    Now, if you have more kids who are at risk than other societies, and 
it's easier for them to be flooded with guns--including assault 
weapons--and they're being subject to sort of psychological stimuli 
repeatedly, hours and hours and hours a day, year after year after year 
after year, it only stands to reason that more of them will fall over 
the line.
    So there's something for everyone to do. But in the end, the most 
important thing we can do is to try to help families reconnect to their 
children and to try to help communities and schools organize themselves 
so that a connection is made to every child.
    I saw a remarkable book about 3 years ago--I wish I could remember 
the title tonight--but it was a portrait of children who had grown up in 
the most unimaginable, difficult circumstances, who had done wonderfully 
well in life. Many of them had brothers and sisters who had already been 
killed, or imprisoned, or whatever. These kids, they all did well, and 
they had one thing in common, and only one thing: Each of them, by some 
miracle, had had a consistent, long-term caring relationship with one 
responsible adult. And so I say to you, this is a challenge ready-made 
for the Italian-American.
    My wife told me, and we have adopted as a national crusade, that she 
and I and the Vice President and Tipper Gore will help to organize a 
grassroots national campaign in the way that Mothers Against Drunk 
Driving and Students Against Drunk Driving did to sensitize the whole 
country--it worked there. We had a national campaign to get employers to 
hire people off welfare. People told me it would never work. They've 
hired hundreds of thousands of people. There's been a national 
grassroots campaign to reduce teen pregnancy; it's gone down 5 years in 
a row. The American people can give our children back their childhood, 
and I hope you will help us to get that done.
    But there's something else that I want you to do, because you are so 
much a part of our larger family. Our children have to be taught to be 
proud of themselves and what is special about themselves without 
thinking people who are different are lesser than they are. One of the 
disturbing elements of this incident in Columbine was the imagined and 
real grievances that these kids had built up to a boiling point over 
people showing them disrespect, because they were supposed to be sort of 
lower-class people at the school.
    And they had the same reaction, I might add, that we saw--I saw--in 
the South when I was a kid. Because they were looked down on, they not 
only resented the people that looked down on them; they looked around 
for somebody they could look down on. And they picked out the minority 
kids in this school--with one devastating consequence, as I'm sure all 
of you know.
    That is a natural psychological reaction when it is not nipped in 
the bud. I grew up in a State where the per capita income was barely 
half the national average the year I was born, right after World War II. 
I grew up among white Anglo-Saxon Protestants, or Irish, or Scottish 
Protestants, who were largely uneducated and made very limited livings, 
and thought they were looked down on as rednecks by other people, and 
they, therefore, were disproportionately likely to have racist feelings 
against African-Americans. And I can tell you, that exists all over the 
world today.
    We have to prove to our children--by the way we live, and what we 
say, the way we conduct ourselves--that we think every decent person has 
a home in America and that they're all part of our family.

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    No one doubts, as we conduct this very difficult operation in 
Kosovo, that our military is the best in the world. That's not bragging. 
Others could have great militaries. We've invested a lot of money and 
time and effort. But one of the reasons it is, is because they are so 
diverse.
    I just got back from Germany, visiting with the young people who are 
working in the humanitarian operation, and the young pilots and their 
support crews who are flying those dangerous missions. And there they 
were, from every conceivable ethnic and racial group, all here.
    I never will forget when I took the Pope--I didn't take him, but I 
escorted the Pope--to Regis College in Denver, the first time he came to 
America. He went out there, after I took office, and we were going up 
and down the line shaking hands with the students, and there was a young 
man in the Army of the United States of America who began speaking 
Polish to the Pope. And he proudly told him that he was born in Poland, 
but he was now in our country and proud to serve in the military. And I 
could give you countless examples of that.
    Tonight I have been told that there are parents of one of our brave 
servicemen flying F-15's in Kosovo, Joe and Dorothy Simile. Thank you. 
[Applause] Their son is a captain flying those missions. I want you to 
know, Joe and Dorothy, I'm very proud of him and all the men and women 
who are serving today.
    I'd also like to say a special word of thanks, before I forget it, 
to the Government and the people of Italy, who have been indispensable 
to our mission in Kosovo. It is our united mission, but they have paid a 
much bigger price. They have had airports closed; they have had economic 
hardship. Their Prime Minister has been a rock of stability and concern 
for a quick but just outcome, and I am very grateful. And Mr. 
Ambassador, I thank you for what your country has done to stand up for 
freedom and against ethnic cleansing.
    The mission of America has always been to widen the circle of 
opportunity and deepen the meaning of freedom by strengthening the bonds 
of our community. That is the story of America. You know, the people 
that started our country off, with the bold declaration that all people 
are created equal by God, were not fools; they were smart people. And 
they knew good and well we weren't living up to it. When we got started, 
slaves were counted as 60 percent of white people, and only white male 
property owners could vote. They knew this was not a manifestation that 
all people are created equal. But they knew that the ideal had to be out 
there, and we had to continue to push and push and push for it.
    I think it is supremely ironic that on the verge of a new century 
and a new millennium, with our kids learning how to use computers and 
having pen pals on every continent, with the mysteries of the human gene 
about to be unlocked, with the prospect of dramatic increase in the 
length and quality of life, that we are bedeviled today, in this great 
modern age, by the oldest demon of human society: the fear of people who 
are different from us. And once you fear somebody, then you have to 
dislike them. Once you dislike them, it is easy to hate them. Once you 
hate them, it is quite easy to treat them as if they're not people at 
all and dehumanize them. And then it's a very short step to saying, 
``It's too bad, but we have to kill them or run them out, or blow up 
their houses of worship, or eradicate their cultural symbols, or burn 
all their old books, or destroy their personal property records.''
    That's what this whole deal is about. We can't require people to 
like each other or get along. We can't even ask them to stop fighting. 
But when we are able to do it, we ought to stand up and say we will not 
tolerate ethnic cleansing that leads to mass murder, mass rape, mass 
dislocation, and the destruction of everything we believe in.
    I want to close with this story. It's not about Italian-Americans, 
but you will identify with it. And it captures everything, to me, that 
is special about our country and everything that you have given to 
America.
    The other day, shortly before Hillary and I went to Colorado, I had 
a meeting on my schedule with 15--no, 19--Native American tribal chiefs 
from the northern high plains. The Senators from those States, the 
Dakotas and Montana, had asked me to meet with

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them because they are the poorest of our Indian tribes. They don't have 
big casinos, and there aren't a lot of people out there, so nobody's 
been rushing to invest big new money there. And this wonderful economy 
that has taken the stock market from 3,200 to 11,000 has largely left 
them untouched. And they wanted to come and see the President about it, 
and the President's Cabinet.
    Secretary Cuomo came, Secretary Riley and a number of our other 
Cabinet members--Secretary Babbitt. So they said, ``First, we would like 
to sit in a circle, as is our custom, so that we can all see each 
other.'' So we were in the Roosevelt Room, we got rid of the table, and 
we all sat in a circle. They started their meeting, and I came in, and 
each one in his turn stood up and talked about, well, here's our 
education needs, our health care needs, and so on.
    Then at the end, the chief who was the spokesperson--who, 
ironically, was named Tex Hall--was a very large man, and he stood up 
and he said, ``Before we go, Mr. President, I would like to give you 
this proclamation we have signed for you. And in it, we support the 
actions of the United States in Kosovo.'' He said, ``You see, we know 
something about ethnic cleansing. And we have come a good way, and we 
think we should stand against it everywhere.''
    Then, across the room, another young man stood up who represented 
his tribe, one of the Sioux tribes. And he stood very erect; he wasn't 
particularly tall, and he had a beautiful piece of silver Indian jewelry 
around his neck. And he said, ``Mr. President, I have two uncles. One of 
them was on the beach at Normandy. The other was the first Native 
American ever to be a fighter pilot for the United States military. My 
great-great-grandfather was slaughtered by the 7th Army at Wounded 
Knee.'' He said, ``I am here talking to the President.'' He said, ``I 
only have one son. He's the most important thing in the world to me. But 
we have come a very long way from my great-great-grandfather, to my 
uncles, to my being in the White House. We have learned a great deal. We 
are living together. Though I love my son more than life, I would be 
proud for him to go and stand against a new version of ethnic cleansing. 
We have to live together.''
    I will never forget that moment as long as I live. We in the United 
States have been on a long, imperfect, and unfinished journey. You have 
made immeasurable contributions to it. Perhaps as much as any group of 
Americans, you can help us to rebuild the bonds of family here in the 
United States and to stand up at least for our common humanity around 
the world.
    Thank you, and God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 8:35 p.m. in the Great Hall at the National 
Building Museum. In his remarks, he referred to Cable News Network 
interview show host Larry King; Paul S. Polo, Sr., president, and Philip 
R. Piccigallo, national executive director, Sons of Italy Foundation; 
Ambassador Ferdinando Salleo and Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema of 
Italy; Andrew A. Giancamilli, president and general merchandise manager, 
U.S. Kmart; singer/entertainer Tony Bennett; Joseph and Dorothy Simile, 
parents of Capt. Joseph Simile, USAF; Tex Hall, chairman of the Mandan, 
Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation (the Three Affiliated Tribes); and Gregg 
Bousland, chairman, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe.